Wotan Wilke Mohring and Andre Hennicke in Antikorper (Antibodies).

Antibodies (Antikorper) is Germanys answer to Silence of the Lambs.  It has a very creepy serial killer and a law enforcement officer from a small town.  It adds religion and sex to the mix which causes it to eventually find its own footing.

The movie opens with a gripping scene of the police capturing a serial killer, Gabriel Engel.  He is a pedophile who not only rapes, but tortures his young male victims.  He uses their blood to paint with.   He masturbates while describing his first kill to the police.

Michael Martens is his polar opposite.  He is married with two kids and owns a farm in a small community.  He is the town's part time constable.  He is a devote catholic.   His home town was recently shocked by the discovery of a local girl being killed and having her groin mutilated.

Michael is convinced Engel is responsible for the girl's death, even though all of his other victims have been boys.  When Michael hears that Engel has been captured he travels to the big city to interrogate him.   If he can prove Engel killed her, the town's population can stop looking suspiciously at each other.  As Michael says to his wife, "This is a nightmare and it'll never end. This village needs to find its peace."

The moment Engel sees Michael he demands to talk to him.  Michael is pure and good while Engel is as evil as Satan.  Engels first words to him are, "What did you expect? Hannibal Lecter?"  Michael asks if he killed the girl, but Engel wants to play mind games.  "But what about when you fuck your wife, what do you think about?"  He asks.

They continue having conversations as Michael investigates Engel with a big city policeman.   During one conversation Engel tells Michael that, "Evil is a virus. Highly contagious. Highly destructive. You're already infected."  Sure enough we find that although Michael may be good and righteous, he is not perfect.

I can not give away too many details but the movie moves in a very dramatic direction.  It leads to a startling climax that had my stomach in knots.  It contains a rather long Bible quote and some CGI deer.  You will either love this or hate it.  I was mowed over by the sheer stress of it all.

At over two hours it could have been trimmed better.  For sheer  tension I have not sat through a more nerve-wracking film.   The movie opens and closes with two amazing sequences.  A little of what happens in between could have been cut.

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