The autopsy of jane doe

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A very good year for horror films has one more scary story khổng lồ haunt your dreams, the effective sầu and creepy “The Autopsy of Jane Doe.” Like many of the great horror films of 2016, André Øvredal’s thriller marries its concept lớn solid, character-driven work from the film’s leads. As horror has become one of the best ways for indie filmmakers to lớn tell personal stories, the emphasis on performance has gone up, leading to great acting turns in films lượt thích “The Witch,” “I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House,” “Don’t Breathe,” among mỏi others. The concept of “The Autopsy of Jane Doe” would make for a great ghost story around the campfire, but it’s the dedicated work by Emile Hirsch & Brian Cox to ground the flick that makes it truly effective sầu.

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The actors play a father and son who work at one of the most inherently creepy places one could work: a morgue. The opening scenes beautifully mix the tone. The two men are playful with each other, but it’s clear that the elder is the knowledgeable one, và his kid is new to lớn the game. Fans of shows lượt thích “Forensic Files” & “Autopsy” will immediately take khổng lồ the idea that these two can read a story from a body.

So what story is Jane Doe going lớn tell them? The film actually opens in one of its only scenes outside of the morgue, as the cops investigate a house full of brutally murder bodies. There’s a dead family in pieces everywhere, but the weirdest thing they find is the naked woman half-buried in the basement. While everyone else is a bloody mess, she doesn’t have sầu a scratch on her. How did she die? Who is she? She ends up on our coroners’ table and starts to lớn tell her story. Internally, she’s an absolute disaster. It looks like she was bound và tortured before she died. Her tongue was cut out. She was burned at some point. But her exterior remains intact.

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Spotless even. And then things start to get really weird.

The director of the cult hit “Troll Hunter” works wonders in the fantastic first hour. He sets up some beautifully realized devices, such as when Cox explains how they used khổng lồ tie a bell khổng lồ dead bodies just to lớn make sure they were actually dead instead of in a coma. Any horror fan will laugh, as we’re all well aware that a tinkling bell will play a creepy role about 30 minutes later. It’s a wonderful device, lượt thích when a haunted house movie lets us see the creaking door during daylight before it creaks on its own at night. And the first and second act here have a wonderful set-up/pay-off structure to them. As we start khổng lồ figure out who Jane Doe is, the tension rises and the creepiness increases. “The Autopsy of Jane Doe” is basically a great haunted house movie—the house just happens khổng lồ be the morgue. And, again, one can’t undervalue having two strong actors like Hirsch & Cox to sell what this movie is trying to lớn sell. They make the unbelievable feel genuinely terrifying.

This holds true for about an hour of the 86-minute running time và then “Jane Doe” turns up the crazy factor and races to a conclusion that doesn’t allow much for character or lô ghích. It’s not uncommon for a horror movie to be more effective in its set-up than its climax. A whispered boo is much scarier than a scream in your face. Luckily, that first hour of “The Autopsy of Jane Doe” is so clever and well-done that it makes the sins of the finale easy lớn forgive sầu. 


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Brian Tallerico

Brian Talleriteo is the Editor of hydroxyzinex.com, và also covers television, film, Blu-ray, và video clip games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playmenu,The New York Times, & Rolling Stone,và the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.