Antibodies takes on the issue of evil in the form of a tense crime thriller. Attributing to evil, the quality of a virus that can infect its host and spread, Antibodies twists reality just enough to infect the audience as well. Thinking I had things figured out, I was delighted when the ending took me in an entirely different direction. A brilliant piece of cinema.
Antibodies is a 2005 German crime thriller. The film opens with a gritty, heart-pumping sequence. Police arrive at an apartment complex, where a resident has reported screams from a top floor apartment. Inside the apartment, a naked man paints with blood. As he is draining his latest victim of blood to complete his project, he hears two police officers assembling at his door. In a few moments, all hell will break loose. A chase will ensue and the serial killer Gabriel Engel (Andre Hennicke) will finally be brought to justice. We begin to learn the politics of the police force, where Bosowski (Klaus Zmorek) is a grand-standing, press hungry manipulator who plays his status against the hard work of investigator Seiler (Heinz Hoenig).
Engel initially admits to his string of brutal murders, which includes thirteen children and one Police Officer during the course of his arrest. Engel clearly lacks balance. When police advise him that there will be no deals, Engel makes a single, odd demand. He wants an expensive notebook and crayons so that he can keep a diary and scribble his artistic renderings. Engel initially divulges his crimes, but eventually stops talking. Meanwhile, a small town cop (Michael Martenz, played by Wotan Wilke Morhing) is haunted by the murder of a young girl whose body he discovered more than a year earlier. The crime has torn his town apart. Martenz knows the killer was caught, but he wants resolution. The killer has not admitted to the murder of the young girl from his town, and the murder does not fit with his other victims, which are all boys. Martenz is concerned that the killer lives among the people of his town.
When Martenz travels to interview Engel, he soon finds himself infected by Engel's evil. Martenz is practically an angel. "Saint Michael" as his father-in-law see it. Engel gets inside Martenz' head and begins to distort his perception. Meanwhile, Engel has started talking again. Bosowski reluctantly allows Martenz to continue before pulling the plug on his investigation. But Seiler recognizes the abilities in the small town policeman and takes him to the crime scene. While visiting the crime scene, Martenz manages to tie Engel to all of the murders with physical evidence while implicating his own family. From this point forward, the lines become blurred and the audience becomes infected with Engel's evil.
Antibodies was written and directed by Christian Alvart. Alvart delivers a tightly woven thriller that balances pulsing action with taut suspense. The characters stood out from the rest of the writing. Rich, complex characters helped define this film. The characters provided enough complexity to allow Alvart the latitude to make the plot twists believable. The dialogue was rich and fresh. The character interactions were credible and interesting. The final twist ventured slightly into the supernatural, but not to the point that it discredited the story. The ending could have been tied together a little more tightly. The film ended abruptly.
The story in Antibodies was brought to life by an excellent cast. I am unfamiliar with the actors in this film, but was impressed with the entire cast. Mohring demonstrated his ability to carry the lead role in a film. The success of the cerebral elements of this film relied heavily on Mohring's performance, which delivered the goods. Hoenig and Mohring worked well together as patchwork police partners. Seiler is far from perfect, which Hoenig capitalizes on to infuse life into his character. The most notable member of the cast, however, was Hennicke. While there were parallels to Silence of the Lambs in this film, Hennicke injected a more edgy evil into his character than Hannibal Lecter. In fact, Hennicke scared the hell out of me. His performance was amazing.
Antibodies is a film that is definitely not for all audience. This film will certainly give younger viewers nightmares. The intensity, violence and young victims are disturbing enough for mature audiences. Combined with copious amounts of nudity (male and female), rough sex and strong sexual themes, this unrated version is well within the R range. I would recommend a mature teen audience to process some of the difficult material in this film. Run time is two hours, seven minutes.
Antibodies is as intelligent as it is exciting. From a tense opening scene into the head games and interpersonal relationships, the film covers a lot of ground. At just over two hours, Antibodies manages to feel much shorter. The film moves at an excellent pace as it draws viewers into the puzzle. The acting, writing, pacing, story-line, subplots and diversion all came together seamlessly to provide a tight thriller. My only knock on this story was the ending which edged up to the supernatural. The ending was established in earlier scenes, where the church seemed to be talking directly to the main character, so it was not a cop out. But it also sort of trailed off from a climactic moment into a fuzzy abrupt ending. 7.5/10.
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