Spanish Writer-Director Oriol Paulo is more known for his must watch crime thriller CONTRATIEMPO/THE INVISIBLE GUEST (2016) for two major reasons in India. One because Sujoy Ghosh’s successful Hindi thriller BADLA featuring Amitabh Bachchan and Tapsee Pannu was an official remake of his THE INVISIBLE GUEST. And two, because the original film is also available at Netflix (with English Subtitles) and most of the keen lovers of cinema have seen it, evidently realizing its incomparable brilliance over the Hindi remake. Sadly the offical remake as usual made an avoidable change keeping in mind the starcast and the box office hampering its overall impact.
Interestingly Oriol Paulo yet again gets related to our Hindi cinema as the makers here have also remade his first mainstream Spanish film THE BODY (2012) and that too with the same title featuring Rishi Kapoor and Emraan Hashmi in the key roles. The film has been directed by Jeethu Joseph, who is known for conceiving outstanding thrillers and adaptations such as MEMORIES, OOZHAM, DRISHYAM and PAPANASAM. But unfortunately its a quite poor and unimpressive remake to say the least, coming as a shocking surprise from an otherwise reliable and innovative writer-director.
Now why they went after Oriol Paulo’s first film too?
Because though THE BODY might not be a superior, polished or more impressive film than THE INVISIBLE GUEST, it’s an equally engrossing and a must watch crime thriller indeed, with a fresh and distinctive edge of having some horror elements in it too.
A Hitchcockian kind of murder-mystery, it begins with the body of a rich, beautiful and affluent woman missing from a morgue and the Inspector/detective called in for looking into the scary happening. The initial moments of the film strongly make you feel the horror and then it soon becomes a highly engrossing murder mystery full of entertaining twists and turns that keep you guessing throughout.
Moving over the clichés in its love story, the climax or the revelation comes as a real shocker and it certainly works like an explosion as one cannot even guess or suspect anything like that to be the actual story behind the strange case. Having said that, it also might turn out to be a kind of underwhelming for a few (like myself) due to various reasons including being impractical or may be a bit exaggerated. But that cannot and shouldn’t be any reason to skip this film to be fair.
Focusing on the unpredictable climax, THE BODY also reminded me of another highly disturbing and extremely tough watch, a French film titled A L’INTERIEUR / INSIDE (2007) directed by Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury. Being a completely different scriptm, its climax has similarities with the culmination of THE BODY, but this is honestly not a film that can be recommended to the weak-hearted.
INSIDE is actually a horror-revenge-thriller and has unbearable violence and blood written all over it that reaches to an extreme in its finale sequences. It's a strictly for adults film majorly because of its unpleasant and frightening presentation, so do opt for it keeping in mind its brutally gory and visually disturbing content to be honest.
Going back to our key subject THE BODY, if you love intense and unpredictable murder-mysteries then this is a not to be missed crime thriller for sure. And if you are still not convinced then would like to add that this is a film that has already been remade in two different languages before the latest remake in Hindi.
In India this has been earlier remade as GAME in Tamil/Kannada released in 2016, featuring Arjun Sarja, Shaam and Manisha Koirala in the lead roles. It was a dedicated remake and was directed by A. M. R. Ramesh, but not an official remake as I told. Yet it was a much better film than the Hindi one.
Recently the original was also officially adapted in Korea as SARAJIN BAM / THE VANISHED in 2018, directed by Chang-hee Lee.
At the time of writing the article, THE BODY was not available in Indian region at Netflix but many unofficial uploads could be found at Youtube and may be one with the much required English subtitles too.
Watch it to enjoy the unpredictable, horrifying mystery as a must.
Rating : 4 / 5
After note: The basic premise of THE BODY also reminded me of another creepy, disturbing film, a supernatural horror THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE directed by Andre Ovredal.
This film also deals with a body of an unidentified woman brought in and its autopsy being done by a father and son in their lab. The film has an engrossing as well as scary beginning that at once drags you in but the narration drops later due to repetition of events. However the way its sequences with the body have been conceived and shot, it still remains a must watch film without any doubt. Especially. if you love watching such unusual horror films.
Cheers!
