Stuart:

Anatomie the first was a bit of an oddity as far as German films go. On the dvd extras I remember being told by the people involved that genre films are really frowned upon in Germany, and thus Anatomie broke the mould by conforming to Hollywood conventions.

So, here we are back again with Anatomie 2. This film succeeds in that it doesn’t simply attempt to remake the first. First of all no characters return in the sequel other than Franka Potente, who is a ‘guest star’. Secondly it seems to have a distinctly different style, at times more like a music video than a horror film.

Is it scary? No. There were a couple of moments in the original that were quite chilling (namely the opening). The acting is all great, although I sometimes wonder if it’s harder to rate actors speaking a language you don’t understand.

One standout feature of the film is the score. The composer was on drugs. Seriously. It’s awesome but soooooo over the top. There are moments when you’re sure that the masses are being sacrificed to Ra in order to stop the destruction of the universe (or something like that), when in fact it’s some people standing around talking. There’s a chanting choir going nuts that sounds fantastic, but doesn’t necessarily reflect what’s going on.

It would be really good if Mark saw either of the two Anatomies. Maybe he could tell us whether this sort of stuff really goes on in hospitals. I was most impressed by the hospital itself, however, a ridiculously huge structure built sometime in the seventies and shaped roughly like Vader’s TIE Interceptor.

I really enjoyed watching Anatomie 2 but I’m not quite sure why. I wanted to see what would happen next, yet I was never actually excited, nor did I particularly care for the characters. However Lars Von Trier’s miniseries The Kingdom 1 and 2 will always win the award for best use of a hospital as a setting for a film.