The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) Review
It’s not often I get creeped out watching a horror film, very rare indeed, when I was a kid, sure, but as a grown man, no, but The Autopsy of Jane Doe did just that. Well, for two-thirds of its running time at least, however given how strong the first hour was I am prepared to overlook the flaws that dampened things in the final stretch. The unfolding of the story, the piecing together of who exactly our Jane Doe is, the building suspense and terror is unremitting. This is arguably the strongest horror film to come out in many, many years.
The film opens with a team of police investigating a bloody crime scene where the bodies of four people have been found dead in their Virginia home. The available evidence indicates that no one broke into the house but that the victims were trying to escape but from what? Also found at the scene is the naked body of a young woman (Olwen Kelly), half-buried in the soil of the basement with not a mark on her.
Sheriff Sheldon (Michael McElhatton) is under pressure to get a handle on what occurred so that he can report to the press the next morning. He delivers the ‘Jane Doe’ to local father and son coroners Tommy and Austin Tilden (Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch). They will have to work through the night to fathom her apparent cause of death and hopefully provide clues as to what did actually happened in that house. What unfolds is nothing short of terrifying.
It was after watching the film that I took to the internet to find out a bit more about this absolute gem. I found out that Norwegian director André Øvredal was also responsible for Troll Hunter (2010/11), again another terrific film. Øvredal had the urge to direct a horror film after attending a screening of the original Conjuring movie. Øvredal’s first English-language feature is a different beast to his Trollhunter but just as remarkable.
There’s grisly medical gore, naturally, but this isn’t a film about gore, it’s about the secrets that are revealed as our central twosome work on the cadaver. The more they unveil the scarier the film and Jane Doe herself become. How one girl laying still for a whole movie can unnerve the viewer simply by doing nothing is down to Øvredal’s considerable skills and Cox and Hirsch’s collective acting abilities. The Autopsy of Jane Doe is truly unique, so OK the ending does lean towards the possibility of there being another installment, but one hopes it remains a stand-alone undiluted by the demands of Hollywood’s money-men to produce another.
