Ahhh, nothing hits like a good old stylish and cocky late-2000s “perfect murder” thriller. As its title suggests, Pathology is a movie about a group of med students who start playing a deadly game of who can commit the most audacious “medical” murder. Even the title itself suggests that this is one of those “smart” movies. Pathology means the study of both the causes of diseases and dominating conditions. Like we say he’s a pathological liar. We open with one of the more morbid scenes I have ever seen. There was something so nasty, vicious, and frightening about it that it stayed in my memory for more than 10 years.
Last night, when I played the movie again after all that time, I expected it to be the last and not the first. So, if you’re a bit squeamish, this movie is not for you. There will be a lot of dead bodies cut open in the background. However, the movie will not dwell on them and, as I said, all the graphic stuff will be in the background. After all, they don’t want this to be some fucked horror movie like The Corpse of Anna Fritz or The Autopsy of Jane Doe. Please, we need to keep things civil and help you chow down some popcorn for Satan’s sake.
Pathology follows Ted Grey, a young doctor, fresh out of Harvard, who starts his pathology residency with a rather unusual group of colleagues. They’re young, crazy, and willing to do anything to feel alive. This means sex, drugs, and murder, of course. So, you’ve got your usual “the new guy/student learning edgy new things and taking them a bit far” thing going on here. The first thing that went through my mind was the question: does this really happen? I mean, sure it does, but the real question is what is the scope of these morgue shenanigans?
We usually take doctors to be these flawless and highly moral people but that’s clearly not the case. They’re human, just like you and me. After all, there are entire studies dedicated to the White-Coat effect, which is not to be confused with the White-Coat syndrome where your blood pressure increases when you see a doctor. Moving on, Pathology does feel a bit silly and pretentious at times but at least it’s entertaining. And the cast led by Milo Ventimiglia was excellent. Milo is one of those highly underrated actors I deserve much better roles.
I remember him from the television show Heroes and, more recently, the action movie Land of Bad. During the preparation for his role here, he spent a lot of time in an actual morgue, watching autopsies. This is his direct quote: “Saw a couple hundred dead bodies — I mean, anything from a five-month-old baby to an 88-year-old man who was stabbed with a screwdriver.” Now that’s what I call commitment and dedication. Our homeboy could be a, well, whatever the case is, you have my respect, Mr. Ventimiglia.
Alyssa Milano was dashing as ever and Michael Weston was the perfect bad guy. Man, he has that face that you just want to punch. The cinematography was just gorgeous despite the morbid setting. After all, Pathology is coming to us from the producers of Crank. I just love this combination of crystal-clear focus and striking colors. None of that grainy shaky camera shit for me, thank you. The pacing was also excellent along with the short running time of under ninety minutes. This means you can watch Pathology any time you want.
The ending was quite surprising and I kind of liked it. I think the movie’s biggest flaw is their thinking that we’ll be able to like the main character. Or at least feel sorry for him. I don’t know about you but I didn’t care much about anyone in this movie. This brings us to the movie you’re probably thinking about this whole time: Flatliners. Yes, the nineties classic features a similar story of medical students doing bizarre shit.
It does feel a bit outdated at this point and you can clearly feel they were trying to make Flatliners for the new century with Pathology. Something they also tried to do with the 2017 remake. However, if you’re looking for a good movie featuring a similar story, the German hidden gem Anatomy awaits you. It follows a young medical student who slowly starts to uncover a sinister plot at her new university.
Director: Marc Schölermann
Writers: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor
Cast: Milo Ventimiglia, Alyssa Milano, Michael Weston, Keir O’Donnell, Lauren Lee Smith, Johnny Whitworth
Fun Facts: The organs you see in the movie Pathology are real but they actually come from cows and pigs.
Rating:
IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0964539/
