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The antagonist from Antibodies (orig.: Antikörper) carries the name Gabriel Engel. Given that "Engel" means "angel", this name is likely not just a coincidence and seems to refer to the Archangel Gabriel from Christian mythology. Now this naming could have been done just to contrast Engel's pure evil. But given the many other religious references and motifs of the movie, I wonder if there is any other meaning to this name in relation to his character or his role in the story (which would rather be the devil, when seeing his temptation and defiling of Michael, apart from his other deeds of course).

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In the context of a child murderer, it's quite possible it was also intended to allude to Josef Mengele nicknamed Todesengel (Angel of Death) which is usually a common theme among characters based on him, such as Dr. Christian Szell in Marathon Man (Der Weisse Engel - The White Angel).

The synopsis mentions he paints beautiful pictures with the children's blood which would be a fitting metaphor for some of his experiments with attempting to correct eye colours to match the Aryan aesthetic (death in the pursuit of beauty, et cetera).

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  • The rest of the movie doesn't really hint at such an angle, I think. But nevertheless interesting approach.
    – Napoleon Wilson
    May 20, 2014 at 9:16

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