The Corpse of Anna Fritz (2015)

This film has a shock factor due to the subject matter. The characters aren't bad, but with the one setting and only few characters they do feel a little one dimensional at times. Alba Ribas (Anna Fritz) steals the show for me. But the other actors do a good enough job too. The story is non-existent. Although I get what Isaac P. Creus is trying to convey. But it doesn't quite work for my taste. However, the payoff is pretty satisfying after what they did to her. I however cannot recommend this film as I think it doesn't really offer anything, but a shock value which is over after a couple of minutes.

I have to admit that I was quite hesitant to see this film at the Brussels International Film Festival… After all, the title doesn't sound very cheerful and the two-line plot summary reveals absolutely nothing about the movie except for the perverted premise. The only I got beforehand was: "Imagine your best friend calls to say that he's in the same room as a famous actress and she isn't saying no to some action between the sheets… The only problem: your friend works at the morgue and the actress has recently deceased!" Okay, intriguing idea, I'll be the first to admit that. But where will it go from there? I hope it won't be a 76 minutes long-feature movie showing three guys committing necrophilia! Or will they get caught and does the whole thing turn into a courtroom drama? Or even worse, will the actress emerge from her deathbed as a zombie and shall she alternately rape and butcher her three assailants? I decided to purchase the ticket for "The Corpse of Anna Fritz" after all, and certainly didn't regret it. I won't reveal what does eventually happen (although many other people blatantly revealed it in their reviews) but writer Isaac P Creus and director Hèctor Hernández Vicens made the absolute most out of it and I'll gladly proclaim that "The Corpse of Anna Fritz" is a very suspenseful and absorbing thriller with a few unpredictable twists and a handful of notably frightening moments. The one thing you shouldn't expect, though, is gratuitous or repulsive footage. The necrophilia theme is quite controversial, of course, but the nudity and sexist sequences are kept to a minimum. The film does go quite far in showing how far people are prepared to do in order to protect their own sorry ass, like betrayal and even murder, which results in a number of brutal but nevertheless confronting and realistic sequences. Since there are only a couple of set pieces and a very limited cast of characters, "The Corpse of Anna Fritz" very much depends on the strong acting performances and the surefooted direction of Hèctor Hernández Vicens. It's a very simple yet effective shocker that occasionally makes you wonder how you would react in such a situation. Hopefully different than these guys!

Wow! Well, Spanish films are always on the verge and this one is no exception. It is morbid and the story is quite ... morbid but wow! Three actors ( or you can say four) that make up the entire story and not for a single moment is boring or whatever. I mean , it was predictable that she will be caught at one point ( the lift scene) but besides that, it was really a suspense and you were on the guess.I must say that all four ( or three actors) are really great in their roles! Especially the main villain! But, really, all of them are quite believable.The theme of the film is really disturbing but, somehow, it is well done and entertaining. Nine from me. I would give it a ten if the last 10 seconds were a bit different. I expected her to smile or say something... Though I know that the ending is actually the most convenient one.

Put in charge of a female celebrity's dead body, a young morgue attendant boasts to his friends who insist in seeing the dead woman naked, and things only become more twisted as one of the friends expresses an interest in necrophilia in this independent thriller from Spain. From such a plot description alone, 'El Cadáver de Anna Fritz' might sound like a film done in incredibly bad taste, but it is rarely exploitative (only the briefest glimpses of the nude corpse are seen) and a sudden twist after eighteen minutes pulls the film in a decidedly different direction with the friends forced to make some tough moral decisions. None of the actors playing the three friends are particularly remarkable, but there are some interesting shifts in personality; most notably, the morgue attendant goes from reluctantly letting his friends in, afraid of losing his job, to giddily playing practical jokes on them. That said, Bernat Samuell has a bit of a bland character - he is pretty much the moral compass of the group throughout, but co-stars Christian Valencia and Albert Carbó undergo enough shifts in personality to keep things fresh. The plot also requires some suspension of disbelief (medically speaking in particular) but it is an engaging film through and through if one does not think about the probability of it too much. Several ideas raised by the film are fascinating, including celebrity worship and the ability of the human survival instinct to overtake rationality. Clocking in at only just over an hour in length too, the film is briskly paced and never outstays its welcome.