Hello Freaks!
It’s The Dead Body Man! I’m here with another riveting review! I’ve crawled from my casket to tell you about a little film I came across. What vile, vibrant, violent visual could pull me from my sleep? Why a little film about one of my favorite things Freaks…a corpse!
Today I will be reviewing André Øvredal’s “The Autopsy Of Jane Doe”. A story about death, and magic, and punishment. So grab a beer and some popcorn, grab your favorite blanket to cower under, and dive in!
Oh and do listen for any bells.
“The Autopsy Of Jane Doe” -2016- A film by Andre Ovredal
“Every body has a secret. Some just hide it better than others.”
I’ll admit it Freaks, I had initially brushed this film off. It didn’t look that interesting to me and I was ignoring it until someone who’s opinion I highly respect made a statement about the film.
“THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE: Visceral horror to rival ALIEN and early Cronenberg. Watch it, but not alone.
Stephen King (@StephenKing) “
So obviously I had to watch it (I figured I could hit up Mr.King for my losses if it sucked). So I went ahead and spent five bucks on the rental and not expecting much, pressed play.
An hour and twenty-six minutes later, I was wishing I had bought it.
The film opens with a wide shot of a quaint suburban home in Virginia. As the camera moves in, we see that it is actually the crime scene of a grizzly mass murder. We get our first glimpse of Jane. Half of her pale body exposed from a dirt hole in the basement. An officer remarks that there were no signs of forced entry. “It looks like they were trying to get out”. How ominous.
We are introduced to the local Mortician, Tommy Tilden (Brian Cox) and his son Austin (Emile Hirsch) who are assessing a body. Austin wonders about the corpses life and how he died because he was alone. Tommy is quick to dismiss any empathy for the dead telling his son, “He died because he fell and hit his head”. We also find out Austin has a girlfriend, Emma (Ophelia Lovibond).
As the couple are leaving Jane makes her entrance. Austin, not wanting to leave his father to do all the work, tells Emma to come back later.
As the father and son duo begin the autopsy on Jane things begin to get stranger and stranger. The body has some…irregularities. Finding the truth, may cost them.
The camera work in the film is a definite stand out to me, as well as the use of vibrant color. The autopsy scenes themselves are impressive. Cox is wonderful as usual and Hirsch also shines.
Final Thoughts:
I’m not going into too many details in this review because it’s a fairly new film and you’ll get the most satisfaction out of it if you go in knowing nothing about it (or close to nothing). When a film makes you say “What the fuck?” out loud- you know it’s good. It gets an easy 4/5 stars from me and I highly recommend you see it.
Well Freaks, that brings us to the end of another review. As always, I have knives to sharpen and bodies to dispose of. See you next time!
Oh, and Freaks? This is truly a film to die for…
