Autopsy

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Autopsy

September 15th 2010 06:21

Director Adam Gierasch’s directing debut, Autopsy (2008), which he co-wrote with partner Jace Anderson and pal E.L.Katz, is a guilty pleasure, I’ll get that out of the way first up. I went in with low expectations having been terribly disappointed with Gierasch and Anderson’s screenplay to Dario Argento’s Mother of Tears (2007), plus by the look at the rest of Gierasch’s screenwriting resume (Spiders, Crocodile, Rats, Crocodile 2: Death Swamp), it wasn’t looking hopeful.

Autopsy Ross Kohn, Jessica Lowndes, Ashley Schneider, Ross McCall

Bobby (Ross Kohn), Emily (Jessica Lowndes), Clare (Ashley Schneider) and Jude (Ross McCall) in happier times

However, Robert Patrick and Jenette Goldstein were on board, as was special effects make-up artist Gary J. Tunnicliffe, and it was my introduction to the drop dead gorgeous Jessica Lowndes as our Final Girl. Autopsy is a relatively low-budget affair; small cast, more or less one location (all interiors), and no hugely expensive set-pieces. It owes a lot to the European horror movie, in particular Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento. But don’t get me wrong, Autopsy has none of Argento’s stylish visual narrative technique, nor does it possess the otherworldly weirdness of a Fulci flick, but it does resonant with a Euro sensibility that suggests Gierasch and his co-screenwriters were nodding their heads to those nightmare legends.

Autopsy Jessica Lowndes and Robert Patrick

Dr. Benway (Robert Patrick) gives Emily a routine check-up

Jenette Goldstein as Nurse Marion

And nightmare this is, pure and simple. It is far-fetched, even ludicrous in places, with characters doing really stupid, what-the-fuck-kind-of-behavio ur, bizarre set-ups, and a the whole movie has a pseudo-surreal premise: college students injured in a car accident after partying on the streets in the downtown New Orleans Mardi Gras (hmmm, suddenly after the accident none of them are drunk or stoned anymore) are whisked away by the miraculous appearance of an ambulance to Mercy Hospital where suspicious Nurse Marian (Jenette Goldstein) insists they all be checked out by Dr. Benway (Robert Patrick channeling evil like only he can).

Robert LaSardo as orderly Scott

Bobby (Ross Kohn) is the worst off with a punctured torso from a large shard of glass. He’s whisked off to an operating theatre by the thuggish paramedics Travis (Michael Bowen) and Scott (Robert LaSardo), leaving a distraught Emily (Jessica Lowndes) and her friends Clare (Ashley Schneider), Jude (Ross McCall), and tag along, Dmitriy (Arcady Golubvich) in the waiting room. One by one they’re attended to, and one by one they become victims of the insane Dr. Benway, who has taken charge as the only surgeon operating at the recently closed hospital, oh, apart from the odd lobotomised patient found wandering the empty corridors.

Emily gets more attention from the doctor than she wanted

That's one hell of a headache

It becomes apparent about twenty minutes into the movie that Autopsy is a comedy (the cover artwork, synopsis and such doesn’t even hint at this), a twisted little black comedy, and should be entertained and humoured as such to look past its trappings and shortcomings. As I said first up, it’s a guilty pleasure, and can be enjoyed as violent and gory late night popcorn and beer fare with mates (and as one of After Dark's Horrorfest entries, it's better than most!) The performances won’t be winning any unexpected Oscars, and Robert Patrick probably won’t list it as one of the best movies of his career, but Autopsy certainly delivers enough small moments to warrant checking out for Jessica Lowndes fans (I know I’m one, although I doubt I'll watch another movie she's in unless it’s a horror).

Now that's what a call a king-hit

Dr. Benway's wife (Janine Venable) makes a late appearance

Gary J. Tunnicliffe’s work is pretty good, and there’s a stand-out – albeit utterly what-the-fuck?! – gore set-piece near movie’s end that would make Argento and Fulci proud. The movie ends kind of oddly, almost suggesting it’s been cut-off mid-scene, but more obviously designed as a set-up for an Autopsy Part 2, since the villain has unfinished business to attend to, and our Final Girl has realised she has real potential. Somehow I strongly doubt a sequel will be given the greenlight, but no matter, the movie served its purpose, to invoke nosocomephobia (fear of hospitals), and as vehicle for Lowndes to show off her sturdy, plucky assets; chiefly those high cheekbones and awesome green eyes which glisten with abject terror as Dr. Benway attempts to drill into the top of her head …

Autopsy DVD and Blu-ray is released in Australia by Icon’s Insomnia label on October 6th to rent or buy.

Here’s the trailer: