The Autopsy of Jane Doe was the best horror movie of 2016 so I’m glad it made it to this list. What are your thoughts?
I remember thinking, ‘How good can a movie about an autopsy
be?’ Then, you watch it and you’re like, damn, that’s pretty fucking good.
Whoever made this knew what they were doing. It’s well-acted, it’s creepy… it
has everything you want from a horror film – and you don’t see it coming. It
pieces everything together, bit by bit and the movie gets better bit by bit
until you realize she’s a witch. By then, it’s too late and they’re all
screwed.
There’s no downside to this movie. It’s one of those rare
movies that catches you by surprise.
I love when they’ve barricaded themselves in the room and
they can hear the guy outside the door, that bell jingling. You can see them
wondering what the hell they’re hearing. Then they under the door and he’s got
the toe tag on... There are a lot of great moments, though. Like you said, a
lot of good jumps.
Movies rarely make me nervous, but The Autopsy of Jane
Doe did.
Which tells you just how much it terrified the crap out
of me!
Hah. Right – which is another reason why I loved it.
It took me a couple of minutes to recognize the actor
playing Tommy. You spotted him straight away, though. It’s an incredibly small
cast for such an effective movie. What do you think of the acting?
The Autopsy of Jane Doe is incredibly well-acted.
You’ve got two great actors. Brian Cox has been around for years and has been
in some great movies. In this one, you’ve got the mentor trying to teach the
young kid (Emile Hirsch) but it’s the kid who gets it straight away. He wants
out, he knows something’s wrong. I like the moment when the father’s finally
like, right, let’s get the fuck out of here.
But it’s too late.
But it’s too late.
You said that you weren’t sure if you wanted to watch
this movie originally because you thought it would just be a movie about an
autopsy. How do you recommend it to someone who hasn’t made up their mind?
You can’t fault this movie. There’s just nothing to fault.
I’m usually the nitpicker when it comes to movies and I
can agree with that. There aren’t any plot holes or things that don’t make sense.
The pace is perfect. It has pathos, romance, and humour. It’s a perfect horror
movie.
And don’t forget that it’s so fucking creepy and nasty.
There are so many jumps and scares, but it really excels atmospherically,
especially when they get trapped down in the morgue. The whole time, you’re
waiting for Jane Doe (Olwen Catherine Kelly) to move or to blink or… something,
but they never let up, they never give you that moment – except for the very
end when her toes moves.
If you’re like us, you’ve seen so many films and not much
shocks anymore. But every now and then something comes along and it’s just a
little bit nasty and a little bit out there. That’s The Autopsy of Jane Doe.
It never shies away from the gore but it isn’t gratuitous either. They’re
literally just doing autopsies. It’s matter-of-fact. It’s not meant to be a
gorefest, just natural – and that’s why it works.
