Review of The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) by Andy W — 28 Dec 2016

Synopsis.

It's just another night working in the morgue for a father (Brian Cox) and son (Emile Hirsch) team of coroners, until an unidentified (hence Jane Doe of the title) highly unusual corpse comes in. Discovered buried in the basement of the home of a brutally murdered family, the corpse is well preserved and with no visible signs of trauma arrives at the morgue shrouded in mystery.

As they work into the night to piece together the cause of her death, the two men begin to uncover the disturbing secrets of her life. Soon, a series of 'terrifying' events make it clear: this Jane Doe may not be dead.

Review.

The latest from Trollhunter director Andre Ovredal is a decent enough horror film but once again carries a critical rating that far outweighs the actual quality of the overall piece. The first two acts of the film work really well. The morgue is extremely eerie and when the guys start performing the autopsy there's enough level of gore to keep most blood hounds happy. Everything is played straight and there's enough atmosphere and mystery to make the premise quite intriguing. As the autopsy moves on things are discovered inside her body that cannot be explained and as things progress further a series of horrifying events leads the Father and Son down a path they really should have avoided. The final act didn't quite gel for me, I saw the twist/conclusion coming a mile off, the jump scares were not timed that well and failed to deliver a maximum punch (have a chat with James Wan) and when combined with a really stupid scene involving a fire in the morgue that took me out of the picture ( you know when you see it) the overall film just fell short. Maybe I'm nitpicking as many reviews have praised this film but as I say it's decent enough purely for the eeriness of the morgue and the actual autopsy. Overall I'd give it a 7/10.