The Corpse of Anna Fritz

Plot

Pau works as an orderly at a hospital, a job that gives him the opportunity to watch the bodies of young women that are brought to the hospital's morgue. One day he's stunned when the body of Anna Fritz, a beautiful and desirable actress, arrives. Pau cannot resist taking a picture and sending it to one of his friends, Ivan, who quickly arrives at the morgue to view Anna's nude body. Around the same time another friend, Javi, arrives for the same reasons. Ivan soon decides that he wants to have sex with Anna's corpse and begins raping it, prompting Pau to suggest that he go after Ivan. However, during the act of necrophilia Anna suddenly returns to life and opens her eyes, which terrifies Pau.

The men are then faced with two choices. They can either report Anna's revival and face rape charges, as there was no way she could consent to sex, or they can murder her and cover up their crimes. While Pau and Ivan both want to hide their crime, Javi pushes for them to save Anna and take the punishment for what they've done. The three men argue and Ivan unintentionally kills Javi. Without Javi to stop them, Ivan and Pau decide to murder Anna, only for her to end up killing them by tricking them into believing that she is once again dead, then stabbing them both with scissors once their guards are lowered.

Cast

Release

The film had its world premiere at the South by Southwest film festival on 15 March 2015. It later released in Spain in October of the same year, where it made €36,000 at the box office and was viewed an estimated 9,000 times. In February 2016, director Hèctor Hernández Vicens discovered that his film was popular in the Philippines, where it was illegally viewed or downloaded between 5 and 7 million times via outlets such as Facebook and YouTube. This prompted the film crew to seek out legal counsel in an attempt to stop the legal distribution and they have managed to get an upload of the film deleted from YouTube. Due to the film's popularity overseas, the film's crew and producers are seeking to launch an advertising and screening campaign in the Philippines.

Reception

We Got This Covered gave the film a mostly favorable review, writing that it was "not a perfect thriller – but it’s an aptly paced ride that doesn’t shy away from divisive boundaries." The International Business Times wrote a mixed review, praising elements of the movie such as its lighting while also stating that they felt that it would've worked better as a short film.