Themes: Perfect Crime, Doctors and Patients, Murder Investigations
Main Cast: Milo Ventimiglia, Michael Weston, Alyssa Milano, Lauren Lee Smith, Johnny Whitworth
Release Year: 2008
Country: US
Run Time: 94 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Milo Ventimiglia (of the blockbuster TV series Heroes), headlines this dark crime thriller, which marks the sophomore directorial outing of Marc Schoelermann, following the 2006 telemovie Hexxx. Ventimiglia portrays a young intern, newly arrived at the University Hospital in Philadelphia, who stumbles onto a psychopathic group of colleagues playing a vile game. They regularly select one of their members (on a rotational basis) to commit the "perfect murder," while the rest use forensic methods to try to determine exactly how the homicide was executed. Alyssa Milano (of TV's Who's the Boss? and Charmed) co-stars as Ventimiglia's fiancée, while thesps Johnny Whitworth and Lauren Lee Smith are among the perpetrators. Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (of Crank fame) scripted. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
John deLancie - Dr. Quentin Morris; Mei Melançon - Catherine Ivy; Keir O'Donnell - Ben Stravinsky; Buddy Lewis - Harper Johnson; Dan Callahan - Chip Bentwood; Larry Drake - Fat Bastard
Credit
Kelly Martin-Wagner - Casting, Nancy Nayor Battino - Casting, Frank Helmer - Costume Designer, Marc Schoelermann - Director, Todd E. Miller - Editor, Phyllis Carlyle - Executive Producer, Marc Bienstock - Executive Producer, Eric Reid - Executive Producer, Barrett Stuart - Executive Producer, Yan Fisher-Romanovsky - Executive Producer, Johannes Kobilke - Composer (Music Score), Robert Williamson - Composer (Music Score), Ken Niederbaumer - Makeup Special Effects, Steven E. Anderson - Makeup Special Effects, Jerry Fleming - Production Designer, Ekkehardt Pollack - Cinematographer, Tom Rosenberg - Producer, Gary Lucchesi - Producer, Richard S. Wright - Producer, Mark Neveldine - Producer, Skip Williamson - Producer, Gary Gilbert - Producer, Brian Taylor - Producer, Mary Jo Devenney - Sound/Sound Designer, Mark Neveldine - Screenwriter, Brian Taylor - Screenwriter
The intro shows a camera recording faces of corpses, with their mouths being moved by medical students. This gives a glimpse of the personality of the characters later introduced as well as their behavior towards the deceased.
A group of residents studying pathology devise a lively game: to see which of the six of them can commit the perfect undetectable murder.
Med school student Teddy Grey (Milo Ventimiglia) graduates top of his class and joins one of the nation’s most prestigious Pathology programs. With talent and determination, Ted is quickly noticed by the program’s privileged and elite band of pathology interns who invite him into their crowd. Intrigued by his new friends he begins to uncover secrets he never expected and finds that he has unknowingly become a pawn in their dangerous and secret after-hours game at the morgue of who can commit the perfect undetectable murder. As Ted becomes seduced into their wild extracurricular activities, the danger becomes real and he must stay one step ahead of the game before he is the next victim.[2]
Grey joins them in their game, until eventually the group's leader (Dr. Jake Gallo) realizes that Grey is sleeping with his girlfriend (Dr. Juliette Bath) while Gallo would murder people during their secret meetings. Not to mention, when Grey catches several members of the group in lies, he realizes that what initially seemed like vigilante killings are in actuality just innocent people murdered for sport. When Grey's fiancée arrives to stay with him in his apartment, Gallo, angered by his girlfriend's infidelity, kills her for the next game. However, just as they are about to begin the autopsy on Dr. Bath (while plotting Grey's death), Gallo realizes that the gas has been left on in the room, resulting in a massive explosion as one of the group lights a meth pipe, killing everyone (but Grey who was not in the room). Gallo realizes what is about to happen and survives. Grey is seen walking away from the explosion. Eventually Gallo manages to kill Dr. Grey's fiancée in what he believes to be the "perfect murder". Upon completing his autopsy report on his murdered fiancée, Grey is knocked out by Gallo and then is forced to trade verbal barbs with him. Grey uses some of Gallo's own rhetoric against him in reverse psychology passion, after which a fellow pathologist (Dr. Ben Stravinsky) frees Grey and together they kill Gallo in the exact same way that he killed Grey's fiancée (during which, they commence vivisecting a still alive Gallo).
The film received mixed reviews from critics. As of April 23, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 50% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 13 reviews.[3]Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 55 out of 100, based on 8 reviews.[4]
