Let's be clear: it is not just about beauty here, but about celebrity and what that makes people think. We have three male characters here, which all do drugs. Now that alone may be enough for some to judge them. But if you are not too close minded, you will let that one slip (no pun intended). When it comes to discovering the body of Anna Fritz and what occurs then ... that is completely different and despicable to say the least.

Now one of the three has some common sense. Not just some, but enough for all 3 of them and therefor can be excused to a degree. The things that happen do make sense. Even the really abhorent acts in it. Some are tough to watch to say the least. I know some will have the same excuse as the two characters, but if you look inside yourself you should know it is just plain wrong.

Having said that, the movie develops quite the tension and quite the suspense that does carry through to the end. Spanish thrillers have really found a niche and place for themselves and this is just another one of those. Very well made to say the least

Put in charge of a female celebrity's dead body, a young morgue attendant boasts to his friends who insist in seeing the dead woman naked, and things only become more twisted as one of the friends expresses an interest in necrophilia in this independent thriller from Spain. From such a plot description alone, 'El Cadáver de Anna Fritz' might sound like a film done in incredibly bad taste, but it is rarely exploitative (only the briefest glimpses of the nude corpse are seen) and a sudden twist after eighteen minutes pulls the film in a decidedly different direction with the friends forced to make some tough moral decisions. None of the actors playing the three friends are particularly remarkable, but there are some interesting shifts in personality; most notably, the morgue attendant goes from reluctantly letting his friends in, afraid of losing his job, to giddily playing practical jokes on them. That said, Bernat Samuell has a bit of a bland character - he is pretty much the moral compass of the group throughout, but co-stars Christian Valencia and Albert Carbó undergo enough shifts in personality to keep things fresh. The plot also requires some suspension of disbelief (medically speaking in particular) but it is an engaging film through and through if one does not think about the probability of it too much. Several ideas raised by the film are fascinating, including celebrity worship and the ability of the human survival instinct to overtake rationality. Clocking in at only just over an hour in length too, the film is briskly paced and never outstays its welcome.

For some reason it seems the only foreign films I ever end up watching are gruesome and disturbing horror films that put me off ever going to the country they're based in again. 'The Human Centipede' and 'A Serbian Film' are the first two that come to mind and while 'The Corpse of Anna Fritz' never lives up to the vile things I witnessed in either of those movies, it still deals with a sickening subject matter and is an uncomfortable watch at times.

I wasn't exactly sure where they were going to go with the film after everything promised in the synopsis had happened in the first 10 minutes. Then along came a very disturbing and well directed scene (which I won't spoil for you) that changed everything. From there it becomes a pretty tense and effective little thriller where you are never quite sure what is going to happen next. I would describe it as a lonely film, there aren't a lot of characters or even extras at any stage. The acting I would have to say was quite impressive from all involved and all in all I'd describe it as a very watchable little flick. Give it a look if you happen upon a copy of it.