Autopsy

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.

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.

In Louisiana, while driving on the State Route 53, Emily (Jessica Lowndes) has a car accident. Her boyfriend Bobby (Ross Kohn) and their friends Clare (Ashley Schneider), Dmitriy (Arcady Golubovich) and Jude (Ross McCall) find that she had hit a stranger. When they see an ambulance on the road, they ask for help and the attendants Travis (Michael Bowen) and Scott (Robert LaSardo) bring them to the Mercy Hospital.

In the reception, the nurse Marian (Jenette Goldstein) realizes that Bobby is seriously wounded and sends him to the surgery room. When Emily tries to get information about her boyfriend, she meets Dr. David Benway (Robert Patrick) that tells her the Bobby is all right. But sooner Emily unravels a dark secret about Dr. Benway and his team.

"Autopsy" is a gore, bizarre and insane horror film that uses the clichés of a group of youngsters that has a car accident and end in a creepy hospital. The special effects and make-up are top-notch and the weird story has many ups and downs. When Emily finds her boyfriend in the hospital in the end of the story, the scene is insane. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Autópsia" ("Autopsy")

"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.

This deserves a much higher score than it currently has, 5/10 is a joke! Horror comes in many guises and as long as you head into this with thoughts of, for example Re-Animator or Society (I.e Body horror), then you should have a blast. From a presentation point of view the colour scheme is top notch. The use of coloured lighting is very much inspired by the great Dario Argento, when Dario was a true master of the craft think Suspiria, Cat o' Nine tales etc. The lighting is truly stunning with red & green bathing many scenes giving a dream like quality. A weird thing I found about Autopsy is the truly strange 1990s Canadian horror vibe it gives off. I persistently felt like I was watching a film from that era filmed in Canada like Hemaglobin or Habitat. Can't put my finger on why this is but I remember the same vibe coming over me on my 1st viewing quite a few years back. As others have said Autopsy plays out like a mad scientist horror with loads of believable practical effect gore, top notch acting and superb atmosphere. And who doesn't love a hospital based horror film especially in a facility that is abandoned and filled with lunatics. I've watched this twice now, once 5 to 10 years ago and again tonight and my score of 8/10 still stands, solid old school vibes in a nasty modern setting.