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Another movie from the long lasting bucket list, this things never end with the amount of content you discover every day and that is been released, this time it is "The Autopsy of Jane Doe" and if you are familiar with Salem story or have seen any movie related to it at some point you try to make connections to the story, it also reminds me of The Witch (2015) almost like a modern sequel. This 2016 horror movie directed by Andre Ovredal, the same guy who brought us "The Last Voyage of the Demeter", manages to do something pretty rare in horror these days, he creates genuine tension and dread without relying too heavily on cheap jump scares or excessive gore, in fact one of the characters never moves or blink. The movie takes place mostly in one location, a morgue which might sound limiting because of the amount of space they had, but actually works in its favor creating this claustrophobic feeling that is not easy to pull off due to its limitations as the story unfolds with also very few characters.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3289956/
- Platform: AppleTV+
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The story is simple but effective, a father and son who receive the body of an unidentified woman and as they perform the autopsy discover increasingly bizarre and unexplainable things about her, for an autopsy that starts as a regular examination quickly turns into something much darker and more sinister. Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch are the starts of the show and they bring a believable father son duo who with enough acting skills incorporate the supernatural elements in something that feels very close to real. A few times during the movie I found myself surprised by how much I cared about these characters during, which isn't always the case in horror movies where characters most of the time are just pawns, feels like they're just there to be picked off one by one.
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The movie opens at a crime scene where police are investigating multiple brutal murders in a suburban home, but the real mystery begins when they discover a half buried body in the basement, a young woman with no visual injuries and its weird considering the chaos around her. She is label as the classic "Jane Doe" and is sent to the local morgue run by Tommy Tilden; role played by Brian Cox, and his son Austin; role played by Emile Hirsch. Austin had plans to go out with his girlfriend but agrees to stay and help his father with this unusual case that needs results by morning, things start to go south when they begin the autopsy, because despite showing no external trauma, Jane Doe's wrists and ankles are shattered, one of her teeth is missing and her tongue has been cut too, some of the weirdest things to happen either she was torture or part of a ritual. The deeper they cut her, the stranger things start to happen, her lungs are blackened as if burned, her internal organs show extensive damage and there is something that looks like blood in her stomach.
As they keep examination her the weird things start happening around the morgue, the radio keeps changing stations on its own, playing "Let the Sunshine In" at creepy moments, their cat becomes extremely active and a storm traps them inside the morgue. Each new discovery about Jane Doe's body makes the movie more intense, suggesting a connection between their autopsy and the supernatural events going on around them. Tommy and Austin eventually find a cloth with strange symbols inside her stomach along with her missing tooth this points in the direction of a ritual straight up, its here when they realize they're dealing with something far beyond a regular autopsy, the body of a woman tortured during the Salem witch trials in 1693, who now seems to be exacting her revenge on anyone who disturbs her body was buried, pointing out that all the chaos that happen at that place was her doing some how.
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The ending of movie brings the themes full circle in a way that is both satisfying and disturbing at the same time after realizing that Jane Doe was an innocent woman tortured during the Salem witch trials, Tommy and Austin understand that she wasn't actually a witch when she was accused but the torture she endured transformed her into one, I can't really understand how that can happen while she is been torture unless there was some evil or demon lurking around just waiting for her to give up and let him in, the greatest irony as while trying to prove she was a witch her captors eventually turn her into one. Tommy explains to Austin that the cloth they found inside her with biblical passages was meant to condemn witches but since she wasn't one it had the opposite effect, another irony on the movie character's procedure. Her body became a vessel for vengeance against those who violate her which is exactly what Tommy and Austin have been doing with their autopsy, evil knows nothing about science, its either black or white, stay away. At this point in time with everything going on around them, Tommy has come to the conclusion that a sacrifice needs to be made so Jane can be satisfy, its here where he ask her to take him and leave his son alone, with every clue they put together, Tommy eventually comes to the conclusion that as she keeps killing becomes stronger like she is healing and probably coming back to life. It's a powerful moment that shows Tommy's love for his son and felt that there was no other choice so Austin could survive. Austin escapes and the police arrive the next morning but Tommy sacrifice was in vain, we see that Jane Doe's body is being taken to another morgue, where the cycle will presumably begin again and I could only imagine Jane finally resurrecting into a full blown powerful witch.
Recently I have been watching quite a good amount of tight space movies, this are some of the hardest to pull off but in the case of Jane Doe she doesn't even move through the movie so is way more limited just with Tommy and Austin, that has be recognize. The strong performances from Cox and Hirsch, the claustrophobic setting, the methodical unraveling of the mystery and the clever way it ties into American history all combine to create a horror experience that you will keep thinking about as it does let your imagination fly on how things really happen for Jane. The movie does not dumb down things as it tries to keep it scientific as the autopsy goes on but also creating this supernatural scene after every clue they put together, its not like they gave you a single flash back of what happen to Jane, the movie does a great job as keeping it as mystery and let you imagine how things went down. The movie does have a slow pace across the 86 minutes it takes to watch, so if you are patient and love horror stories that potentially connect with history or some other legends, then "The Autopsy of Jane Doe" is definitely worth watching but its not revolutionary, I would love to watch a prequel to this movie though.
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