The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Trollhunter director André Øvredal's first English-language feature begins as a cerebral thriller before losing its way towards the finishing line
Like Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn, André Øvredal’s latest film is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It starts out as a lean and logical tale, dealing with the incongruous and impossible in a serious and scientific manner, before changing the rules of the game at the halfway mark.
A Sheriff looks over a house full of bodies, and the only corpse without a mark on it is that of a half-buried woman. He sends the body to the local coroner, Tommy (the ever-compelling Brian Cox), who is assisted by his son, Austin (Emile Hirsch, not so compelling, but likable enough). What follows is a less flashy take on CSI, but with dark, occult ideas slowly seeping in from the edges.
It’s during this stretch that The Autopsy of Jane Doe is at its most interesting, but at the halfway mark it goes from cerebral thriller to supernatural horror, and loses something along the way. That it then forgets to have a third act, doesn’t help.
The Autopsy of Jane Doe screens in Glasgow Film Festival: 25 Feb, GFT, 5.45pm | 26 Feb, GFT, 10.45am
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