Spoilers will not move a muscle.

There are horror thrillers where uncertainty reigns and the atmosphere is creepy and tense without the need for musical cues or endless jump scares. I believe setting them in an secluded environment with just a small cast is perhaps the best of starters. However, as I become invested in these stories I always dread when the story is just going to rely on easy way out to explain what’s coming. Yes, this is one of those and I’m going to talk about why the easy way out is a gamble although it’s supposed to be the payoff. Scalpel…

(Credit: IFC Films)

The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) is directed by André Øvredal and written by Ian Goldberg and Richard Naing. Veteran coroner Tommy Tilden (Brian Cox) and his assistant and son, Austin (Emile Hirsch), are done for the night. Austin is about to take his girlfriend Emma (Ophelia Lovibond) out on a date when a new corpse is brought in. An unnamed victim, a Jane Doe (Olwen Kelly), has been found by Sheriff Burke (Michael McElhatton) on the scene of a multiple massacre. She doesn’t seem to have any external wounds and was found without a stitch of clothing, half buried in the basement. The Sheriff needs a COD (Cause of Death) by morning. Our coroner team is on the job.

The coroners know their craft but this will take all their combined experience. As clues and unlikely wounds are found inside the body, the actual explanation of how or why this was done to her eludes them. Very soon some of the signs show references of rituals and witchcraft. And just as the first hint of such appears, Tommy shuts it down with semi-historical accuracy. And that gave me hope that this was still going to be interesting, even if we’re about to take a turn into an easy solution.

Yes, spoiler warning, we’re going into supernatural territory. Now that can still work, as long as the movie obeys by the rules being set. But as we go into the last act the scary incidents are not cohesively tied together. Evil threats take shape, disappear, teleport, or suddenly someone from outside appears nobody else can get in… just to die. I still think that the movie had something going just until that last act. I’d love if the movie would have gone for a realistic turn of events instead.

Lightly recommended for setting up a solid tense thriller in a morgue. Unfortunately the ending does take away most of what would have made it a classic. Worth a watch only as a backup showing if you can’t find nothing else. I could think of worst things to watch.

That will do for now.