Horror films know what’s up; if you want to stay current (and relevant) you need to evolve over time (see also: Madonna, Cher, and Betty White). For a decent amount of time, 'found footage' and demonic possession movies defined the cutting edge of all things sleep-with-your-light-on scary. More recently, psychological thrillers have started to make a noticeable impact on the film scene. Premiering this year at SXSW, "The Corpse of Anna Fritz" has the potential to take this particular vein of horror one step further.
The story begins with Anna Fritz, a super famous, ridiculously gorgeous Spanish actress who mysteriously drops dead one morning. Her body is being held in a local morgue, where a shy mortician named Pau is working. When Pau comes across Anna’s body, he takes a picture of her and sends it to his friends Ivan and Javi. Shortly thereafter, Ivan and Javi come to visit Pau, and coerce him into taking them to see Anna’s corpse. Ivan decides that he wants to take advantage of the dead young woman, and Pau follows suit. When Pau is in the middle of raping Anna, she wakes up, and the situation becomes exponentially more complicated.
This film carries echoes of past movies like "Deadgirl" and "Flesh for Frankenstein", but with one major departure: there is no element of fantasy in The Corpse of Anna Fritz. Anna is neither zombie nor Frankenstein; she is simply a woman. Director Hèctor Hernández Vicens’ allows for underlying human malevolence to serve as the metaphorical monster. The entire film has only four actors and a solitary location, which adds to the anxiety felt by the audience and characters alike.Is this movie going to make cinematic history? Probably not. But the taboo subject matter and mortifying plot twists make it intriguing (and fresh) enough that it deserves a chance.
Article by Zack Mandell
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