Anatomy (2000)
R1 / NTSC DVD
Sony / 2001
Directed by: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Written by: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Cast: Franka Potente, Benno Fürmann, Anna Loos, Sebastian Blomberg, Holger Speckhahn
Review by Vaughn Drake

Paula Henning comes from a long line of doctors and surgeons. In fact her grandfather was a very prestigious surgeon in his youth, and would like nothing more than for Paula to follow in his footsteps. Luckily for Paula, she scored the second highest mark in the national acceptance exam, and will be able to attend the same elite medical school where he was a professor. It’s too bad for Paula that something isn’t quite right in her new school.

A man wakes up, groggy and disoriented during his surgery. He’s not sure why he’s there, and manages to raise his head while under sedation and near paralysis. What he sees: his body cut up, dissected and in the process of being made into an ultra realistic medical cadaver specimen for the school.

Paula, with the help and hindrance of her fellow students, uncovers a secret organization called The Anti-Hippocratic Society (AAA!) that has been following its own illegal and immoral path towards understanding human anatomy and health for several centuries. Thought extinct since the Nazis and WWII, Paula realizes that it still may be thriving, and she may be in danger for having this knowledge.

Featuring some outstanding subdued gore and more than adequate performances by all involved, this German film should entertain you for its entire runtime. I wish the viewer had been given a little more background on the Society, but I have no real complaints about Anatomy as a whole. It’s a solid, nice looking, but never mind blowing thriller. It’s just too bad that it never seems to want to venture into exploitive areas and make it a little more bloody, dirty and exploitive.

• Screen Format: 2.35.1 Anamorphic Widescreen / Color
• Audio: German. English Dubbed (optional) / 5.1 Dolby Digital
• Subtitles: English, French (Optional)
• Run time: 100 mins.

• Commentary (in German)
• Music Video
• Featurettes
• Deleted Scenes
• Trailers
• Storyboard Comparisons
• Talent Files
• Production Photos

While it’s highly doubtful that a group like the Anti-Hippocratic Society ever existed, the fact that the Nazis carried out experiments similar to these and secret organizations exist today, make Anatomy an eye opening, popcorn popping movie that may trick you into believing the Society are still recruiting new members. Much better then The Skulls (which came out around the same time), it should keep you entertained in today’s age of conspiracies and lack of trust towards authority. Honestly, the fact that it’s a German movie makes it a little cooler.

”…a touch of horrific historic reality…”