The Corpse of Anna Fritz (2015) Plot Summary Explained

They face an impossible choice: if they report Anna's revival, they will be arrested for necrophilia. Ivan convinces Pau that Anna will definitely go to the police once she regains full mobility, which would destroy their lives. With Javi dead and no witnesses to vouch for them, they panic and choose murder as the only way to cover up their crime.

Foreshadowing: Earlier, the men discuss getting away with their actions, establishing their mindset that exposure must be prevented at all costs.

• cover-up
• murder
• necrophilia
• police
• exposure

Pau does not actually smother her. When they attempt to kill Anna by smothering her with bunched-up sheets, Pau tells Anna to pretend she is dead while he covers her with a white sheet. He fakes the murder entirely, keeping Anna alive so she can later help him frame Ivan.

Foreshadowing: The plan to smother her with sheets specifically aims to leave no marks on her body, which becomes important when Pau secretly decides to fake the killing.

• smothering
• fake death
• sheets
• survival

Pau likely wants to keep Anna alive as a witness to help frame Ivan for the entire crime, including Javi's murder. By saving Anna and making it appear Ivan killed everyone, Pau calculates he can escape consequences while Ivan takes the blame. This shows Pau attempting to manipulate the situation to his advantage.

Foreshadowing: Pau was the one who initially suggested the necrophilia and took the first photo, showing he is the most calculating of the three.

• frame
• jail
• manipulation
• ivan
• escape

Javi dies during a heated argument between the three men. When Javi pushes for them to save Anna and take responsibility, Ivan becomes violent. The exact mechanism is unclear, but Ivan unintentionally kills Javi during this confrontation, removing the only character advocating for doing the right thing.

Foreshadowing: Javi was the only one who refused to participate in the necrophilia, showing his moral compass was different from the others.

• javi
• death
• argument
• murder
• moral dilemma

After surviving the attempted murder and being left alone with her attackers, Anna fights back in a desperate attempt at survival. When Ivan returns to the morgue, she stabs him twice and he bleeds out. Then she turns on Pau, repeatedly stabbing him after he explains that Ivan was planning to leave him to take the blame. Her violence is a reaction to being victimized and nearly murdered.

Foreshadowing: Anna was awake and aware throughout the entire ordeal, witnessing their plan to kill her and listening to their arguments about covering up their crimes.

• self-defense
• revenge
• stabbing
• blood
• survival

Ivan realizes he left his hospital access card in the morgue and wants to retrieve it before leaving. When he returns, he discovers Anna alive and accuses Pau of conspiring to frame him. The confrontation escalates because Ivan believes Pau has set him up to take all the blame.

Foreshadowing: Pau's earlier attempt to convince Ivan to leave without the card suggests Pau was trying to prevent this exact confrontation.

• wallet
• card
• confrontation
• frame
• elevator

Pau confesses when Ivan asks if he knows about using saliva for lubrication from past experience. The confession reveals that Pau has a history of necrophilia, having previously raped the corpse of a girl around seventeen or eighteen years old. This establishes Pau as the most depraved and experienced among the three, and the one who initially initiated the entire sequence of crimes.

Foreshadowing: The movie opens with Pau watching bodies of young women in the morgue, suggesting this was not his first time fixating on corpses.

• confession
• past crime
• cadaver
• history

Anna revives partially, she opens her eyes and is clearly conscious and terrified, but she cannot move her body. This could be due to drugs, a medical condition, or simply the disorientation of waking up in such a horrific situation. Her paralysis makes the scene even more disturbing as she is trapped as a witness to the crime being committed on her own body.

Foreshadowing: The movie never explicitly explains Anna's medical condition, but the fact that she was found dead suggests something unusual about her state.

• paralysis
• awake
• terror
• immobile
• wake up

Pau works as a hospital orderly in the morgue, giving him access to dead bodies. When the famous actress Anna Fritz arrives, his morbid curiosity and desire to share something 'forbidden' with his friends leads him to photograph her nude body. He sends the photo to Ivan, which is the catalyst that brings Ivan and Javi to the hospital to view the body.

Foreshadowing: The opening scenes establish Pau's pattern of watching bodies of young women, showing his disturbing fixation predates this event.

• photo
• share
• orderly
• morgue
• fame

After killing both Ivan and Pau, Anna is shown staring off into the distance with tears in her eyes and blood spatter on her face. The movie ends on this haunting final image, leaving her fate ambiguous. She is physically alive but emotionally destroyed, having been sexually assaulted, nearly murdered, and forced to kill her attackers to survive.

Foreshadowing: Throughout the film, Anna is shown in states of paralysis and terror, never given a voice to speak or explain her emotions.

• ending
• tears
• blood
• trauma
• survivor