A lot of fun.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

This film lasts just over two hours, and the first hour and fifty five minutes are fine. A German serial killer, whose hobby is raping boys and using their blood to paint pictures, is apprehended but refuses to give much away under interrogation. A policeman travels to the city hoping to question the killer about the murder of a young girl in the village where he lives. The prisoner responds to him but demands to be told about the cop's family and his sex life before he'll answer questions. All good gritty stuff, but it's all ruined by an incredibly tame ending. Christian Alvart (Pandorum) wrote and directed, and I have to believe he was pressured to alter his original script. After multiple pedophile homosexual rapes and murders, the god-fearing village cop's introduction to anal sex with a friendly lady, and inflicting sodomy on his wife when he gets home, drawing blood in the process, Herr Alvart must have known that 'happily ever after' wasn't the way to go.

You might think that Antibodies is very similar to Silence of the Lambs. I've even heard one person describing it as a rip-off of it, but I don't see that in Antibodies. The only similarities is that the serial-killer (here a revolting paedophile, instead of a harmless cannibal) and the detective feature key scenes across bars. That's it! Antibodies is more about solving the case of a murdered little girl who the serial killer refuses to admit to killing. Whereas the Silence of the Lambs was more about Jodie Foster on the tail of a whole new serial killer altogether! That being said, of course Antibodies is not as great as the Silence of the Lambs, but it is a super solid serial killer thriller that offers so much more than you'd imagine.Antibodies is dangerously under-rated. It seems to me that hardly anyone has seen it and I can't understand why. I came across it on IMDb by accident and the poster caught my eye with its sinister focal image and clinical background. There's no reason why Antibodies should not appeal to mass audiences, other than it being in German which lazy people (who have probably not even given subtitled films a chance!) send away. Antibodies looks amazing, it's made on a very decent budget, has fantastic acting and a wonderfully twisty script. At two hours long Antibodies never sags and I was even kind of sad to see it end because it's such a gripping experience.Antibodies grabs you by the throat from the stylish opening where the mad man's apartment is stormed by police officers. Here we're bombarded with religious imagery which can often seem a bit pompous, but in Antibodies it serves a very intelligent purpose and only adds to the brilliant screenplay. We're given striking imagery of a naked psychopath and it could've easily leaped out of a Hollywood film with its big-budget feel. However unlike most Hollywood productions it features an edgy screenplay as well as great visuals. It's no surprise that Hollywood is eating this up! What the screenplay does so well is getting into the minds of its characters. Our detective is no less interesting than the psychopath himself (well maybe slightly, but psychopaths have an unfair advantage of being interesting). We're let into the detective's everyday life and we see his strengths and flaws as a characters. No doubt the remake will feature a pure detective, which will completely miss the whole idea of the film. I loved seeing his character change from being cool and collected and then being completely tormented by Gabriel (the psychopath, who is definitely no angel).Just like in the Silence of the Lambs, the interrogation scenes feature astonishingly gripping dialogue as we become as entangled in the mystery as much as the detective is. There are also some very interesting uses of camera angles. In fact, the whole film moves at a great pace and has a speedy energy which you wouldn't expect from a film that lasts two hours. Antibodies never drags and you always care. The film is never afraid to be cruel and brutal in its characterisation and it's right not to hold back. It's important to note that people like Gabriel do exist and we can't just shut the out!There are a few jaw-dropping twists at the end which only show off the brilliant nature of the screenplay. There are some very intense sequences that had me on the edge of my seat. The character of the detective is also never ignored and he rightly remains central to the story as we see him being led into temptation amongst other things. Antibodies is a thrilling experience and a high-class serial killer thriller. It certainly has the dark elements of horror like the Silence of the Lambs has, yet it adds a brilliant spin on the sub-genre that should have you on the edge of your seat. This is top-notch entertainment with a heart at the centre of it. See it before Hollywood squashes it!

Producers tried to promote this as the German answer to „Silence of the Lambs" and every second, the film tries so very hard at fulfilling this premise – but in the end it's just wishful thinking and trying (unsuccessfully) to emulate the original.So where did "Antikörper" go wrong? Well, "Silence of the Lambs" had many things going for it: a brilliant cast, an excellent director and was based on a very successful, poignant novel. Neither of this can be said about the crew and premise of "Antikörper".The story itself is simple: a brutal yet brilliant serial killer is comprehended, jailed and (dying from Aids) interrogated by a troubled countryside cop. The naïve cop, intellectually no match for the killer, is soon absorbed by the twists of a psychopathic mind.Nothing new or non-predictable in ways of the story. The film comes across like a overblown episode of German crime series "Tatort" (and I mean the recent, filmed with video "Tatort"), which is clearly the fault of a director more at home with TV than cinema. Indeed, director Christian Alvart would go on to direct "Tatort" and similar minded TV-products.Secondarily, the acting is generally dreadful. Wotan Wilke Möhring, playing the investigating cop, is fondly remembered as Tourette syndrome-plagued stoner in the cult comedy "Lammbock" but has neither skill nor charisma to carry a film like "Antikörper". Flat is the best word to describe his performance. Same goes for Möhrings antagonist, André Hennicke, the semi-demonic Gabriel Engel (and, yes, naming your serial killer "Gabriel Angel" would have classified most other screenwriters as a hack): he tries his best to come across as Anthony Hopkins-like super-serial killer but remains throughout a pale caricature of the original Hannibal; good enough for the TV- but by no means good enough for the big-screen.Since the film is relatively gore-free (the German word is "sauber"), it relies on a couple of explicit scenes, involving anal intercourse and teenage masturbation. Those scenes are awkward (saying it kindly) and, again, Möhring makes as good a passionate lover as he does an inspector.There is an infinite number of "Silence of the Lambs" rip-offs and interpretations being produced internationally – save yourself "Antikörper" because in this two hours you could watch a better one anytime.3 out of 10 – and that's called 'generous'.

The darkness of deep recesses of human soul, the entrapment of fundamentalist religion,the repressed sexuality and much, much more. "Antibody", brilliant German crime drama tackles successfully all of these issues, without neglecting the pacing and suspense, the necessary ingredients for this genre. The director Christian Alvart, although only 31 when he made this movie, has a precise artistic credo and an eye of an old master. The rawness, blood and explicit sex combined with the carefully measured silence and powerful, understated acting, makes this masterpiece a standout in usual drivel associated with this popular genre.