DVD
Antibodies

Starring: Wotan Wilke Mohring, Andre Hennicke and Heinz Hoenig
Tartan Video
RRP: £19.99
TVD3664
Certificate: 18
Available 29 January 2007


German police raid a warehouse apartment and arrest serial killer Gabriel Engel. Admitting to the depraved sexual killings of several boys, he is nevertheless tight-lipped about the details. After having shown some of the locals a hard time over the abduction and death of a little girl, a rural policeman arrives in the big city to find out if Engel was responsible. The man denies it, but states he knows who the perpetrator was because he witnessed the crime. However, when Engel begins playing psychological games the country cop leaves. Later, he discovers the undergarments of the dead boys hidden in the psycho's apartment, each with dried semen on. When those of the dead girl are found, the case is all but closed. Forensic tests though identify two different traces of semen this time, and the cop's original instinct of a local from his own district being responsible seems justified. But as the locals become angry and edgy, the small town officer must once again face the mind-games of Engel...

This German psychotic thriller with English subtitles owes much to the original Manhunter and The Silence of the Lambs. All the elements are there: The imprisoned multiple killer; the slightly naive cop that is obliged to face him; the help with a killer on the outside (at a price); and an item which goes missing in his cell.

However, even though you can probably guess who the girl's attacker was (an established murder mystery novel structure is employed, which points the finger at a character who's too obvious to make you believe it, before following it through as if it's a surprise), and nothing that happens is particularly original, it is handled quite well.

What makes it work is how the country policeman sees himself. He is a devout Catholic who looks on his life and work as all that is good, battling all that is evil. His first meeting with Engel proves instrumental in making him doubt himself, and actually enjoy exploring his dark side, although he feels eminently guilty afterward and actually physically punishes himself.

Antibodies is probably not the type of film most people will want to watch repeatedly, but for lovers of fictional crime, murder mystery and police procedures, it will certainly stand a single viewing.

Ty Power

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