ERRORS OF THE HUMAN BODY (2012)

Studio:       IFC Midnight
Director:    Eron Sheean
Writer:       Eron Sheean, Shane Danielsen
Producer:  Darryn Welch, Mike Dehghan, Cole Payne
Stars:     Michael Eklund, Karoline Herfurth, Tomas Lemarquis, Rik Mayall

Review Score: 

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Summary:

A scientist discovers that his research is connected to an incredible medical breakthrough with the power to heal as well as to destroy. 

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Doctor Geoffrey Burton dreams of happier times with his ex-wife Sarah. Geoff visits Samuel Mead, who runs the Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany. Geoff accepts a position on the staff. During his tour of the facilities, Geoff is briefly reacquainted with Rebekka Fiedler. Now a successful research scientist, Rebekka was once romantically linked to Geoff when he was her professor and she was an intern. In the hallway, Geoff bumps into Jarek Novak as he transports laboratory mice. At home, Geoff calls his ex-wife and learns that she is pregnant with her new husband.

Geoff delivers a lecture to the staff regarding his research tracing genetic mutations in embryos. Geoff’s research was driven by his newborn son’s illness that he named Burton’s Syndrome. Geoff’s son died as a result of the genetic mutation.

Jarek introduces himself to Geoff in the cafeteria and proposes that they collaborate on their research. Rebekka pulls Geoff aside and they discuss their past. She invites him to come to her place that evening. In the lab, Rebekka shows Geoff her discovery of the Easter Gene, which facilitates rapid cellular regeneration.

As Geoff purchases a bottle of wine for his dinner with Rebekka, Jarek enters the same store and offers Geoff a ride. Jarek reiterates his wish to collaborate. Geoff exits the car after Jarek mentions Geoff’s son and the conversation takes a turn. Geoff and Rebekka continue their earlier conversation over dinner. Geoff leaves after the discussion turns to his son.

Geoff goes to the lab in the night to deliver a note to Rebekka. He witnesses a researcher stealing a sample from Rebekka’s lab and follows him back to another lab where Jarek is working. Geoff discovers that Jarek is conducting his own research using materials stolen from Rebekka’s lab. Geoff takes a sample from Jarek’s refrigerator as well as one of the mice, but the mouse bites Geoff. Jarek sees Geoff exiting his research area. Back at home, the mouse gets away from Geoff. Geoff uses a cut open can to capture the mouse, but accidentally severs its tail in the process.

Samuel proposes that Geoff work with Jarek. Samuel mentions that the Easter Gene discovery belongs to both Rebekka and Jarek. He also notes that Rebekka refuses to do any further work with Jarek. Geoff asks Rebekka about Jarek and she denies ever having a romantic involvement with the man. Geoff shows her the stolen sample that he found in Jarek’s lab. Rebekka insists that he let her handle the situation on her own, without involving Samuel. Geoff later witnesses a confrontation between Rebekka and Jarek.

As Jarek takes a blood sample from the mouse at home, Rebekka comes over while drunk and drags Geoff to a costume party. At the club, Geoff watches another confrontation between Rebekka and Jarek. Geoff confronts Jarek in the bathroom and Jarek demands that Geoff return the mouse. A fight breaks out after arguing over the research and Geoff’s head is smashed into a mirror. Later, Rebekka patches him up. He has a vision of his ex-wife attempting suicide before white mice pour out of the wound on his forehead. Geoff and Rebekka have sex, but then argue about their past. Rebekka once expected Geoff to leave his wife for her. She also admits that she slept with Jarek.

Geoff returns home to find his place ransacked. He begins growing sick. Geoff discovers that the mouse has regenerated its tail, but it is also covered in tumors. Geoff confronts Rebekka at the lab and demands that she perform a blood test on him, believing he contracted a virus from Jarek’s mouse that is related to the Easter Gene. Geoff shows her that his head wound has healed, but he is now developing large tumors, as well.

Geoff physically confronts Jarek about having infected him intentionally through the mouse. Jarek pulls a scalpel on Geoff. Samuel enters the lab. Jarek sees that Geoff’s wound has healed, revealing that the Easter Gene works in humans. Geoff shows them the infected mouse. He posits that the cure is not the discovery and that if the healing process has been accelerated, then so has the tumor genesis. Fearing contagion, Samuel seals Geoff in the lab, but he breaks out through the window. Rebekka follows Geoff when he leaves the lab. Geoff learns that Rebekka used Burton’s Syndrome tissue samples in her research. Geoff is now infected with the same disease that killed his son.

Geoff stumbles around Dresden as his condition worsens. He eventually wakes in a hospital to discover that he has completely healed. Rebekka reveals that Burton’s Syndrome is actually a dormant retrovirus in all humans, but Geoff and his son had a special version of it. Geoff reveals that his son did not recover because he killed the infant out of presumed mercy.

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Review:

Effective depictions of “body horror” create the palpable sense that the science of humanity is an unavoidable curse.  “Contagion” made audiences hesitate for a moment the next time that they touched a public doorknob.  Transformation and transmogrification films like those of David Cronenberg, whose name is virtually impossible not to mention in any discussion of the sub-genre, make the skin crawl with an itchy anxiety.  A subconscious desire develops to shed the trappings of flesh as a prison for sickness, disease, and pain.  It is this fear of biology being frighteningly uncomfortable that is regrettably missing from “Errors of the Human Body.”

Geoffrey is a research scientist whose real life family tragedy becomes both a curse and a blessing.  When Geoff’s infant son is born with a rare genetic disorder that plagues his body with tumors, Geoff’s life and his marriage are thrown into turmoil.  Ultimately, however, the unfortunate event drives his embryonic research into cellular regeneration.  That research leads him to a staff position at a laboratory in Dresden, Germany, where he reconnects with Rebekka, a former flame and intern who has since made her own discovery in the field.  That discovery is shared by a shifty scientist named Jarek.  With the main players in place, the three researchers engage in a push-pull struggle to crack the mystery of the Easter Gene, which has the potential to give humans an extraordinary healing ability.

As soon as duplicitous motives and surreptitious experiments take precedence over responsible science and ethics, Geoff accidentally becomes an unwitting guinea pig for an unscheduled clinical trial.  He then discovers the true origin of his protégée’s research, along with the unforeseen consequences of having his human body exposed to the untested Easter Gene.

The ongoing personal trauma of his son’s painfully brief life transforms into a new ordeal that consumes Geoff both physically and psychologically.  The trouble for “Errors of the Human Body” is that Geoff is the only one consumed by it.

Canadian Michael Eklund excels as Geoff.  German Karoline Herfurth is exotically appealing as the object of everyone’s affection.  Of Icelandic descent, Tomas Lemarquis looks the part of a distrustful antagonist.  And the always reliable English actor Rik Mayall leads the research team as the laboratory’s director.  Each performance is precisely where it needs to be, but there is an alienation transferred from the international cast, as well as from the German setting, that turns the viewer into an expatriate.

The photography is fantastic.  The coldness of the research facility and its surrounding German countryside is conveyed so well that it is arguably a detriment.  It works in tandem with the droning hum of the audio design to create a hypnotic and bleakly oppressive atmosphere, but it is still one that feels distant as opposed to immersive.

Each of the characters is like his/her own island in the storyline’s sea, and this stranger in a strange land sense extends outside of the screen.  Even as what qualifies as the hero roles, Eklund and Herfurth play characters with sometimes ambiguous morals and questionable motivations.  The emotional distance in their personas makes them not entirely relatable, and they are missing the connective tissue to put the viewer in their skins.  And that is where the audience needs to be in order to empathize with the infectious feeling of being trapped in a body trying to destroy itself.

The message of “Errors of the Human Body” is lost in its artful presentation.  The final revelation of the film is both cruel and heartbreaking, although the feeling of the film overall is that it is a morality tale perceived as “body horror,” and it is not convincingly chilling as a thriller.   Separated from the drama onscreen, the viewer is forced to watch events unfold as an outsider instead of as a participant.  “Errors of the Human Body” ends up being a passive experience, when it could have been a frighteningly engrossing drama.

Review Score:  60

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