By Dustin Hall
Going into The Corpse of Anna Fritz, I had my loins securely girded. The film is distributed by Invincible Pictures, who recently released the uncut Serbian Film to the public, and its plot is centered around necrophilia. I expected, from that selling point, and from the trailer, to find a supremely depraved film that may or may not have involved the undead. My loins were overly prepared, as it turned out, for the film I received, as The Corpse of Anna Fritz delights not in the grotesque depths of Serbian Film, but in classic tension, suspense, and chase sequences of slasher flicks of old.
The Corpse of Anna Fritz opens with the titular character, played by Alba Ribas, already laid out on a slab. Her body is pushed into a hospital morgue, accompanied by radio reports giving the audience a brief history of her rise to international super-stardom, and her sudden death at a party earlier in the evening. She’s deposited in cold storage by Pau (Albert Carbo), who’s unfortunate fashion choice of red crocs immediately make him an unlikable character, but this is only the first of his failings. Pau sends a picture of Anna’s body to his coke snorting bros Ivan (Christian Valencia) and Javi (Bernat Saumell), who immediately decide to come down and take a peek for themselves. Despite Javi’s nervous protests, Ivan and Pau decide to take advantage of what will probably be the only opportunity they’ll have to sex-up a celebrity, and have a go at the deceased. The boys are shocked when, while Pau is giving his Tuesday best to corpse, Anna wakes up. With the fear of rape charges hanging over them, the trio of deviants debate what to do next, as Anna tries to escape before their thoughts turn to murder.
From here the story charges through a series of misfortunes, moving briskly through its 75 minute run time. There’s no fat to be trimmed or wasted moments, which is a strength of the film, as it keeps the tensions high. Interestingly, the question of how Anna ‘died’ and came back is never addressed. Story be damned! There are betrayals and chases to be had, and many moments where the characters continue to question, push, and often abandon their own morality. The quick pace helps the film stay enjoyable, and it comes to a close before the premise is exhausted. I found myself rooting for Anna, and curious to see how and when this cadre of young perverts was going to snap in the face of having to, essentially, commit and immediately erase all evidence of a murder.
Tonally, The Corpse of Anna Fritz shares a lot with other recent rape-centric plots such as The Woman or particularly Dead Girl. As with those films, it explores the objectification of women and the animalistic nature of sexual exploration in young men, who cast aside decency in exchange for thrills. Unlike those films, though, this film isn’t nearly as grotesque or torturous. The opening moments will push some buttons for those particularly unsettled by necrophilia, but once it has been established that Anna is alive, the brutality of the boys subsides, and is replaced by fear. In this way the film contrasts with The Woman, which was an exploration of abuses of power with a lack of oversight, and instead focuses on the breakdown of a person’s morality when they find their back pressed against the wall. There’s not a lot of clever turns in the film, and the setting isn’t particularly utilized, but as a character study, it serves.
While The Corpse of Anna Fritz was overall a well put together piece of minimalist movie-making, my one gripe with the film would be the fizzle of its climax. I can overlook things like continuity errors (of which there is one major one), but I couldn’t shake that the ending left something to be desired. The final moments, where the final shocks should be delivered, the great gut-punch moments of visceral intensity or a really wonderful ‘a-ha’ moment, instead everything is decided by a rather lazy mistake made by one of the characters, which results in a rushed ending, followed immediately by the credits. It was a painfully abrupt halt.
Still, despite the lackluster destination, The Corpse of Anna Fritz was a decent ride.
The Corpse of Anna Fritz will be on FlixFling from March 8th.