Uwe Boll (German: ; born June 22, 1965) is a German restaurateur and filmmaker. He financed his own films through his production companies Boll KG and Event Film Productions. Many of his films were produced on low budgets and Boll himself had backed his projects financially or made use of crowdfunding platforms.
Boll's filmmaking career is generally divided into two distinct phases: the first consists of big budget films with a usually renowned cast, most of which received highly negative reviews from critics and gained him a reputation as a "schlock maestro", with Alone in the Dark being considered one of the worst films ever made. His second phase is marked by films with a smaller budget or were independently made, relatively unknown actors and different approaches to filmmaking; Boll's Rampage film series, Tunnel Rats, Stoic, Amoklauf, Heart of America, Assault on Wall Street and Darfur were better received by critics.