Autopsy

"Autopsy" was apart of the After Dark Horror Fest 3 which was a collection of eight movies released in 2009. Keeping with my current theme of movies featuring insane doctors and medical madness, "Autopsy" fits the bill with mixed results. With an extremely simplistic plot and generic characters, all the movie has to offer is shock value. Most of it is pretty creative and gross but still unable to support any sort of story.

A group of college kids are partying at Mardi Gras having a fun time, but when they get back on the road to wherever they're going next they accidentally hit a man in a hospital gown who comes running out of the woods. A few moments of panicked arguing and finding out their cell phones can't get any reception an ambulance shows up out of nowhere. Hesitant at first but the paramedics take the kids back to an eerily empty Mercy Hospital to get checked out. An older nurse runs the show up front as Dr. Benway takes care of thing behind closed doors.

In typical horror movie fashion they are quickly split up, some just wander off to explore the dark and spooky building, while others are taken by the orderly to be fodder for the doctors experiments. Emily is the girl we follow the most and will undoubtedly be the final girl who will have to fight for her life against the doctor and other crazies. When things start to go bad Emily is able to call for help and a lone police officer shows up. Its no surprise that he doesn't last more than a few scenes before he is taken out.

The character of Dr. Benway is pretty weak and uninspired for being the main bad guy. He is not scary, threatening, or all that interesting. He has a very thin and clichéd back story and most it leads up to a few shocking gore filled scenes at the end. The gore and effects as I have said are pretty good, but this is a strictly by the numbers horror film that will drift off into obscurity. One final note for those interested the film was scored by Joseph Bishara, who has most recently done the two "Insidious" movies.

"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.

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.

All that I knew about "Autopsy" when I sat down to watch it was that it was a horror movie and that it involved a hospital setting, and that was it. So it was my love for the horror genre that called me to the movie.

"Autopsy" is by no means a milestone in the horror genre in any possible way. In fact, it is a very mediocre and monotone movie. It is entertaining enough for what it turned out to be, just don't expect anything breathtaking or spectacular.

The storyline is also a fairly generic one, revolving around the horrible and macabre events in an old hospital. Yep, it is one of those types of movies. So don't expect an innovating storyline. It should be said that the storyline is adequately paced, although it is very linear and generic, and thus also quite predictable.

Now, the acting in the movie is adequate, taking into consideration what kind of movie it is, its budget and the genre. However, there were some casting choices which does raise some questions as to why they opted for those individuals. A matter of personal preference, of course.

As for the horror factor of the movie, well it is a diminutive one at best. There are no shocks, no thrills, no scares and such throughout the course of the movie. Which left me with a very mediocre feeling once the movie had run its course and came to an end.

If you enjoy horror movies that take place in a hospital setting, then there are some more impressive movies available, and so much more entertaining movies for sure. I managed to sit through "Autopsy" to the very end, but I can with all honesty say that this is not a movie that I will be watching a second time.

This isn't a masterpiece of horror of course, but for what it was, still very entertaining. Of course, when it comes to trash the only trash in genre that I can see is horror films, just because there's always something to be enjoyed. But as it is the film wasn't as trashy as I expected, and was actually damn effective. The gory scenes are pretty well-done and some of them truly horrifying. There are some effective jump scares as well, mostly due to the editing and music. There is a scene in the end that is truly a sight to behold, one involving the lead and her boyfriend that made it all even more worth it. As a huge horror fan, I do recommend this.