La autopsia de Jane Doe

Saw this at the Night Visions festival in Helsinki, November 2016. What I expected was a lighthearted, "father and son as morticians" kind of movie. What I got was a movie that chilled even my horror movie veteran soul to the bone.

To explain too much about this movie would spoil it, so I will not go into details. But the director succeeds wonderfully in first creating a comfortable atmosphere, introducing a small cast of characters and setting the scene, and then masterfully starts upping the discomfort levels of the situation, until you are sitting at the edge of your seat, biting your nails. Like in Øvredal's former movie, Troll Hunter, what you cannot see can be a million times more disconcerting than what is in plain sight. Although here he uses both..

Great characters, great atmosphere, an overall great experience. Even if at times I wished for it to end already, just because I couldn't quite bear all the anxiety. I hope this comes to Finland proper, so others can see it too! Quite possibly the best horror film I have seen this year.

The title and poster of the movie give a creepy and uneasy feeling to the prospective watcher, and the same creepy atmosphere is wonderfully evident from the start of this well-executed, well-acted offering from the Norwegian director who gave us the thoroughly underrated Trollhunter. This time, he opted for conventional filmmaking instead of the found-footage style he so deftly utilized in Trollhunter, giving us time to take in the brilliantly directed scenes which immediately thrusts the audience into the unsettling premise of a Jane Doe being autopsied by a father-and-son coroner duo.

The dialogue between the leads in the beginning build character almost instantaneously, and they feel real from the get-go. Compared to the recent trend of horror movies eschewing character development for cardboard cutout jump-scare fuel, this movie comes as a nice and refreshing, almost surprising, change of pace. The father and the son have contrasting personalities regarding their approach to autopsies. I expected this brilliancy in dialogue and character development to carry the whole movie - and it immediately increased my expectations of the movie; I fully expected this to be an underrated horror gem of 2016.

Alas, however, half-way through the movie the director's Conjuring-esque influences seemed to show through the cracks. Though not devolving straight into jump-scare territory, the movie dips its feet into schlock scares now and then, which has a very infuriating effect on the viewer who, until now, has been amazed by the movie's restraint. The character development also suffers, with some actions by the leads contradicting their motivations.

However, the concept and execution need to be commended. The actors Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch do well to sell the dread and claustrophobia experienced by the characters. Special mention to Olwen Kelly, who gives possibly the best performance of the movie, despite having no lines, no action (she plays the corpse). Definitely one of the highlights of the movie was the synergy between the camera-work and the actress's facial expressions which do more to put the viewer at unease than minute-long scenes of staring into the darkness, fully knowing the movie is going to go for that cheap jump-scare. That being said, I would say the script was the weakest aspect of the movie, the ending just leaves you wanting a little bit more, and slightly disappointed. Nevertheless, the movie does its job of selling you the premise and executing it well enough to leave you unsettled for a few days.

All in all, I would call this movie as a mixed bag, though I would give it a glowing recommendation as it is head and shoulders above the spate of incomprehensible scare-fests being offered by Hollywood these days. Great work, André Øvredal.

Be sure to check out Trollhunter by the same director. Although not a horror film, it merges the found-footage genre with goofy mythical creatures to amazingly hilarious yet epic results.

Nowadays sadly it's really hard to find out a(horror)movie with an original plot and such an interesting story. The idea of the whole movie to take place in the morgue is actually something that we haven't seen and that's even better because it makes you feel like you are in there with the cast. In addition to that, the special effects are outstanding.There are some scenes (quite graphic) that are able to make you feel like you are watching a real anatomy class. The only reason that I put 7 instead of 8 or 9 was because of the ending.(don't worry I won't say anything) It wasn't bad but the way that the film ends kind of destroys the originality of the film since it is not something so special. Nevertheless this doesn't mean that you should skip this specific movie. If you want to spend an hour and a half in a horror movie that actually turns out to be one of the best of it's year then this film is what you need!

The main thing this initially slow-burning horror has going for it is the fact that it is almost constantly genuinely unpredictable, but it's also one of the most uneven (promising) films of recent years; the best bit is the fantastically enigmatic, truly interesting first-half of the second-act in which the eponymous autopsy is carried out (with tangible grisly detail yet unexpected forensic accuracy) and the body's numerous mystifying mysteries are revealed, and the worst is pretty much everything after once it all goes off the rails and dips into more traditional, less engaging generic genre fare - it's a good job that the direction is pretty phenomenal for most of the piece and that the central father/son relationship is both believable and effecting, otherwise the whole piece would sink. 6/10

And a simply wonderful throwback to the 1970s when horror was, well, horror -- and not based on gimmicks like "found footage" but rather genuine scene-setting, story building, audience engagement, and full-tilt creepiness.

Probably destined to become a classic.

Brian Cox is this generation's Donald Pleasence, that is to say, a character actor who could not give a bad performance if he tried yet is destined to never actually stand out in any single production because that is his style.

Director André Øvredal is one of those rare finds -- an auteur with (so far) a small body of work who is producing better and better films. This suggests that over time he will probably give us bigger and better treats to come.

And while Ophelia Lovibond does not get a lot of screen time, the exposure she does have will only add to her fan base. An American accent so natural you would think she was trained by Hugh Laurie and a performance so sweet you might not even recognize her (unless you looked twice) as the very same actress that underpinned an entire season of Elementary.

Recommended? This is a must-see!

((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))