
12/8/2013
This German horror film from 2000 stars Franka Potente, the
breakout star of the 1998 film "Run Lola Run". It answers the question how do they really get the bodies for those amazing
Body Worlds Exhibits? Real human bodies
injected with a plastic like substance leaving
their muscles and vital organs on display in amazing detail.
Medical horror movies seem hit a nerve, so to speak, as they
prey on primal fears that everyone can relate to. All the way back to the original Frankenstein,
medical horrors have been a staple of the genre. The environments are cold and sterile with
lots of stainless steel instruments from scalpels, saws, and drills. Putting you life in the hands of a possibly
insane stranger, is their anything else more scary? Yes there is being operated on while still
awake! Ahhhhh!
Paula is a bright med student who gets accepted to the
prestigious Heidelberg
Medical School
who discovers the existence of a secret society. Heidelberg
opens its new state of the art anatomy wing where the students have access to
all the corpses they can handle. But
when Paula recognizes a guy who ends up on her table she starts to investigate
his death. She finds a mysterious
tattoo on his ankle and a very unusual blood sample. It is found to have a sort of plastic polymer
in it. Paula's investigations lead to a
ancient secret society called the Anti-hippocratics. All doctors take a Hippocratic oath to help
patients, but not this group. Their
research is paramount as they use live people to practice on and learn from. Putting aside medical ethics for "the
greater good".
Although this movie is pretty dark and disturbing, their are
several moments of dark humor that lighten the mood a bit. The effects used are pretty awesome and the
highlight of the movie. It does however
suffer from a poor script and doesn't hold up to a reality check. "Anatomy" is and intense and
graphic ride that is worth at least one watch.
The Body Worlds exhibits that continue to travel around the world did
originate in Germany
but thankfully use willing donors.