The Corpse Of Anna Fritz review [LFF 2015]: “Truly shocking”

The Corpse Of Anna Fritz review: A sometimes shocking, tense thriller from Spain that delivers the goods.

The Corpse Of Anna Fritz review

The Corpse Of Anna Fritz is a tense little movie that seems a little out-of-place at this year’s London Film Festival, and could have just as easily have fitted in at August’s FrightFest instead. A psychological thriller from Spain, the film revolves around the death of a young, beautiful actress by the name of Anna Fritz.

Shortly after her untimely death, Fritz’s corpse is transferred to an unnamed hospital where she is put under the care of a young orderly named Pau, who immediately takes photos of the lifeless cadaver in the hospital morgue, and texts them to his friends. When two of his mates turn up at the hospital on their way to a party shortly afterwards, they demand to have a look at her naked body. Then, one thing leads to another, and … well, we’ll let you guess what they decide to do next.

The Corpse of Anna Fritz reminds us a lot of single location thrillers like the Ryan Reynolds starrer Buried from a few years back, and many other Hitchcockian-style films of the past few decades. With some fantastic debut feature direction from Hector Hernandez Vicens, who also wrote the screenplay, the film plays as very funny, extremely dark, and really quite bloody shocking in places. So shocking in fact, that a couple of people left the screening that we were in within the first 15 minutes.

The Corpse Of Anna Fritz review

If you are able to get over the really quite disturbing moments early on, it’s absolutely worth it, as Hernandez Vicens has crafted a tight, well-paced, thrilling little piece of cinema that grips you from the opening frames. With some quite superb cinematography, brilliant editing and excellent acting from the four key cast members, The Corpse Of Anna Fritz is a film which you just imagine Hollywood executives drooling over before pulling out the dollar bills for remake rights to re-do it in the English language.

It will have you shifting around in your seat for every minute of the very short 76-minute running time, and have you talking about it all of the way out of the auditorium, through the exit doors, to your car, and all of the way home. A surprising twisty treat from an exciting new filmmaker; one we’d recommend for any fans of the genre… just make sure you come with an open mind and the expectation of seeing something extremely distasteful, but somehow equally magnificent.

The Corpse Of Anna Fritz review by Paul Heath, September 2015

The Corpse Of Anna Fritz was reviewed at the BFI London Film Festival.