The Body (Oriol Paulo, 2012): Spain

Reviewed by Reyes Munoz. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (2013), Metro 4 Theater.

This is the closest I have gotten to seeing what a foreign or Spanish Hitchcock film would look like. This is definitely a Hitchcock-style psychological thriller. This film was so well made and thought out that I can see myself buying this when it gets released on Blu Ray and DVD. This is the story of a a detective whose job it is to find out what exactly happened to a security guard who got killed after running scared out of a morgue where he works as an overnight watchman. Furthermore, when the police are called, they discover that the body of a woman is missing which leads them to her widower. This is where the plot of the film takes off as the story begins to take many twists and turns. Just like many of Hitchcock’s films, the story’s main theme revolves around the idea of getting away with the perfect murder. Alex is a lab technician who happens to work in a chemical lab. He managed to land that job only after marrying his wealthy, and now dead, wife Mayka who also happens to own the lab where he works.Tired of being bossed around by her he devises a plan to kill her in a way that is untraceable, by using a  chemical compound that is fabricated in his lab which can also be used as a poison which is undetectable during an autopsy.

After Alex puts the poison in Mayka’s drink, she eventually dies after a few hours and the cause of death is ruled out as caused by exhaustion and fatigue. Alex has just gotten away with murder. Wrong! Just when he thought he was free, this incident at the morgue pulls him back in, and this time the detective is determined to get to the bottom of it all once and for all. This makes Alex very nervous and jumpy. He keeps lying his way through the agents questions, leaves many details out, and is constantly living in fear. What the detectives don’t know yet is that Alex has moved on fairly quickly as there is another woman in his life who is helping him conceal evidence. This woman’s name is Carla. Carla is Alex’s new girlfriend and is willing to do whatever it takes to clear both of their names. Just as the detectives are starting to get too close, Alex decides to devise a plan to kill them all and asks Carla to help him. She without a doubt accepts but just as their plans are about to take effect she is mysteriously murdered by a black SUV. Alex is once again left alone and forced to confess. Here is where the twist begins. Apparently when they try to go to  Carla’s apartment they find it completely empty and vacant. The other tenants say that apartment has been vacant for 2 years. As Alex’s head begins to hurt he feels faint and falls to the floor, that is when the detective reveals to him who he is as well as that Carla is his daughter and they have been working together to kill both Alex and Mayka. As it turns out, the detective’s wife was killed 10 years ago by a hit and run driver, Alex and Mayka, while he and his daughter Carla survived and watched in horror. Through the years they both decided to get revenge on those drivers and the rest is history. Very great film and an excellent homage to Hitchcock. Well done!