Animal (2005)

Written and Directed by: Roselyne Bosch
Featuring Juliet van Kampen, Ed Stoppard, Andreas Wilson, and Emma Griffiths Malin
2005, US/France/Portugal

The writer and producer of 1992’s semi-European historical adventure film 1492: Conquest of Paradise (starring French staple Gerard Deardieu), Roselyne Bosch, is now trying her hand at directing a similarly culturally ambiguous sci-fi horror film called Animal. Taking the best of gothic storytelling, and science-versus-God literature and film from the past two hundred years, Bosch made a technically great film; it’s just that the “animalistic” quality is a little lacking. Take Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde, and The Wolfman, and mush the up all together with a mortar and pestle, add a little Hot Swedish Guy and Steamy Sex, and you end up with a sticky, sweaty, intense, and dark story that doesn’t really taste like anything. The variation on the standard “serial killer” plot in horror is to be commended, but Bosch doesn’t know how to make the characters in her story pack any punch. Maybe it’s because she got too close to the film? Should she have let someone else direct it? She did a fine job casting, however. Did I mention there’s hot guys?

Andreas Wilson is Thomas, a brilliant young geneticist who focuses too much on his research and not enough on his career. With his superiors pushing him out of the picture, and his girlfriend dumping him for an up-and-comer in the field, Thomas only has one recourse; to prove that his work is a success, or risk losing everything. In order to do that he needs a human subject, and Sebastian is the perfect candidate. A recently captured serial killer, Sebastian is afflicted with what Thomas calls “aggressive DNA”. His genetic makeup forces him to act out in uncontrollably evil ways. If Thomas can “fix” his DNA, then not only would Sebastian be able to argue his way out of the death penalty, but Thomas himself would be Nobel-prize material. Of course, the science of the "DNA-fixing" is sketchy (apparently you just need to inject yourself with a blu substance and your genes reshape themselves), but soon we start to see that Thomas isn’t kidding; he’s got some powerful proof behind his ideas. But why stop with taking away Sebastian’s Bad DNA? Why not try to change his own DNA as well?

Here’s where the inevitable “Don’t play God” line comes in. It’s a good story with some crazy ideas, but we’ve heard this cliché before, many many times. Not even Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator could put a fresh spin on it; the only hope is to create such a lively and fun film that the cliché’s become secondary to the rest of the movie. That doesn’t really happen here…Emma Griffiths Malin provides some sex appeal for the repressed and stuffy Thomas to enjoy, as a wildlife ranger desperate to rescue wolves that need to be re-released into the wild. Her strong and sexy performance is fun to watch and a good counter to Andreas Wilson’s monotone and unhappy attitude as Thomas. Sebastian, played by Ed Stoppard, changes from sexy and deadly to meek and powerless with the skill of a master actor. Juliet Van Kampen is Maria, Thomas’s crippled sister, who was attacked by Sebastian long ago and lost the ability to see. Her character is the same as all the women in Shelley’s Frankenstein and Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde; they’re boring, bland, and exist only to inspire or enrage the men.

Bosch does a few things right; her somewhere-in-the-future world is not so over the top that we can’t enjoy it, but it does construct a reality for us that makes the science of the film believable. Justine (Griffiths Malin) is a well written and passionate lead character, she’s interesting and she’s the embodiment of everything Thomas is not. Sebastian is a multifaceted killer; he’s evil, but human. And he’s very intelligent. Thomas himself is the real downside of the entire story; even when he evolves into “Evil Thomas”, he never really gets that bad. Sebastian’s genes made him kill and mutilate many women, but Thomas’s bad side consists of a few jealous rages with Justine that culminate in screaming arguments. Thomas never does anything, as far as I am concerned, that any normal person doesn’t do. He just never gets that bad. And that’s why the film never makes its strongest point about the warring instincts in our genetics; the good vs. evil, and the combination of the two.

Props to Bosch for finding an interesting way to retell the Frankenstein and Hyde stories together in a way that makes sense, but when the action starts the plot holes thicken and confusion is underway. The story loses its sense of purpose and the result is a mishmash of dramatic scenes about relationships, forgiveness, and the price of success in business; hardly the fault of Satan himself.