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Pathology
Directed by: Marc Schoelermann Starring: Milo Ventimiglia, Michael Weston, Alyssa Milano, John De Lancie Synopsis: Dr Ted Grey (Ventimiglia) joins a Pathology programme at the county morgue, where he bumps egos with a group of elitist surgeons. Seduced into joining their gang, he is initiated into a game whereby they take it in turns to kill a stranger and the rest of the group have to figure out how they achieved it... Review: A grotesque decadence and eurotrash-style sleaze pervades this movie, which is quite off-kilter to the usual Hollywood fare – its no surprise to find then that a European director, hollywood newcomer Marc Schoelermann is at the helm. About ten years ago, Spanish Director Nacho Cerda made a very notorious movie called Aftermath, a short film depicting a pathologist conducting an autopsy on a young woman then having sex with the corpse. Whilst Pathology doesn’t quite reach that extreme, Death and the dead are depicted as turn-ons for some of the characters, and both movies raise the unsettling point of what happens to our bodies after we die - we are handed over to strangers, be they doctors, pathologists or morticians, and we take for granted that our bodies will be afforded a level of respect as they areprepared for internment. In
Pathology
, corpses are being violated for intellectual entertainment. There are scenes of doctors gleefully cutting, hacking and chopping their way into dead bodies while getting high and having sex with each other. As I mentioned, this isn’t your usual Hollywood horror movie.
Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Patrelli in Heroes) does okay as the main protagonist. At first I thought he was a bit wooden (a particular telephone conversation with his girlfriend is like listening to paint dry) but he kind of warms up as the film progresses. For those that are interested, yes you do get to see his naked butt. A lot. Michael Weston plays his role a bit too over the top, going from sociopath to all out psycho round about the hour mark. The most welcome cast member for me was John De Lancie, who played Q on a number of the Star Trek series, here playing a more paternal role.
Overall I’m not sure if I actually liked this movie. It left a nasty taste in my mouth, watching these people coupling on autopsy tables while a corpse lay silent on the next slab. Milo’s character was interestingly grey, willing to play with the bad boys up to a point (killing a child molester in cold blood is one thing, but butchering prostitutes while high is going too far, dammit!). However, I did enjoy the ending, which managed to wrong-foot me. Verdict: More autopsy gore than a dozen CSI episodes, those looking for Milo Money shots need to be of a strong stomach indeed. 6 out of 10
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