The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Year: 2016
Directed by: André Øvredal
Starring: Brian Cox, Emile Hirsch & Olwen Kelly
Runtime: 86 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 07/04/21
Directed by: André Øvredal
Starring: Brian Cox, Emile Hirsch & Olwen Kelly
Runtime: 86 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 07/04/21
Warning: This review contains spoilers for the entire story
I’ve had a morbid curiosity about the life of a coroner for many years now, wondering whether I would have the stomach to be able to perform autopsies on dead bodies and determine the cause of death. The science behind it is fascinating to me, but perhaps that’s just films and TV’s glamourising the profession and making it out to be way more exciting than it really is with all the weird kinds of dead bodies they get landed on their tables. The Autopsy of Jane Doe, a 2016 horror film directed by André Øvredal presents just such a scenario.
The Tilden family morgue has been passed down through three generations of the Tilden family. Currently owned by Tommy (Brian Cox) and assisted by his son Austin (Emile Hirsch), the two have become desensitised to death as it is quite literally their business. Austin wants to escape the business and move away with his girlfriend Emma (Ophelia Lovibond), but at the same time he is reluctant to leave his father as he believes he is still grieving from the death of his wife two years prior.
The sheriff (Michael McElhaton) brings the Tilden’s a corpse of an unidentified female (Olwen Kelly) that was discovered buried in the cellar of a home that had just become the scene of a double murder suicide. The crime scene doesn’t make sense to the sheriff and he wants to know how their Jane Doe fits into the equation to try and make heads or tails of exactly what happened.
As the Tilden’s perform the autopsy, they begin to notice that the internal injuries they discover do not add up to the state her body was found in. With fractured wrists and ankles but no bruising to the skin, greyed out eyes to indicate she’s been dead a while but rigor mortis has not set in, and she still bleeds fresh blood when cut open; plus, many more secrets hidden within.
As they try to piece together exactly what happened strange occurrences begin to befall the morgue and the Tilden’s find themselves prisoners in their own home as the dead rise and desire to exact their revenge on whoever they can find.
The Tilden family morgue has been passed down through three generations of the Tilden family. Currently owned by Tommy (Brian Cox) and assisted by his son Austin (Emile Hirsch), the two have become desensitised to death as it is quite literally their business. Austin wants to escape the business and move away with his girlfriend Emma (Ophelia Lovibond), but at the same time he is reluctant to leave his father as he believes he is still grieving from the death of his wife two years prior.
The sheriff (Michael McElhaton) brings the Tilden’s a corpse of an unidentified female (Olwen Kelly) that was discovered buried in the cellar of a home that had just become the scene of a double murder suicide. The crime scene doesn’t make sense to the sheriff and he wants to know how their Jane Doe fits into the equation to try and make heads or tails of exactly what happened.
As the Tilden’s perform the autopsy, they begin to notice that the internal injuries they discover do not add up to the state her body was found in. With fractured wrists and ankles but no bruising to the skin, greyed out eyes to indicate she’s been dead a while but rigor mortis has not set in, and she still bleeds fresh blood when cut open; plus, many more secrets hidden within.
As they try to piece together exactly what happened strange occurrences begin to befall the morgue and the Tilden’s find themselves prisoners in their own home as the dead rise and desire to exact their revenge on whoever they can find.
The Autopsy of Jane Doe has a good half and a bad half, and conveniently the divide is almost exactly at the midpoint of the film. The first half is incredible and provides one of the most interesting setups to a horror film I’ve seen since Scott Derrickson’s Sinister. But the second half succumbs to formulaic jump scares that have no connection to what’s actually happening, and an extremely disappointing ending that is cruel and unjustified.
The opening few minutes of the film are perfect for setting the mysterious tone the film is going for as we are shown the scene of the double murder suicide, and how the sheriff is failing to put the pieces together.
From there we’re given a lengthy sequence that introduces us to the Tilden’s, how their relationship functions, and ultimately how this will inform the choices they make throughout the film. Austin is inexperienced but smart and he has a desire to prove himself to his father. Tommy is cold and appears to be emotionally vacant as you would typically find a mortician to be in films and TV. But as the opening of the film goes on, we come to realise that he’s actually putting up a front to simply appear as though he’s coping with the loss of his wife, and impending absence of his son. It’s the relationship between Tommy and Austin that really grounds the film and acts as the emotional anchor for the audience. You want these two to be ok because there’s clearly some stuff they need to work through, and this strange case is clearly bringing out some long-buried feelings that will help both of them feel more comfortable in parting ways.
From this point on it’s going to be hard to talk about the story without spoilers so feel free to jump to the conclusion if you want to remain spoiler free.
The autopsy is a great way to slowly ramp up tension throughout the film. Once it starts the film doesn’t leave the confines of the morgue beneath the Tilden’s house and as each new strange discovery is unearthed from Jane Doe’s body the environment becomes increasingly threatening and claustrophobic. I loved the way that Øvredal kept returning to the same establishing shots used in the first few scenes of the morgue throughout the entire film as you would notice things changing that the characters weren’t picking up on and it was a great subtle psychological scare that really added to the atmosphere of the film.
The opening few minutes of the film are perfect for setting the mysterious tone the film is going for as we are shown the scene of the double murder suicide, and how the sheriff is failing to put the pieces together.
From there we’re given a lengthy sequence that introduces us to the Tilden’s, how their relationship functions, and ultimately how this will inform the choices they make throughout the film. Austin is inexperienced but smart and he has a desire to prove himself to his father. Tommy is cold and appears to be emotionally vacant as you would typically find a mortician to be in films and TV. But as the opening of the film goes on, we come to realise that he’s actually putting up a front to simply appear as though he’s coping with the loss of his wife, and impending absence of his son. It’s the relationship between Tommy and Austin that really grounds the film and acts as the emotional anchor for the audience. You want these two to be ok because there’s clearly some stuff they need to work through, and this strange case is clearly bringing out some long-buried feelings that will help both of them feel more comfortable in parting ways.
From this point on it’s going to be hard to talk about the story without spoilers so feel free to jump to the conclusion if you want to remain spoiler free.
The autopsy is a great way to slowly ramp up tension throughout the film. Once it starts the film doesn’t leave the confines of the morgue beneath the Tilden’s house and as each new strange discovery is unearthed from Jane Doe’s body the environment becomes increasingly threatening and claustrophobic. I loved the way that Øvredal kept returning to the same establishing shots used in the first few scenes of the morgue throughout the entire film as you would notice things changing that the characters weren’t picking up on and it was a great subtle psychological scare that really added to the atmosphere of the film.
Things take a turn once the Tilden’s begin to work out who Jane Doe is, and as a result what Jane Doe is. Once they have enough information to piece together that her body originates from the North West of the United States and she’s from the seventeenth century they conclude that she was a victim of the Salem witch trials. It’s here where things really start to hit the fan though as once this discovery is made the other bodies that are stored in the morgue begin to come back to life and pursue the Tilden’s, eventually leading to Tommy accidentally killing Emma. The death is extremely cheap as it seems to indicate that the dead bodies roaming the halls are simply hallucinations, as prior to Emma being axed she was one of the dead. It happens so fast too that there’s no real time to register what’s happened, and even Austin doesn’t get much of an opportunity to react to what’s happened before he becomes determined to complete the autopsy and discover the rest of the secrets Jane Doe has hiding.
It’s revealed that Jane Doe isn’t really dead and is indeed conscious and has been since her witch trial in the seventeenth century. Whenever her body is discovered and tampered with, those around her go crazy and die or kill each other. Tommy makes this realisation and offers himself as a sacrifice to her in order to save Austin’s life which would have made for a great ending and arc for the father and son. However just moments later Jane Doe lays a trap for Austin which ultimately leads to him getting killed. When morning comes and the sheriff arrives the situation looks almost identical to the scene from the beginning of the film where it appears as though Austin has killed his father and Emma before taking his own life.
I have a whole lot of problems with this ending but what it really boils down to is that it’s just cruel. There are no lessons to be learned and all the character development feels wasted because everyone dies and the great mystery behind Jane Doe is that she’s just a malevolent bitch who will kill anyone who gets close to her for no reason. There could have been so many awesome possibilities for this ending with all the mysteries Jane’s body was concealing, but it all devolves in a series of jump scares involving disfigures corpses and all the protagonists getting killed because reasons, I guess?
I feel like The Autopsy of Jane Doe is a subject of the Hollywood horror machine, where great ideas go to die for the lowest common denominator. Whilst I mentioned my love for Sinister, that was not without its issues stemming from the same problem. Unfortunately, Hollywood seems incapable of creating horror films that do not conform to the same formula as proven successes like The Conjuring and Saw. Thankfully we have studios like Blumhouse and A24 which are trying to change that, but it sadly means that films like The Autopsy of Jane Doe which have huge promise in the premise are ultimately squandered to appeal to teens who are too dense to understand that a scary face appearing at the same time as a loud noise doesn’t make a film scary.
If the premise of The Autopsy of Jane Doe sounds interesting to you then I highly recommend you check it out because it is worth watching, but a word of warning, you will most likely find the ending disappointing because it feels so unjust. Is it bad that I still have a small desire to try out being a coroner after all this?
It’s revealed that Jane Doe isn’t really dead and is indeed conscious and has been since her witch trial in the seventeenth century. Whenever her body is discovered and tampered with, those around her go crazy and die or kill each other. Tommy makes this realisation and offers himself as a sacrifice to her in order to save Austin’s life which would have made for a great ending and arc for the father and son. However just moments later Jane Doe lays a trap for Austin which ultimately leads to him getting killed. When morning comes and the sheriff arrives the situation looks almost identical to the scene from the beginning of the film where it appears as though Austin has killed his father and Emma before taking his own life.
I have a whole lot of problems with this ending but what it really boils down to is that it’s just cruel. There are no lessons to be learned and all the character development feels wasted because everyone dies and the great mystery behind Jane Doe is that she’s just a malevolent bitch who will kill anyone who gets close to her for no reason. There could have been so many awesome possibilities for this ending with all the mysteries Jane’s body was concealing, but it all devolves in a series of jump scares involving disfigures corpses and all the protagonists getting killed because reasons, I guess?
I feel like The Autopsy of Jane Doe is a subject of the Hollywood horror machine, where great ideas go to die for the lowest common denominator. Whilst I mentioned my love for Sinister, that was not without its issues stemming from the same problem. Unfortunately, Hollywood seems incapable of creating horror films that do not conform to the same formula as proven successes like The Conjuring and Saw. Thankfully we have studios like Blumhouse and A24 which are trying to change that, but it sadly means that films like The Autopsy of Jane Doe which have huge promise in the premise are ultimately squandered to appeal to teens who are too dense to understand that a scary face appearing at the same time as a loud noise doesn’t make a film scary.
If the premise of The Autopsy of Jane Doe sounds interesting to you then I highly recommend you check it out because it is worth watching, but a word of warning, you will most likely find the ending disappointing because it feels so unjust. Is it bad that I still have a small desire to try out being a coroner after all this?