The Autopsy of Jane Doe

From director André Øvredal (Trollhunter) comes one of the best horror movies of 2016, The Autopsy of Jane Doe. Suspenseful, clever and creepy from start to finish this horror movie follows the story of father and son (played by Brain Cox and Emile Hirsch), both coroners, as they experience unexplained and paranormal events while examining the body of an unidentified woman (played by Olwen Kelly). Execution is superb, from directing, editing, camera-work, color grading, sound editing, dialogue. Movie also features some fine acting, most notably from Brian Cox (no surprise there) There is not a single moment where I felt bored, tension is always present and creepy atmosphere makes it very enjoyable. Also scares don't feel forced but rather real and well earned. Maybe couple of shortcomings or sins here and there prevent it to be a masterpiece, but it is still a very damn good movie. Simple story skillfully executed. Horror is not dead, it is still here and very alive, you just need to have passionate and talented people working behind the cameras.

But satisfaction brought it back.

Final rating:★★★½ - I strongly recommend you make the time.

The one corpse no coroner want to mess with!

And this is something different. Actually, no films are different these days, but it has succeeded to shape differently with an already known platform. Except the small parts of the opening and the ending, the rest of the story takes place in a postmortem room and its building. It is a one night story and revolves around two characters, a coroner father and his assistant son. After receiving an unidentified body to examine, the son decides to stay back with his dad by dropping out the plan to go a date with his girlfriend. As the procedure begins, the night goes on. But at the half way through, they begin to experience the strange events. And once it goes beyond their hands, they try to survive the threads that come their way which pretty much the rest of the film.

A short and sweet horror. I mean no sweet, but very effective theme. There are lots of things you won't understand, even the film does not explain them for us. But if you sit back and think about them after you have watched it, you would get many perspectives, like about the corpse, and what happened at the end. I could have revealed mine in here, but it would only spoil your watch if you are yet to see it. Overall, there's nothing serious you are going to miss any details. Except one question that nobody sure about is who is/was Jane Doe, I mean her background story that linked to this film event. Only a prequel would explain that. So I hope they make one quickly. Meantime, don't miss it if you're looking for a decent horror film. Because it's much better that any recent horrors.

7/10

The eerie and compelling first act promises much more than The Autopsy of Jane Doe ultimately delivers.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe starts strong with a mysterious corpse and two coroners who find themselves in greater danger with each clue they uncover to the death of this disturbing body. The first half of the film is fantastic. The tension builds with each passing second. Every new bit of information the characters discover cranks up the anxiety and horror. As the answers become more apparent and more terrifying, so does the fate of the coroners. But once the terror finally begins, the film falls flat. Nothing really happens. Mostly a lot of panic and implied danger, but not a lot is actually shown. What is shown is slightly below average for the typical supernatural horror film. I don’t feel like I wasted my time with this movie, but the excellence of the first half made the mediocrity of the second half much more disappointing.