The Autopsy of Jane Doe

The Autopsy of Jane Doe is a 2016 supernatural horror film directed by André Øvredal, his first English-language film. It stars Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch as father-and-son coroners who experience supernatural phenomena while examining the body of an unidentified woman (played by Olwen Kelly).

The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	André Øvredal
Written by	Ian Goldberg Richard Naing
Produced by	Fred Berger Eric Garcia Ben Pugh Rory Aitken
Starring	Emile Hirsch Brian Cox Olwen Catherine Kelly
Cinematography	Roman Osin
Edited by	Patrick Larsgaard
Music by	Danny Bensi Saunder Jurriaans
Production companies	42[1] Impostor Pictures[1] IM Global[1]
Distributed by	Lionsgate (United Kingdom)[2] IFC Midnight (United States)
Release dates	September 9, 2016 (2016-09-09) (TIFF) December 21, 2016 (2016-12-21) (United States)
Running time	86 minutes[3][4][5][6]
Countries	United Kingdom[1] United States[1]
Language	English
Box office	$6 million[2]

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2016, and IFC Midnight released it on December 21, 2016. It grossed $6 million at the box office. The critical consensus at Rotten Tomatoes calls it "a smart, suggestively creepy thriller".

Plot

In Grantham County, Virginia, the corpse of an unidentified young woman is found at the scene of an inexplicable multiple homicide. No signs of forced entry are found, and it is determined that the victims were trying to escape the house where the killings took place. A half-buried Jane Doe is found in the basement, which the sheriff delivers to the local coroner, Tommy Tilden, and his son, Austin, whom he is mentoring. Austin postpones his date with his girlfriend Emma to help his father with Jane Doe's autopsy, promising to meet her later that evening.

Upon examining the body, Tommy and Austin quickly become confused by the clues: Jane Doe's waist shows signs that she had worn a corset for most of her life, though they had gone out of fashion a couple of centuries earlier; time of death is impossible to determine due to the lack of rigor mortis and the presence of blood still flowing in her veins, suggesting that death had just occurred, but the cloudiness of her eyes suggests she has been dead for several days. There are no externally visible signs of trauma, yet her wrist and ankle bones are shattered, her tongue has been cut out, one of her molars is missing, her lungs are blackened as though she had suffered third-degree burns and her organs reveal numerous scarring from stabs. Jimsonweed, a paralyzing agent native to New England, is found in her stomach.

Other mysterious events occur. The radio spontaneously changes stations, and Austin believes he sees people standing in the main corridor of the morgue. Investigating, he finds their cat mortally wounded. Tommy mercifully kills the cat and reluctantly incinerates the corpse. Continuing the autopsy, he finds the woman's missing tooth wrapped in a piece of cloth in her stomach. The cloth has Roman numerals, letters, and an odd diagram. Similar symbols are found drawn on the inside of her skin. The lights in the room suddenly explode. During the confusion, they realize other corpses in the morgue have gone missing. They attempt to leave, only to find that the elevator doesn't work and that a fallen tree has blocked the only exit. An unseen figure leaves bruises on Tommy when he goes to the bathroom.

Becoming really frightened and beginning to ascribe agency to Jane Doe, Tommy and Austin return to the autopsy room to finish examining her. When the door locks itself, Austin hacks at it with an emergency axe. Through an opening, he and Tommy see the gruesome face of one of the missing corpses, apparently reanimated. Unable to get to the cremation furnace, they use fuel to set Jane Doe ablaze in the examination room. The fire quickly spreads; Tommy puts it out with an extinguisher but is disturbed to find the body has not burned. When the elevator reactivates, Tommy and Austin again attempt to escape, but the doors will not close. Panicked, Tommy uses an axe against what he believes to be one of the reanimated corpses. When he and Austin exit the elevator, they discover he has killed Emma, who had returned to meet Austin.

Certain that Jane Doe has been preventing them from discovering her true cause of death, they return to the examination room. To their amazement, the body's neurons remain active, meaning she is biologically alive. Further examination of the cloth determines that the markings refer to Leviticus 20:27, which condemns witches, and the year 1693, the date of the Salem witch trials. Tommy reasons that in their attempt to punish a witch, the Salem authorities instead transformed an innocent woman into a witch, rendering her immortal and allowing her to feel all of the pain her body endures even though she appears dead.

Tommy offers himself to the corpse as a sacrifice and begs her to spare Austin. His ankles and wrists shatter, mimicking Jane's wounds. As the wounds are inflicted upon Tommy, the corpse's own wounds begin to heal and her eyes return to their original color. As Tommy reaches for a knife to cut out his own tongue and complete the ritual, Austin stabs his father in the chest to end his misery. Believing he hears the sheriff outside, Austin approaches but realizes the voice is another hallucination. Startled by a vision of Tommy's walking corpse, Austin trips over the railing and falls to his death.

The police arrive the next morning and are confused by another inexplicable crime scene. Jane Doe, showing no signs of trauma, is taken to Virginia Commonwealth University. During the ambulance ride, the radio spontaneously turns on, and Jane's toe twitches.

Cast

• Emile Hirsch as Austin Tilden
• Brian Cox as Tommy Tilden
• Ophelia Lovibond as Emma Roberts
• Michael McElhatton as Sheriff Sheldon Burke
• Olwen Kelly as Jane Doe
• Jane Perry as Lieutenant Wade
• Parker Sawyers as Trooper Cole
• Mary Duddy as Irene Daniels
• Mark Phoenix as Louis Tannis

Production

Coming from the success of Trollhunter, Øvredal stated that he wanted to "prove something" – specifically that he could do more than found footage-style films. He stated, "It's just a very specific style that you need to get into specifically for that project."^[7] The Conjuring proved to be a spark of inspiration for Øvredal, and he said, "it was such a classical horror movie that came at a time where all these movies had tried to do all kinds of different stuff and then suddenly it was like getting back to basics".^[8] After watching the film, Øvredal told his agency he wanted to "find a pure horror script", which resulted in being sent Autopsy.^[8] The script had previously appeared on the annual Black List.^[8]

Martin Sheen was initially cast as Tommy but pulled out.^[9] Although there are some prosthetics used,^[7] the role of the corpse, for the most part, was played by actress Olwen Kelly. Øvredal felt that it was necessary to have an actress for the part to help connect the audience on a human level.^[8] On some level the decision was also a practical one as Øvredal believes that doing some of the close up scenes with a prosthetic would've been impossible.^[8] Øvredal said that Kelly had the most difficult role in the film, and he credited her with making everyone else comfortable on the set. Kelly was the first person interviewed for the role. Øvredal said they performed further interviews afterward, but he instantly knew she was right for the role. One of the reasons she was selected was her knowledge of yoga, which helped her control her body and breathing.^[10] Production in the UK began in London on March 30, 2015.^[11]

The production was filmed at Home Farm in Selling, Kent, which doubled as the exterior and kitchen of the Tilden family home.^[12]

Release

The Autopsy of Jane Doe premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2016.^[13] It was released in the US on December 21, 2016.^[10]

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 86% of 110 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 7/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "The Autopsy of Jane Doe subverts the gruesome expectations triggered by its title to deliver a smart, suggestively creepy thriller that bolsters director André Øvredal's growing reputation."^[14] Metacritic gave it a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[15]

Dennis Harvey of Variety called it a "taut, yet often slyly funny scarefest", though he said the climax was unfulfilling.^[5] Though he praised the acting, Stephen Dalton of The Hollywood Reporter called the film an "unsatisfactory compromise" of art-house and exploitation film.^[16] Richard Whittaker of The Austin Chronicle wrote that Øvredal "constructs a sinister claustrophobia", then "elegantly and disturbingly unwraps the enigma".^[17] Joe Lipsett of Bloody Disgusting rated it 5/5 stars and wrote, "Øvredal masterfully balances the requisite gore with some well-earned jump scares and a foreboding sense of doom."^[18] Writing at Dread Central, Ari Drew described it as "mostly effective". Drew complimented the acting but criticized the film's exposition and scripting near the end.^[19]

Writer Stephen King spoke in favor of the film.^[20] Rotten Tomatoes lists the film on its 100 Best Zombie Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer.^[21]