80
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
A grim, disquieting mood piece.
Tattoo
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- Germany
- 2002
- · 108m
Director
Robert Schwentke
Cast
August Diehl,
Christian Redl,
Nadeshda Brennicke,
Johan Leysen,
Ilknur Bahadir,
Joe Bausch
Genre
Thriller,
Drama,
Crime
Marc Schrader, a rookie cop caught red-handed with drugs in a police raid of an illegal rave, joins a homicide investigation conducted by Chief Inspector Minks. The victim is a naked young woman with the skin stripped off her back, killed as she staggered into traffic. As Schrader and Minks investigate the murder, the case is complicated by a finger found in the stomach of the victim. Forensic examination proves the finger belongs to Nobert Günzel, who was previously convicted of rape and assault. The police raid Günzel’s residence, and discover a blood-stained table with restraints and bits of human flesh in his basement. They also find video equipment and preserved, tattooed skin from the victim’s back. Soon, they found dead bodies buried in the garden. Günzel then goes missing.
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What are critics saying?
80
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
The film is an engrossing and original police procedural of bleak, steel-gray images and high style. But be warned: as part of its complex, ever-unfolding plot, it is punctuated with some grisly images.
80
L.A. Weekly by John Patterson
Indulging his taste for Grand Guignol and the stylistically baroque, Schwentke never quite overplays his hand, though his occasional lapses into visual extravagance can be irritating, and the result is a nasty, intelligent and complex thriller.
75
New York Post by Lou Lumenick
A blood- freezing German thriller, a very stylish variation on "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Seven."
70
Variety by Derek Elley
Slick, grisly and determinedly umbral, German cop thriller Tattoo is a largely effective "Se7en" wannabe that gradually develops its own character after an over-derivative start.
63
Boston Globe by Janice Page
Maybe Tattoo is creepy and stylized enough to pull you along anyway, but if you like your thrillers to dig below the familiar epidermis, look elsewhere.
60
Empire by Kim Newman
Delivers an effective double-sting ending.
60
The A.V. Club by Tasha Robinson
Unlike so many "Seven" followers, it makes its missteps memorably, and offers a variety of stylistic rewards by way of compensation.
50
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
Overall this is an assured piece of genre filmmaking that delivers the goods so stylishly it hardly matters that they aren't fresh.
20
Village Voice
This plodding serial-killer procedural grafts hand-me-down malevolence onto a standard rookie-veteran police yarn, the results of which yield nary a fright, let alone a goose pimple.
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