The Autopsy of Jane Doe (15.)
Directed by André Øvredal.
Starring Emile Hirsch, Brian Cox, Ophelia Lovibond, Michael McElhatton and Olwen Kelly. 85 mins. On EST on June 19th, DVD, Blu-ray and OD from June 26th.
One of the more nauseating aspects of society's lurch into mainstream nihilism is the way that pathologists have become the new kings of light entertainment. When Agent Dale Cooper dug around under the fingernails of the corpses looking for clues in the original Twin Peaks it was excruciating and transgressive. Now autopsies are a light entertainment staple - get the granny and kids in, Silent Witness is cutting up a good'un. They are the modern day Judith Chalmers, reporting back from places you aren't able to go to.
I can't stand watching autopsies but I rather welcome this semi-nifty horror effort from the director of Troll Hunter, if only because it's a film where the coroners get their comeuppance. Usually they are smug little figures, like a Dictionary Corner, sat at a distance from the main action making pithy little asides, inured and immune to the horror they have to deal with. Here though they get everything that is coming to them. Cox and Hirsch run an everyday, common-or-garden father and son mortuary. After a particularly grisly, and perplexing multiple homicide, the local sheriff brings in a mysterious corpse and says he needs a Cause Of Death by tomorrow. The corpse is a naked young lady so the pair get straight to it.
The first half of the film is splendidly tense and thoroughly engrossing. It is more or less a single set drama as they slowly dismember the corpse, and become more and more confused by the contradictory wounds they find. The dead body is like a parchment for them to read and interpret, slowly telling them the danger they are in. During this part of the film the story could go anywhere, and you hope that it may be heading somewhere truly novel. Even then though, you will probably have noticed that the building they work in, and their basement autopsy room, are just a little more antiquated and creepy than they need to be. Disappointingly, when they come, the scares are all run of the mill, made you jump efforts.
Still it is a good enough film, highly enjoyable if that is what you're in to, and you wonder why Lionsgate gave it such a limited cinema release: just the one night. Maybe because I'm Not A Serial Killer and The Eyes of My Mother had covered similar ground in the previous months, but this was a potentially more commercial proposition with some name actors involved. Hirsch and Cox are both pretty good but probably the outstanding performance is Kelly. Playing corpses is never easy but she has to go through the whole film without dialogue, clothes, movement or being seen to breathe, yet she commands every scene.
Directed by André Øvredal.
Starring Emile Hirsch, Brian Cox, Ophelia Lovibond, Michael McElhatton and Olwen Kelly. 85 mins. On EST on June 19th, DVD, Blu-ray and OD from June 26th.
One of the more nauseating aspects of society's lurch into mainstream nihilism is the way that pathologists have become the new kings of light entertainment. When Agent Dale Cooper dug around under the fingernails of the corpses looking for clues in the original Twin Peaks it was excruciating and transgressive. Now autopsies are a light entertainment staple - get the granny and kids in, Silent Witness is cutting up a good'un. They are the modern day Judith Chalmers, reporting back from places you aren't able to go to.
I can't stand watching autopsies but I rather welcome this semi-nifty horror effort from the director of Troll Hunter, if only because it's a film where the coroners get their comeuppance. Usually they are smug little figures, like a Dictionary Corner, sat at a distance from the main action making pithy little asides, inured and immune to the horror they have to deal with. Here though they get everything that is coming to them. Cox and Hirsch run an everyday, common-or-garden father and son mortuary. After a particularly grisly, and perplexing multiple homicide, the local sheriff brings in a mysterious corpse and says he needs a Cause Of Death by tomorrow. The corpse is a naked young lady so the pair get straight to it.
The first half of the film is splendidly tense and thoroughly engrossing. It is more or less a single set drama as they slowly dismember the corpse, and become more and more confused by the contradictory wounds they find. The dead body is like a parchment for them to read and interpret, slowly telling them the danger they are in. During this part of the film the story could go anywhere, and you hope that it may be heading somewhere truly novel. Even then though, you will probably have noticed that the building they work in, and their basement autopsy room, are just a little more antiquated and creepy than they need to be. Disappointingly, when they come, the scares are all run of the mill, made you jump efforts.
Still it is a good enough film, highly enjoyable if that is what you're in to, and you wonder why Lionsgate gave it such a limited cinema release: just the one night. Maybe because I'm Not A Serial Killer and The Eyes of My Mother had covered similar ground in the previous months, but this was a potentially more commercial proposition with some name actors involved. Hirsch and Cox are both pretty good but probably the outstanding performance is Kelly. Playing corpses is never easy but she has to go through the whole film without dialogue, clothes, movement or being seen to breathe, yet she commands every scene.