The Autopsy Of Jane Doe [DVD]

I watch a lot of horror films and it's rare that one spooks me as I'm quite desensitised and generally don't scare that easily, but I found 'The Autopsy of Jane Doe' to be a deeply unsettling watch.The film starts in a suburban house where local law enforcement are attending the scene of a multiple homicide and the body of 'Jane Doe' is located half-buried in the basement.Lieutenant Wade ominously predicts: "Nothing was stolen. Not a scratch on the outside of the house either. Doesn’t look like someone broke in...Looks like they were trying to break out".The rest of the film then plays out a local coroner's home/crematorium which is a family business run by father (Brian Cox) and son. They're busy conducting an autopsy (post-mortem for us Brits!) in a high-tech room set within the confines of an ancient moody looking building.The local Sheriff arrives with the body of Jane Doe wanting a cause of death by the morning, so the father and son team settle themselves in for the night, whilst they get to work. Outside a storm is brewing which adds to the tense atmosphere, which isn't helped by the radio station changing channels and playing a creepy song-a portent of things to come.It soon becomes apparent that this is no ordinary body and things start to go south very quickly. I won't provide any spoilers but this is a great horror film which I enjoyed just as much on the second viewing, as I did on the first. Well worth adding to your collection.

Nice movie

Reasonably priced this horror it kept you thinking and I felt ingrossed in the film I recommended as a decent horror you won't be disappointed 👍❤️

Brian Cox at his best cracking little horror fantastic considering it's all filmed in one building nice and creepy.

"The Autopsy of Jane Doe" offers an engaging experience for fans of the horror genre, delivering exactly what you might anticipate from a film of its kind. While it may not break new ground or offer any profound surprises, it stands as a solid piece of entertainment. The narrative unfolds with a decent pace, and the film is peppered with a handful of effectively crafted scenes that keep the tension alive. It's a movie that knows its audience and plays to its strengths, providing a satisfactory watch for those looking for a straightforward horror flick with enough chills to warrant a viewing. Overall, "The Autopsy of Jane Doe" is a competent addition to the genre that does its job well, ensuring that viewers looking for a few thrills will find what they're seeking.

Really enjoyed this film. Great build of suspense throughout with unexpected twists.

I have always loved horror and often disappointed at ‘new’ films as often they feel like they remind you of another. It’s a difficult one to go into the plot with out spoilers so I will avoid that: but it is very well acted, suspenseful and most of the horror is in the mind and you are never quite sure which way it is going, as it twists and turns like a snake. I have already watched it twice and it has stayed with me so had to purchase a copy for a rewatch, you will want to see this (if you enjoyed it!) at least twice.Great actors, likeable characters and a very satisfying ending. A sequel would not be needed and probably be disappointing but I’m sure a prequel will happen one day. Enjoy!

Nice to see

Curiosa pelicula,que te va levando a un mundo de suspenso. Que se convertirà en horror

This movie is very creepy and a joy to watch. The acting is good and the suspense keeps you on the edge of your seat. I’ve watched it 3 times recently and never tire of watching it.

* spoilers *The police uncover a bizarre crime scene where everyone in the house has died in a violent way and seemed to be trying to escape in addition to the dead body found half buried in the ground. The Jane Doe is taken to a local funeral home to find out where she came from. Tommy is a coroner working to train his son Austin in the trade. Together, they try to figure out how Jane Doe died with each stage of the autopsy exposing stranger and stranger injuries and artifacts. When an unexpected storm traps them in the underground lab, Jane might not be as helpless as she seems.I first watched The Autopsy of Jane Doe with no expectations and it blew me away. The first half of the movie is completely unique and I had no idea where it was going. Tommy and Austin go through the thorough process of an autopsy from examining each part, marking down injuries and oddities, and taking samples. Tommy's style is very traditional, so he uses an old camcorder, a chalk board, reference books, a polaroid camera, and bells attached to the corpse's ankles. Through the entire procedure, both men are completely professional and treat her body as a typical part of their job and never even remark on her beauty or form beyond their scientific examination. Both seem like they've been doing this for years and have an easy routine that doesn't end where they expected. As they go deeper into the autopsy, things get more and more odd. Her exterior is perfect, but her body hides torturous injuries such as shattered wrists and ankles, her tongue cut out, burned lungs, and deep vaginal cuts. The situation starts out a little odd. progresses to sad when they think she's a victim of sex trafficking, and ends of up at bizarre and frightening.I immediately liked Tommy and Austin. Their banter feels completely natural as well as the tension when touching upon long standing disagreements. I especially admire their dedication to doing thorough, top notch work although Tommy stops there while Austin wants to figure out more about Jane Doe's situation. Their shared history is shown in small, natural glimpses throughout the film. When Stanley the cat is found mutilated in an air duct, Tommy mercifully kills him, wraps him in scrubs, and incinerates him. This scene could easily be seen as cruel, but the emotion is all over Brian Cox's face. An offputting act is turned into one of love and sorrow. The cat was his last connection to his late wife, whose suicide he partially blames himself for. Tommy and Austin are stuck in time because of this death. Tommy keeps everything as it was, his business literally frozen, and keeps his true feelings buried. Austin doesn't want to inherit his father's business, but goes through the motions anyway while he longs to go to college and pursue something else. Both of these men are so relatable and try to protect each other every step of the way. It's hard not to really care about this father and son as things go off the rails.The second half of the film is a little more typical and falls into home invasion and supernatural tropes, but I was already to invested and clueless as to where it was going that it didn't really matter. The first indication of something not right is an eerie but catchy song that comes on the radio called Let the Sun Shine In. The lyrics warn of letting the devil in and something simply seems off with it. The radio weather announcers first describe beautiful weather, then a huge storm coming in, and finally directly warning that they don't want to get caught in it. Then things go off the deep end. Even though it's more typically horror, the film is still restrained, focusing more on tension and atmosphere over gore or jump scares. The scary moments are in bells tinkling softly and quiet moments of confusion with a few contrasting moments. These men are woefully outmatched against a supernatural foe they know next to nothing about.Jane Doe herself is a fascinating character who moves very little and lays silent for the entire film. She is portrayed by Olwen Kelly, who emotes so well through this static role. A film where an actress lays naked for the whole film could have been very exploitative or crass, but this is quite the opposite. The way she is filmed and treated by the characters is full of respect and professionalism. During the first half of the film, her face gives a melancholy air as we process the horror of this tortured young woman. As the film goes on, the shape of her eyes and mouth as well as the tilt of her head change her demeanor drastically even though she doesn't really move. As her power is shown in the second half of the film, her face appears more shrewd and sinister. Tommy hypothesizes that she was a normal woman that was tortured and turned into a witch as a result. Even though it comes a little out of nowhere, I love this idea that the so called pious people creating a witch out of their own evil actions.The Autopsy of Jane Doe blew my mind when I watched it the first time. No matter how many times I watch, the eerie and tense atmosphere makes me want to hide behind something. It's simply well crafted all around with a few small flaws here and there. Jane Doe is so overpowered and able to manipulate every one of her victim's senses like the mirror in Oculus. Like that film, the people didn't have very much of a chance to survive. All of the performances are excellent and I believe their relationships right away, allowing the plot to move forward more quickly than usual. I would love to see more from all involved. This film is simply a work of art.

During its first half, The Autopsy of Jane Doe sets up to be a most effective and creepy little horror film to such a degree that it's disappointing it can't sustain that level for the rest of the picture. An audience favorite at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, Norwegian filmmaker André Øvredal's (TrollHunter) second feature opens in the bucolic town of Grantham, Virginia where a police unit is entering an abandoned house full of mass carnage. A grisly slaughter has taken place and as the camera roves downstairs, Sheriff Burke (Michael McElhatton) and his team uncover the gaunt but pristine nude body of a woman that they can't place within the scene of the crime. After the bodies are taken out, we are led into the underground lair of the Tilden Morgue & Crematorium. Coroner Tommy Tilden (Brian Cox) and his son Austin (Emile Hirsch), the Assistant Medical Technician, are conducting an autopsy on an incinerated corpse. Øvredal delivers a master class on autopsying analysis in this first section. In concert with cinematographer Roman Osin, the filmmakers examine in fine detail and excruciating minutiae the life of a coroner. Øvredal and Osin employ a variety of shots and angles of framing that establish the pro-filmic space of the morgue and the supine bodies on the slab. (For some odd reason, the scene with the charred body made me think of the scene in Jason Goes to Hell where the coroner examines the master slasher's severed body. But no, neither Tommy nor Austin take a bite out of the dead man's heart in this film!) Øvredal also introduces us to Austin's girlfriend, Emma (Ophelia Lovibond), who takes a surprising curiosity in peaking at one of the corpses. Austin is immediately apprehensive about opening one of the storage doors and lifting up the white sheet to reveal a deceased specimen but his father accommodates Emma's request. Austin has long-term aspirations to leave the morgue (perhaps start a life with Emma) and not follow in his father's footsteps.As Austin and Emma are about to go out on a date, Burke comes with the late-night arrival of "Jane Doe," the mysterious figure found in the basement earlier. The sheriff notifies Tommy that the autopsy must be completed by morning so he can file his report. This spoils Austin's evening as he goes back to work with his father. Tommy and Austin discover several extraordinarily unusual things about Doe's body. She suffered wrist and ankle fractures yet there are no visible bruises or scars on the outside. Even more unusual are the burns inside of her that would go undetected if one takes a glimpse at her perfectly normal chest. The coroner also extracts a white cloth from within her containing an ancient symbol and the Roman numerals for a Bible verse. Also, strange happenings begin occurring in the morgue. A large retro radio box repeatedly plays the fifties pop song "Open Up Your Heart" by The Hamblens. The doors to the refrigeration units start popping out. Before father and son can get a handle on the predicament, the electricity in the building goes out.It is at the juncture in which Tommy and Austin try to seek outside help that I think The Autopsy of Jane Doe takes too many detours and succumbs to genre trappings. For example, there is the scene where they board the old-fashioned elevator and Tommy senses someone is there to attack them. Audiences have seen this red herring play out better in other films and the end result is neither convincing nor satisfying. Part of the blame goes to co-writers Ian B. Goldberg and Richard Naing, who craft dubious and highly questionable motives for their two protagonists. For instance, although Tommy initially recalls that part of Jane Doe's condition also occurred in someone else that he performed an autopsy, he realizes that her case is way outside he and his son's realm. Why didn't they call Sheriff Burke's office earlier to inquire about the availability of a CSI team that would be better trained to handle these exceptional cases? Øvredal needed to open up the story more. The director had a tight budget to work with and wanted to make the most of a confined, claustrophobic setting. However, some scene changes could have improved the story's fidelity while still retaining the supernatural elements. Moreover, there are underdeveloped relationships and subplots left hanging. Tommy recounts a solemn backstory to Austin about his late wife suffering from a form of manic depression but Øvredal tries unsuccessfully to connect it with the spiritual history of Jane Doe. The father/son dynamic is well-constructed for the first hour or so but then gets lost in the maelstrom of thriller clichés and plot conveniences.Øvredal and Osin probably studied John Carpenter's use of off-screen space in The Fog (1980) and Prince of Darkness (1987). Indeed, there is a dark scene in a long hallway where there may be the walking dead and this will remind one of the roaming shipwrecked lepers in The Fog. But The Autopsy of Jane Doe is more derivative of Carpenter's works than it is a faithful homage to them. Aesthetically in design and composition Øvredal's film is analogous to Carpenter's underrated and superior The Ward (2010).Despite these criticisms and shortcomings, The Autopsy of Jane Doe is still pretty good thanks to solid chemistry between Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch. Hirsch's off-screen troubles have been well-documented but when he finds a project suitable to his talents, he can be quite good as he is here. Cox is virtually flawless as the coroner. I can only wish that Goldberg and Naing had made the material seem as fresh in the second half as they do in the first.The Autopsy of Jane Doe arrives on US Blu-ray in a BD/DVD combo along with a slipcover courtesy of Shout! Factory's subsidiary, Scream Factory. Øvredal's movie appears in the aspect ratio of 2.35:1 which approximates the framing of its exhibition on the festival circuit. The label has given the main feature a MPEG-4 AVC-encoded transfer on a BD-25 with video streams that average 25981 kbps. The disc's total bitrate is encoded at 32.38 Mbps. The picture is free of blemishes and compression artifacts. The exteriors of The Autopsy of Jane Doe were shot during overcast days so brightness levels are kept to a minimum. Interiors within the Tilden Morgue & Crematorium are dark and low-lit except for the overhead lights that illuminate details on corpses, especially the alabaster skin on Jane Doe, whose portrayed by Olwen Kelly. Detail and clarity are very solid. Darker hues have a thick and dense texture.Scream Factory has divided the feature into twelve scene selections.Scream Factory has provided two uncompressed tracks on the Blu-ray: a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround (2745 kbps, 24-bit) and a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo (1699 kbps, 24-bit). On the 5.1 mix, dialogue, music, and f/x during the first act is largely confined to the center and front channels (especially the right one). The surround channels open up once Tommy and Austin begin work on Jane Doe. Sound designer Christian Conrad and sound mixer Ian Maclagan deserve a lot of credit for creating a creepy and immersive soundscape within the morgue. Scream Factory's reproduction of the soundscape during dialogue scenes, however, tends to drown out the characters' words. Tommy's murmurings to Austin in the elevator, for example, are hard to make out. Spoken words could have been better amplified on the center channel. Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans's score is given supple treatment but the music sometimes overwhelms the characters' exchanges.Scream Factory gives viewers the options for English SDH and Spanish subtitles.TV Spots (1:04, 1080p) - two spots for The Autopsy of Jane Doe presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with DTS-HD MA 2.0 sound.Teasers (2:20, 1080p) - two teaser trailers presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with DTS-HD MA 2.0 sound.(2:12, 1080p) - official theatrical trailer for The Autopsy of Jane Doe presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with DTS-HD MA 2.0 sound.Bonus Trailers (5:37, 1080p) - trailers for other Shout/IFC Midnight productions, which play after the disc loads.

This is about the autopsy of a young woman - yes you see all the gruesome bits, things begin to happen that aren't of this world.......it's OK for a few scares.