Autopsy

For some reason I was really looking forward to this movie - the description, the poster, something just made it good. And I may be a bit harsh because I felt let down. It had some good parts, and gore if you like that.

The plot, pretty basic, reminded me of Night of the Dead: Leben Tod for the most part. It is pretty straight-forward and predictable, and I think about 3 good jump scenes. I was worried at first with the Mardi Gras footage that it was going to be another "handheld" style, but that was just for the credits thankfully.

A couple of rewrites could have made this work a lot better. The main problem is you really don't care. You don't care about the kids, you don't care why the bad guys are doing anything - there is just nothing. Robert Patrick's Doctor could have had some real depth to him if they tried. The nurse is so stereotypical it's not worth it. The lead actress did deliver a good scene, but that was an exception to the script.

All in all, it had some memorable moments for those into the Saw/Hostel style gore, but mostly it was forgettable.

I literally watched this on a rainy afternoon with my cat. We didn't really expect much since this is one of those After Dark Horrorfest movies (which are usually pretty lame), but this wasn't that bad. I enjoyed it while it was on, but I know I will soon forget I even watched it. My cat wasn't very impressed, though. That might just be because he's a cat. Who knows.

Autopsy exists primarily to provide gory scenes. From the opening several people manage to crash into some random guy. An ambulance shows up despite not being called but everyone is in shock. Unsurprisingly, nobody notices. They're in shock. Gory films don't usually interest me but at least this one achieved some shock value.

Therefore everyone arrives at the hospital where insane paramedics, doctors and such try to experiment on their newfound victims or murder victims.

Naturally the story doesn't matter because it's only setup for gory stuff that comes later. The kids are only there to be victims.

However, although I consider "Event Horizon" and "Hostel" unmemorable, and "Hostel 2" groan-inducingly stupid, Autopsy actually managed to shock me during at least once.

I watched this on a Thursday night when there was nothing else good to pick from. It seemed like a good, gory, old-school slasher with a pinch of Coma interspersed with all the mayhem. Don't even expect anything close to Oscar nominations, but if you are in the mood for some disturbing fun this is for you. Robert Patrick is wonderful as the sadistic surgeon. Everyone else delivers slightly disjointed performances - heroes become victims in a heartbeat and vice versa - so it's far from believable. It feels like an inspired Dario Argento rip off really, but gore is the driving force. Character development is last on the list. The deaths are disturbing, however. It's not for the faint of heart. But for those who can stomach some old school gore, disturbing eccentricity, and have fun with B-movies check it out. Definitely not my top pick, but enjoyable enough. I'll give it an 8.

"Autopsy" is a really strange movie that takes pretty obvious elements from other movies but still manages to have some identify. The movie starts with some bad clichés, like a car full of kids having a crash and standing around the scene like in "I know what you did last summer", but then the movie turns and they get taken to a creepy hospital with some strange docs and nurses where they get counted down in a "Crazy doc needs living patients in sick experiments to keep is beloved wife alive" plot. The movie is carried from the strange suspense of an abandoned hospital with crazy lit endless floors (the visuals are pretty different from your average horror/slasher movie) and the crazy hospital staff that mixes utter weirdness with black humor and some rather disturbing elements. Its often hard to tell if "Autopsy" takes itself serious because it stumbles from comedic strangeness to extreme violence and grossness in a second. Scenes like the head bashing remind of Irreversible in their rawness and there was really times I wonder "WTF was that supposed to mean" up to the strange ending. To keep it short... "Autopsy" has many things going for it in the shock and visual department as well in strange characters. Problem is that these elements appear very disjointed in the plot and are pretty much leading nowhere. The movie is often described as a comedy which made me expect something like "Brain Dead" but where "Braindead" clearly doesn't take itself serious "Autopsy" comes across dead serious more often than it makes you smile (and you won't smile if your humor is not pitch-black, believe me), so don't expect a comedy here.