Antibodies

I watched the DVD last night and thought it to be one of the best movies I've seen this year. The acting from the leads was excellent - never overdone and highly believable. The opening sequence gripped me and from thereon in I couldn't wait to see what happened next. The story develops at a great pace with some lovely twists and red herrings. Yes - some may see them coming but even so, it doesn't detract from a hugely enjoyable and often disturbing story. The direction and cinematography was also were superb - some great camera work and use of (sometimes washed out and grainy) colour and slow-motion. Highly recommended viewing before the inevitable Hollywood treatment. (CGI deer - ouch - 'nuff said!)

This film lasts just over two hours, and the first hour and fifty five minutes are fine. A German serial killer, whose hobby is raping boys and using their blood to paint pictures, is apprehended but refuses to give much away under interrogation. A policeman travels to the city hoping to question the killer about the murder of a young girl in the village where he lives. The prisoner responds to him but demands to be told about the cop's family and his sex life before he'll answer questions. All good gritty stuff, but it's all ruined by an incredibly tame ending. Christian Alvart (Pandorum) wrote and directed, and I have to believe he was pressured to alter his original script. After multiple pedophile homosexual rapes and murders, the god-fearing village cop's introduction to anal sex with a friendly lady, and inflicting sodomy on his wife when he gets home, drawing blood in the process, Herr Alvart must have known that 'happily ever after' wasn't the way to go.

That is one question you could be asked by a friend or a shrink...being asked that by a serial killer sitting in a cage behind bars is a different thing. I just watched the movie and I am still in it. It was the highest tension I have experienced for a long time. When I read about the movie and it being compared to Silence of the Lambs I thought that no German director could create the perfect nightmare...but I thought wrong. I especially liked the fact that the officer from a very small village...389 souls aren't that much...has to deal with a killer who has been caught in the big city. The movie contains very interesting characters and is a technical masterpiece. I liked the beginning very much and was happy with the killer. He is evil and very clever! Madames en monsieurs...10 points go to Germany for the Best Thriller of the Year: Antikörper

A musthaveseen!

Look what came out of Germany this time. Normally we get hold of those gory splatters or even their xxx gory ones. But i noticed in my Fangoria vault and on the web that there was more and better coming a few years ago. Antibodies. First of all, again like most German flicks they speak, you guessed it, German. Mostly without subs but this one does have them. So the language is never a problem. It's a slow movie that clocks in over more than 2 hours but don't worry, you will never be bored. The difference between the "Holy"wood movies and this one is that they dare to have a serial killer killing children and what he did with them is all told in an explicit way. For some it will be disturbing, and that's the main difference with the US movies. Se7en and Silence of the Lambs were never disturbing except for the killers. But here we have more, it tells a story about a serial killer who only wants to talk to a small cop meaning nothing in Berlin. What he has to do with killer will be explained further on in the movie. But the guys who are playing the killer and the cop are sublime. The way the cop becomes victim of the killer and how he translate that in his belief in Christ. A must see. I must admit that you will get the plot halfway into the movie but you want to be sure that it is correct that's the reason to watch it until the end. Strange for this kind of flicks but no gore is added, you will see some blood but I can tell it get you by the throat due the child abuse and killings done by him. For me as a horror geek I surely advise people to see this underrated movie, and yes, in 2010 or dearest American folks are making a remake. Do I need to say more?

The great thing about this movie is that it is not a true horror film. The director said in the Q&A after the movie that he didn't want his killer to be respected, like Hannibal, who he says "looks like the cool guy in the movie". He says that since he is locked up the whole time the audience can be sure that there will be no more murders and so most of the movie is talking and trying to create closure. The movie is very much a focus on the minds of normal people versus what happens to the make a normal person turn into a serial killer. Alvart did a lot of research for the movie on serial killers, Catholocism (spending months working in a church), and being a father, there is a lot on parent-child relationships. There are so many levels that are covered in this movie and that is why it is so engrossing and watchable. It is a totally intellectual film that makes you think about social issues as well as completely scaring and creeping you out. The ending was so amazing. It is the best thriller I have ever seen and no one would ever think that Alvart was the most skeptical of this script ever being produced.Alvart said this film is the most personal out of the many scripts he proposed to producers.