Antibodies (2005)

Fine thriller that ostensibly tells the story of the capture and interrogation of a serial killer of young boys. However, the film is really about so much more than that. It tackles issues like how life in a small village can be disrupted for years by a single murder, and how the inhabitants cope in the aftermath. It also covers the strained relationship between townspeople and the local constabulary, as well as how a small town officer fares when dealing with big city police investigators, some of whom do not appreciate his assistance.

On a larger scale, it ponders the place of religion in modern society, especially as it pertains to the nature of good and evil. Can evil infect and ultimately corrupt the good and innocent? Does Catholicism help or hurt the fervent believer? Is there room for religious belief in modern times? The movie presents all this in a Silence of the Lambs-type package that looks great, is beautifully acted, sometimes shocking and well paced for its over 2 hour run time. In German with English subtitles.

Fmovies: The darkness of deep recesses of human soul, the entrapment of fundamentalist religion,the repressed sexuality and much, much more. "Antibody", brilliant German crime drama tackles successfully all of these issues, without neglecting the pacing and suspense, the necessary ingredients for this genre. The director Christian Alvart, although only 31 when he made this movie, has a precise artistic credo and an eye of an old master. The rawness, blood and explicit sex combined with the carefully measured silence and powerful, understated acting, makes this masterpiece a standout in usual drivel associated with this popular genre.

When i a friend of mine told me, that Antikörper would be a cheap reproduction of "Silence of the Lambs", i didn't believe in him. After watching it, i know, that i was right. The basic structure of the two films are quite the same, but the rest of the two movies differ in each way.

The shocking and fascinating story of "Antikörper", which contains a lot of psychological aspects, is very great and very exciting. It's basically about the evil in each other, but i don't want to tell you too much... Then, the performance of the actors is excellent, and so give the advise to everyone who likes fastidious, thrilling and all in all well-done masterpieces, to watch it! (10/10)

Antibodies fmovies. You might think that Antibodies is very similar to Silence of the Lambs. I've even heard one person describing it as a rip-off of it, but I don't see that in Antibodies. The only similarities is that the serial-killer (here a revolting paedophile, instead of a harmless cannibal) and the detective feature key scenes across bars. That's it! Antibodies is more about solving the case of a murdered little girl who the serial killer refuses to admit to killing. Whereas the Silence of the Lambs was more about Jodie Foster on the tail of a whole new serial killer altogether! That being said, of course Antibodies is not as great as the Silence of the Lambs, but it is a super solid serial killer thriller that offers so much more than you'd imagine.

Antibodies is dangerously under-rated. It seems to me that hardly anyone has seen it and I can't understand why. I came across it on IMDb by accident and the poster caught my eye with its sinister focal image and clinical background. There's no reason why Antibodies should not appeal to mass audiences, other than it being in German which lazy people (who have probably not even given subtitled films a chance!) send away. Antibodies looks amazing, it's made on a very decent budget, has fantastic acting and a wonderfully twisty script. At two hours long Antibodies never sags and I was even kind of sad to see it end because it's such a gripping experience.

Antibodies grabs you by the throat from the stylish opening where the mad man's apartment is stormed by police officers. Here we're bombarded with religious imagery which can often seem a bit pompous, but in Antibodies it serves a very intelligent purpose and only adds to the brilliant screenplay. We're given striking imagery of a naked psychopath and it could've easily leaped out of a Hollywood film with its big-budget feel. However unlike most Hollywood productions it features an edgy screenplay as well as great visuals. It's no surprise that Hollywood is eating this up! What the screenplay does so well is getting into the minds of its characters. Our detective is no less interesting than the psychopath himself (well maybe slightly, but psychopaths have an unfair advantage of being interesting). We're let into the detective's everyday life and we see his strengths and flaws as a characters. No doubt the remake will feature a pure detective, which will completely miss the whole idea of the film. I loved seeing his character change from being cool and collected and then being completely tormented by Gabriel (the psychopath, who is definitely no angel).

Just like in the Silence of the Lambs, the interrogation scenes feature astonishingly gripping dialogue as we become as entangled in the mystery as much as the detective is. There are also some very interesting uses of camera angles. In fact, the whole film moves at a great pace and has a speedy energy which you wouldn't expect from a film that lasts two hours. Antibodies never drags and you always care. The film is never afraid to be cruel and brutal in its characterisation and it's right not to hold back. It's important to note that people like Gabriel do exist and we can't just shut the out!

There are a few jaw-dropping twists at the end which only show off the brilliant nature of the screenplay. There are some very intense sequences that had me on the edge of my seat. The character of the detective is also never ignored and he rightly remains central to the story as we see him being led int

I watched the DVD last night and thought it to be one of the best movies I've seen this year. The acting from the leads was excellent - never overdone and highly believable. The opening sequence gripped me and from thereon in I couldn't wait to see what happened next. The story develops at a great pace with some lovely twists and red herrings. Yes - some may see them coming but even so, it doesn't detract from a hugely enjoyable and often disturbing story. The direction and cinematography was also were superb - some great camera work and use of (sometimes washed out and grainy) colour and slow-motion. Highly recommended viewing before the inevitable Hollywood treatment. (CGI deer - ouch - 'nuff said!)

Only the second film by the former editor of the legendary German movie fanzine X-TRO, Antibodies (aka: Antikörper) is an assured and suspenseful work which, while it willingly acknowledges its obvious indebtedness to Hollywood models, still manages to strikes out convincingly on its own. The most obvious inspiration behind Christian Alvart's film is The Silence Of The Lambs (1991), to which explicit and grimly affectionate allusion ("What did you expect? Hannibal Lecter?") is made by killer Gabriel Engel (André Hennicke) at one point early on during his captivity. Restrained in conditions which recall those featuring in Jonathan Demme's movie, visited too by a similarly awed and repelled police investigator, Engel actually gives a performance less self-conscious than the much-imitated Anthony Hopkins'. And, because of the latitude of German cinema, where the precise detailing of paedophilic lust rape is more permissible as a drama demands, it is all the more disturbing in the telling. Watching this film, where the principal and community are wracked equally with guilt and blame, one easily recalls that this is the national cinema which earlier produced another monstrous child murderer, that of Fritz Lang's M, and indeed is a country where communal guilt is never very far below the surface.

Just as Clarice Starling needs her Lecter, so Schmizt needs his Engel to help solve a case. Having already killed 14, most of whom were young boys, Engel offers his own tantalising clues and hints as to where the other killer may be found. But, as he says, "Evil... is infectious," and soon Schmizt begins to question his own moral certainties, before ultimately basing his judgement on the only firm foundation he knows - the Old Testament, a process which involves a particularly painful scene of self mutilation by way of penance, as well as providing doctrinal justification for the suspenseful final scenes.

Antibodies is a film which never slackens its tension, and which avoids completely the flabby sentimentalising or overcooked heroics which often mars the American thriller product. Silence Of The Lambs contained more certainties than we are provided with here. Even though it gave its audience an extreme form of serial killer, in the form of 'Buffalo Bill', one both flamboyant and rock inspired, it instantly made a stereotype of itself, and it was this 'respect' of sorts by the audience that the director has said he was keen to avoid. Like Silence Of The Lambs, Se7en and the rest of their bloodline, Antibodies parades a notable killer's lair of its own as well, although any artefacts on show are less disturbing than the ultimate meaning of the 14 red squares drawn by Engel on the wall, or the spare, clean white tiles of his torture room.

At the centre of such films is inevitably a duel between killer and cop, and here the two main parts receive terrific performances, Hennicke mightily disturbing as the gloating and manipulative serial killer, writing his books of blood, and Reedus drawn and haunted as the cop on the edge. As is often the case in this sort of film, a troubled parallel is drawn between them, a process highlighted in the first instance by a change in Reedus' lovemaking, as one whose psyche is increasingly affected by the killer's manipulative mind games. And when the depressed cop buys a suit on impulse, from a shop woman with whom he later sleeps in aggressive fashion, we are reminded of how moral codes can be put and 'worn' almost as