The mystery of a nameless body prompts an investigation that lead a father and son through “The Autopsy of Jane Doe”. Experienced coroner Tommy Tilden (Brian Cox) and his grown-up son Austin (Emile Hirsch) run a family-owned morgue and crematorium in Virginia. When the local Sheriff brings in an emergency case; an unknown female corpse nicknamed ‘Jane Doe’, found in the basement of a home where a multiple homicide took place, it seems like just another open-and-shut case. But as the autopsy proceeds, these seasoned professionals are left reeling as each layer of their inspection brings frightening new revelations. Perfectly preserved on the outside, Jane Doe’s insides have been scarred, charred and dismembered, seemingly the victim of a horrific yet mysterious ritualistic torture. As Tommy and Austin begin to piece together these gruesome discoveries, an unnatural force takes hold of the crematorium. While a violent storm rages above ground, it seems the real horrors lie on the inside. “The Autopsy of Jane Doe” is directed by Andre Ovredal, and is rated R for bloody horror violence, unsettling grisly images, graphic nudity, and language.

Once in a while, I will get a B-grade horror movie that over-exceeds to end up highly on my end of the year list, and while “The Autopsy of Jane Doe” isn’t quite to that level of spectacular, it is enough of a fun time to offer popcorn thrills between a group of friends and restore my faith once again in underground horror. This isn’t quite your typical ghost story, and thankfully the trailer didn’t give much away to the finished product. For about an hour of the 85 minute sit that this film produces, I was constantly kept guessing as to the direction of horror subgenre this movie was heading down. The concept of creepy setting, as well as stormy background certainly isn’t anything original, but the artistic integrity of Ovredal is strong for a director who is only in his second offering in cinema. The movie repeatedly kept me guessing, building up a list of possibilities, much like the coroners examining Doe, and one-by-one the predictable avenues that the movie built for itself were diminished as to say I totally didn’t know what I was getting myself into.

There’s a solid build-up during the first two acts as a psychological thriller, diving into the tortured past of Jane Doe, and what it took to bring us to the lifeless body that we see in front of us. During this period, the movie feels like a CSI procedural combined with a slasher mystery, providing us enough information on the very step-by-step process that coroners jobs entail when they are trying to nail down a cause of death. The pushing between the two genres that I just mentioned really stimulated my desire to keep watching, and conjured up one of the very best whodunnits? that I have seen of the past decade. Then it happened. The final half hour of the movie decides to take us down a road that I frankly could’ve done without. It’s hard to discuss without spoiling, but the curveball thrown by screenwriters Richard Naing and Ian Goldberg feels very contrary to the kind of mystery that they built up in the opening hour. The movie’s turn for the supernatural burdens this movie to the same light that we see a lot of modern horror films today, complete with untimely jump scares and illogical jumps that are big for even the most convoluted of scripts. This was a shame because “Jane Doe” felt like 2/3 of a good movie, with the finale feeling like an entirely different script from the earned tension that the movie conjured up for itself to that point.

As far as some of the other aspects to the movie went, the makeup work here is extraordinary for the corpse in question. There’s a lot of attention to detail in the very damage done to this body, and every kind of shot used to relate the blood or gore is justified artistically by presenting the very beautiful side of death. This film and the career of being a coroner could’ve definitely gone overboard on what the movie showed, but Ovredal’s touch behind the camera shoots everything respectfully in the same way that our two central protagonists see it, and this is something that goes miles to relate to how they are studying the body. I also appreciated the aesthetics of the lighting within the picture. The corny storm going on in the background is overused in every movie, but the darkness in each frame that surrounds our characters certainly peaks the intrigue of what is lurking in the dark in a room full of the deceased. This artistic direction never feels forced or convenient because a real coroner’s office is visually entrancing in the same way that this film gave us. Ovredal shoots an eye-enhancing movie with only a budget of less than five million dollars. It makes me interested to see what he can do with a future lucrative project that could invest the buck for the constantly moving bang that he swings.

The performances offer very little breakout moments, but the veteran cast certainly add a dimension of depth to something that might otherwise be ignored on video shelves everywhere. Emile Hirsch is someone I have adored since 2004’s The Girl Next Door, and here it’s more of the same for someone as personable as it gets from Hollywood leads. Brian Cox also offers a personality for his own character that feels like the pulse of the film’s direction throughout the 85 minute sit. Cox serves as kind of the crypt-keeper of sorts for the narrative, and it’s in his lurking delivery where we question early the kind of intentions from some of the characters we follow through the terror-filled night. The chemistry between Hirsch and Cox carry a lot of the load and heart against the film’s tragic aspects, omitting a very empathetic within me as I watched the movie. The most important aspect to any horror movie is its characters, and the inevitability with Hirsch leaving for college certainly wields that sting of importance in counterbalance for the dark directions that their characters must endure. Beyond this, the movie has a limited supporting cast, but it’s really a two-man show when it comes to this one, but the team of Hirsch and Cox are up for the task of narrating through Doe’s complicated past, which grows in shock-and-awe with each startling reveal.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe nearly ruins all that it builds up in a tension-filled impressive first two acts to settle for mediocrity in the finale. But the artistic merits of an ambitious director festering with atmospheric tension, as well as two likeable male leads that yearn to learn the truth as we do, more than makes this an effective and engaging mystery with some unexpected turns in story that proves there’s always something worse than death. Campy 90’s style horror goodness summarizes Ovredal’s meaty delivery to hold the audience in the palm of his hand.

6/10