Autopsy Review

Movie: Autopsy Year: 2008 Studio: A-Mark Entertainment Director: Adam Gierasch Language: English Length: 84 Minutes Sub-Genre: Body Horror

Plot: After being involved in a car accident during Mardi Gras, three men and two women are admitted into a Louisiana hospital to have their non-life-threatening injuries treated by a life-threatening hospital staff.

Review: Drafty gowns that open in the back. Bed pans. Surrounded by illness and injury. That singularly unique odor. And then there’s the food. There’s a lot to feel uneasy about when we’re in the hospital, not to mention the unthinkable scenarios, such as receiving the procedure prescribed for the patient in the bed next to you, or having a surgical sponge sewn inside you during your operation. But we choose not to think of all the countless things that could go wrong, because we have to trust total strangers to repair our bodies since we can’t do it for ourselves.

After Dark Films’ 2008 release, “Autopsy,” taps into these deep-seated fears and turns our hopefulness on its head.

If you hate movies shot to depict hand-held footage, don’t let the opening credits scare you away. “Autopsy” begins with hand-held shots during its opening credit sequence, but the rest of the movie is filmed conventionally.

Right at the start you’ll probably take notice of the lead actress, Jessica Lowndes (“Altitude,” “The Haunting of Molly Hartley”), whose screen presence is somewhat captivating, despite a decent performance that doesn’t always maintain credibility. I think it’s her eyes that draw my attention.

And though Jessica Lowndes was enough for me to keep watching the film, the reason I’m recommending that horror fans check out “Autopsy” is for a few scenes of painfully convincing gore: For instance, in one scene a character finds a piece of glass under his skin, and as he slides out this surprisingly long shard of glass, it looks absolutely real and excruciating. This scene made me squirm with discomfort.

There are other graphic scenes that depict the spilling of organs and entrails that look quite good, especially considering the modest budget for this film.

A couple of assaults on women occur that are brief, but memorable and upsetting. In one scene a naked man tackles a woman and what happens next is probably unlike anything you’ve ever seen from this scenario. In another scene, a man punches a woman in the stomach a couple of times, and there’s something about the verity of this portrayal that makes it feel like you’re watching a real-life assault, which is both scary and unsettling.

And let’s not forget a “lumbar puncture” to extract spinal fluid from a victim. Oh, and “Autopsy” also features a stabbing in a face with a hypodermic needle. Speaking of facial attacks, there’s a pummeling with an air tank that begins to approach the severity of the unforgettable fire-extinguisher-caving-in-the-face scene found in “Irreversible” (2002), the infamous French film that has the most realistic and lengthiest rape sequence I’ve ever endured.

So as for its execution of effects, “Autopsy” does fairly well, except for a terrible-looking, CGI explosion. (For some reason, CGI fire seems to be difficult to pull off.)

Overall, the casting is fine, with actors you’ll recognize, such as Michael Bowen (“Kill Bill: Vol. 1”) and Robert Patrick, who played the liquid-metal terminator in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991).

One could definitely pick up on an underlying but pervasive theme of “Don’t Do Drugs,” but it’s buried enough that it doesn’t seem preachy.

“Autopsy” has at least one good jump-scare that’s unavoidable, involving an eerie scene with an impossibly skinny patient slouched over with his back toward the camera, sitting up on his bedside. I challenge you not to jump during this sequence — even though you know it’s coming.

And though the mad doctor has some understandable motives that echo those of Mr. Freeze (from the abysmal “Batman and Robin”), hopefully you didn’t subject yourself to that movie so you can enjoy this subplot for the first time in “Autopsy.”

Finally, any film that features the song “House of the Rising Sun” on its soundtrack is OK by me. So, I rate “Autopsy” a 6.5 out of 10, and I recommend renting “Autopsy” for some violent, gory effects that make it a halfway decent scary movie.

To hear horror movie reviews from Jay of the Dead and his cohorts, listen to Horror Metropolis.

[Note: This review is 1 of 8 of the Horror Metropolis 2-DVD, 8-horror movie give-away contest.]

Reviewer: Jay of the Dead Date: 05/10/2012 Rating: 6.5/10 Recommendation: Rental

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