I'm not big on gore as a genre. There I said it. If it's part of the story--and there is a story present--then its not much of an issue. But I think I'm beyond the point where I can watch pure shock factor for the sake of being shocked. In honesty I'm more shocked by a compelling well-written story than by a slow evisceration by a creepy one-eyed hillbilly in a rusty shed.
Luckily, the German thriller Antibodies is written well and not created from a storyboard drawn by a 5th grade sociopath living out his sick fantasies.
The local police of the farm-town send the only law enforcement agent in the town, Marten--who is also a farmer--to interrogate Gabriel. A strange and unpleasant bond is formed when Gabriel refuses to talk to anyone but Marten, and evil and good are pitted against each other for dominance of Marten's mind.
Antibodies steals a bit from Silence of the Lambs, and the iconic thriller Se7en, but even Gabriel quips jokingly, "You were expecting Hanibal Lechter?" And maybe it's just me, but I found Gabriel just as intimidating as Hannibal if not more so.
Marten's struggles with his own moral dilemmas and the insidiousness of his tormentor seem to push him along down a dangerous path. The movie plays well as a thriller and a suspense, and the tension grows throughout, and there are several well developed twists, but the film also lacks any real horrifying edge. The true fun of the movie is watching Gabriel play with the helpless Marten, and the unfolding mystery in his small town, where he is charged to find a killer among his neighbors and friends.
A fun mystery, fairly gory and of course, weird in that German way.
6/10
