October has passed, but the Horror season is far from over. You can currently stream well-groomed German horror entertainment on Netflix. The slasher film Anatomy with Franka Potente is one of the most entertaining German genre representatives of the last few decades.
Anatomy was the German answer to the slasher hype Scream
Wes Craven’s Scream – Scream! A teen slasher wave began in the USA in the 90s, in which urban legends revealed what people did last summer – with mostly fatal punishment. German-language cinema hesitantly jumped on the hype. Flashback – Murderous Holidays and Swimming Pool – Death celebrates with hot specimens. But the most well-known is probably anatomy.
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anatomy
The film by Stefan Ruzowitzky follows medical student Paula (Lola Run star Franka Potente) to a summer course at the University of Heidelberg. There she gets into one Conspiracy of a secret society that assassinates people for the benefit of scientific knowledge. In Anatomy, the young and virile group of victims of a classic slasher are transported to the pathology department of one of the oldest universities ever. The original combination sets the horror film apart from usual copies of American models.
A disgusting scene awakens primal fears
In the first ten minutes, Anatomy opens with a horror bang that you won’t quickly forget. After a brief introduction to Potente’s character, we end up on the autopsy table, with a young man waking up from his anesthesia (unfortunately). He is allowed to watch as his organs are removed.
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anatomy
Although the film exaggerates its thriller story with secret societies and insane fellow students, this scene feeds a true-to-life primal fear: What happens if you wake up during surgery? Moviepilot editor Hendrik Busch wrote about this in a list of 20 disturbing horror scenes:
The man wakes up as completely dehumanized, pure body. He shouldn’t wake up, he’s basically not alive anymore. Perceiving yourself in this state is against nature. The physical pain is completely irrelevant.
The director later made an Oscar movie (it’s not Anatomy 2)
Anatomy attracted over two million viewers to the cinema, and the sequel Anatomy 2 followed in 2003 with a new cast.
Stefan Ruzowitzky then turned to the true story of The Counterfeiters, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. His last horror film to date is Patient Zero from 2018, an international production with Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones) and Matt Smith (House of the Dragon).
Anatomy 1 and 2 are streaming in the Netflix catalog.