STUDIO: MGM
RELEASE DATE: September 23, 2008
STARRING: Milo Ventimiglia, Alyssa Milano, Lauren Lee Smith, Michael Weston, and Johnny Whitworth
WRITTEN BY: Neveldine & Taylor
DIRECTED BY: Marc Scholermann
FEATURES: Audio Commentary by Director Marc Scholermann and Screenwriters/Producers Mark Neveldine And Brian Taylor
Creating the Perfect Murder Featurette
The Cause of Death: A Conversation with Pathologist Craig Harvey Featurette
Music Video: "Unintended Consequences" Performed by The Legion of Doom F/ Triune
Extended Autopsy Scene

Pathology is a twisted little movie. And I mean that in the best way. I had heard from a few critics who paid to see this unscreened thriller that it was actually pretty original and interesting. They expressed surprise that it was withheld from critics, horribly marketed, and fell flat at the box office. It took me two minutes to figure out all of the above. It's real simple. Pathology is one effed-up flick. This is much closer to the work of David Cronenberg or an even darker version of Joel Schumacher's Flatliners than anything modern multiplex audiences are used to seeing. And I mean that in the best way. Pathology is more original and creative than most of the "bigger" thrillers released this season. Audiences who like to get their thrills a little differently should definitely check out Pathology on DVD.

In fact, the film itself is about people who like to get thrills (or something) more than just "a little differently". Heroes' Milo Ventimiglia stars as a med school student named Ted Grey, a man who appears to have it all, including a gorgeous fiancee (Alyssa Milano) and a new position in one of the country's most prestigious Pathology programs. But Ted enters a scary world when he becomes entangled with a group of popular doctors in the program. These doctors who spend their days weighing human brains and cutting rib cages have lost their damn minds. The ugliness of what man can do to man has caused them all to snap and it doesn't take Ted long to agree with their demented worldview about people who pimp their grandmas and rape their children. They love the challenge of the forensic pathologist - figuring out how someone died. So, what do they do? They invent a game. Go out and kill the scum of the Earth in the most creative way possible, bring them back, and we'll figure out how you did it. Oh yeah, there's drugs and kinky sex involved too. The very interesting Michael Weston (Six Feet Under, Garden State) co-stars as the most-lunatic leader of the group and Lauren Lee Smith plays a woman who gets caught in the middle.

Movies like Pathology often write themselves into corners. When you open with a bunch of doctors playing "ventriloquist dummy" with some corpses, where do you go from there? I kept waiting for Pathology to devolve into its ridiculous third act like these movies always do, but it kept my interest more than most and avoided a lot of the screenwriting pitfalls of this kind of film. There are two major twists in the final act and the big one, the climax, actually works (even if the first one is a little unbelievable). Pathology is dark, riveting, complex cinema with some great cinematography and interesting ideas. It's clearly not for everyone - which is why the studio had NO idea what to do with it (it only made $100k domestically) - but it's likely to find a devoted cult audience on DVD.

The special features on Pathology are extensive for a film that only made $3 million worldwide. The commentary track is somewhat annoying with a few too many dark jokes about molesting dead bodies for my taste. It's as if they're trying to "one-up" the very black comedy of the movie itself. Fans will also find an informative series of featurettes and a disturbing music video. Then again, most everything about Pathology is disturbing. And I mean that in the best way.