Review: The Autopsy Of Jane Doe
The ultimate success of any good horror tale lies within the storyteller’s ability to draw the audience into their characters dilemma – into their life, their fears and ultimately into their nightmares. As a horror fan for basically my entire life and as a journalist that focuses almost entirely on that genre – I can attest to the fact that stories that manage to do that are few and far between and films that achieve that level of awesome are even further between. But – here’s the thing – the last month of 2016 managed to almost bring us one such film.
At its least common denominator The Autopsy of Jane Doe presents itself as a ghost story but as events progress, we discover that the paranormal events occurring go much deeper than anyone could have ever imagined.
At their core – coroners are investigators, they are given a body and a report of how that person was found and it is then their job to unravel the truths, put an end to the guessing and give a definitive answer as to how that body ended up on their table.
As The Autopsy of Jane Doe opens we are at what is obviously the scene of a very violent crime where the body of an unidentified female is found partially buried in the basement. The whole crime scene is chaotic and confusing and none of the pieces seem to fit. As is the case in these situations – the body is sent to the coroner, as the local sheriff is obviously concerned about this violent crime scene and curious as to this body’s involvement in the chaos. Since this film is set in small town USA – the local mortician also doubles as the chief medical investigator and it’s when this Jane Doe arrives at the mortuary that this story really begins to unfold.
The bulk of this film takes place in the dark, close quarters of the mortuary where father and son – played by Brain Cox and Emile Hirsch respectively attempt to unravel the mystery of how this Jane Doe came to end up buried in the basement of the house the sheriff found her in. Things begin to not add up as the autopsy moves along – and then the strange events in the mortuary begin to happen.
Director André Øvredal manages to quickly set a tone of tension that he nurses throughout the film – slowly inching the unease, click by click – second by second – at times pulling some pretty good surprises out of his hat along the way but at no time losing the attention of the audience or falling for any time worn cliches of the genre – he in fact re-invents of few of the them along the way. This Autopsy is top notch all the way to about the three-quarter point and then – unfortunately all those well played moments give way to some less than spectacular choices – if these choices are the fault of the director or the writers is difficult to pinpoint but it almost seems as if once they set this spectacular tale in motion – they couldn’t quite figure out where to go with it and that’s a shame because up to that point – and you’ll know it when you see it – this is likely the best horror film of 2016 but it all falls apart in the final act and we are left a bit confused and certainly less than fulfilled.
None of this is the fault of a spectacular cast and some truly breathtaking FX work – there is a scene where father and son peel the skin away from our lifeless Jane Doe to find it has been inscribed on the inside that may just be the single best practical FX gag in the last few years – and in the end it all loses its shimmer because of some bad story choices.
With all that being said, though – there is more than enough meat here to warrant your time – and I highly advise that if you have not yet allowed this flick to grace your eyeballs, you should remedy that immediately.
Disturbing, fun and at moments breathtaking but – ultimately underwhelming, The Autopsy of Jane Doe is the near miss of 2016.
