The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)

“Cracking, Twilight Zone-Type Terror Tale”

        One of the best horror films from last year’s festival circuit gets a Blu-ray and DVD release courtesy of Lionsgate.

        The police are called to a murder scene in a house in small town Virginia, USA. The peculiar way in which the inhabitants have died is nothing compared to what is awaiting them in the cellar - the half unearthed body of a young dead girl. The body is taken to the local autopsy room where father and son morticians Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch gradually uncover the reason for the girl being in the house.

        I’m not going to say much more because THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE is best viewed with little prior information, suffice to say that the main part of the movie takes the form of a detective story based entirely around the post mortem examination of the body in question. Each stage of the procedure reveals more clues, but the real success of the clever script is how the revealing of this information makes the story ever more fascinating, taking it off into unexpected areas.

        Set in the US but shot in the UK with a Norwegian director (Andre Øvredal who made the very entertaining TROLL HUNTER) and a cast including Cox, Hirsch, Michael McElhatton (Roose Bolton in GAME OF THRONES) and Ophelia Lovibond (GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY), THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE benefits from an excellent script, good performances, and a fine use of its almost single location (the autopsy room). It’s safe to say if there was ever a Twilight Zone-style plot that deserved feature length treatment, this is it. 

        Lionsgate’s Blu-ray has the London premiere Q&A as an extra, in which Alan Jones interviews director Øvredal. This is good as far as it goes, but unfortunately that’s only five minutes! It’s the only extra, but don’t let that put you off. THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE is one of the horror releases of the year and definitely worth a watch. Grab it when it comes out. 

THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE is out from Lionsgate on EST on Monday 19th June and Blu-ray, DVD and VOD on Monday 26th June 2017