Milo Ventimiglia stars in this gory thriller about a group of brilliant medical students who start killing people so that their peers can guess how they committed the perfect murder. As they play God, things spiral out of control with devastating consequences.
Pathology has a great premise and a strong cast going for it, but has quite obviously suffered from too much interference in post-production and the result was a very confused film.
Aesthetically, this looks good, cold and warm colours are used to great effect, the cast are all gorgeous (and show off their bodies frequently) and the effects work is of the highest order. This however, doesn’t make the film good.
Structurally, it’s a bit all over the place. There are no sympathetic characters here, the leads are all obnoxious and their victims are even less likeable. The character development is also far too rapid; with Ventimiglia’s Ted Grey going from cocksure know it all to murderous, drug-using male whore in all of fifteen minutes.
The gore, kinky sex, nudity, drug-use and violence are all in your face but are depicted in quick flashy music video sequences intercut with each other. The producers obviously realised that they didn’t have as good a story as they initially thought, so decided to cause controversy by packing in as much filth as they could.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Pathology could have been a very taut thriller as it does have a neat concept and a talented cast. Sadly, the film tries to be sensationalist at every turn to make up for a lack of depth. It’s Flatliners meets Anatomie but is neither as chilling nor as creepy as either of those two movies.
