"Pathology" DVD – review

This is the Milo Ventimiglia movie that makes CSI look like a stale imitation. That “Pathology” lacks subtlety is exactly what the directors and writers were aiming for – it’s what would have been like as the real thing.  It’s direction, actors, sets and the dead bodies were totally believable, and that’s why this medical thriller is not a film for the squeamish. Since I didn’t get to watch the movie when it went out, I checked out the DVD.

It also had a weird way of pulling the viewer (me) in, while keeping the stomach stay knotted the whole time. You know it’s not going to end well, but you want to know just how sick and vile the characters can go. So you watch till the end, and then you feel sick and relieved when it’s over.

“Pathology” revolves around Dr. Ted Grey (Milo Ventimiglia), a new Pathology intern at the University Hospital in Philadelphia who cross hairs with a group of psychopathic residents and their sick game of committing the perfect crime. The rest must then figure out how this crime was committed, and the winner goes to the unsolved murder. Fascinated with playing god, Grey finds out too late how deep he is in the muck, and the only way out was to commit the final perfect murder.

Milo Ventimiglia delivered a steady performance as the morally gray doctor, but the man of the hour would have to be Michael Weston. As antagonist Dr. Jake Gallo, deranged leader of the midnight cult, Weston stole the scene every time. Unfortunately, the remainder of the cast didn’t get to shine that much, including Alyssa Milano, as Ted’s fiancee, whose “shining moment” was a full body replica of herself on the autopsy table. I really thought that was her! Props to the production and make-up teams.

The 93-minute film lives up to its R rating with its sexuality and violence, which left nothing to the imagination. One interesting extra to the DVD is the feature on creating the perfect murder, as it shows behind-the-scenes from the movie. Those were cool and explained how the production design and make-up were able to get the dead people looking as real as possible. The feature also showed footage of the cast and their trip to the LA County morgue, as their “education” into the world of criminal investigation unity, and at one time they saw more than 150 corpses. If you think that’s gross, Milo Ventimiglia came away from all that realizing how important taking care of himself and his loved ones are. If you’re into CSI, crime investigations and medical mysteries, you will really like the special features. Alyssa Milano even shared how they got to create a plastic replica of her full body, but you’ll have to watch the movie (if you haven’t yet) to see why she needed one.

image: Amazon