Customer Reviews

Autopsy (1975)

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"Autopsy - A Chilling Slab of Unspeakable Horror"

Or so we read on the box of this DVD. Of Italian origin and first released in 1973 as "Macchie Solari", Autopsy has not aged well as a horror movie. Interestingly, I believe the original title referred to suns spots, which are a recurring theme in the movie.

Autopsy starts brilliantly depicting a number of suicides that invariably end up in the autopsy room, where we meet the protagonist played by Mimsy Farmer. Mimsy is studying forensic medicine and writing a thesis on how to distinguish between real and fake suicides. Something happens and Mimsy begins to see the cadavers moving around.

After this promising opening, the movie strays away from the moving cadavers and turns into a murder mystery. A young woman that Mimsy briefly meets in her apartment is found dead in what appears to be a suicide. However, dead woman's brother (played by Barry Primus) is convinced that it was murder.

Eventually, Mimsy realizes that the dead woman's brother, who is also a priest, is correct. By then, other suicides/murders start occurring around her, and even she becomes the target of one attempt. Suddenly, she doesn't know if she can trust the priest, her father, her father's business associate, her boyfriend (who also is a target of a murder attempt) or even herself.

By now, this movie is no longer a horror film. Instead, it has become a classic who-dunnit film, with occasional sunspot flare- ups depicted a certain intervals. Surprisingly, the mystery is actually well-done. Agatha Christie couldn't have written a better murder mystery.

Why the movie was titled Autopsy in English is beyond me. Scully and Mulder (X-Files) spend more time in the morgue than do Mimsy and Barry. Furthermore, the autopsies in the X-Files are sometimes even more graphic than in this movie. I can only speculate that the studios felt that "Autopsy" would draw more movie-goers than "Sun Spots". On the subject of sun spots, the movie tries to suggest a relationship between sun spots and suicides, which doesn't really fit into the murder mystery.

Overall, it is an excellent movie-if you like mysteries. But a horror movie it is not, certainly not one of "unspeakable horror".

this so-so "giallo" was directed by ARMANDO CRISPINO, not Josè Marìa Forquè. Set during a sizzling Roman summer, "Autopsy" opens with a grim montage sequence depicting various people committing suicide/homicide. Straight after this we are plunged into a startling episode at the central morgue: as overwrought heroine Mimsy Farmer looks round, grotesquely leering corpses seem to come to life and get up from the slabs. Powerful stuff, but unfortunately the rest of the movie doesn't come up with anything to top it. What follows is an involved, but not very interesting murder mystery, fleshed out with exclusively unlikeable characters - Farmer included - and occasional touches of cruelty. Certain scenes - the deadly trap in the crime museum, for example - are effectively suspenseful, but the tricksy narrative outstays it's welcome long before the 100 minute running time is up. Picture quality, however, is excellent and the DVD includes a trailer for the film under it's official export title, "The Victim". If you're new to the "giallo" and are looking to build up a good collection on DVD, invest your money in films like "The Girl Who Knew Too Much", "Blood and Black Lace", "The Bird With The Crystal Plumage", "Deep Red" and "Torso". "Autopsy" is passable entertainment, but hardly essential.

O.K. First of all, what is up with the bad reviews for this movie? If you are into hilarious dialog, wigs, hilarious dialog about wigs, mannequins, gore, trippy visuals, incestuous innuendo, sex, bitchy cat fighting between characters and movies that are totally weird, unsettling and need a couple viewings to really savor all the aforementioned details then this is your movie. If not, then check out the latest blockbusters playing at your local theater. For those of us that are into this stuff, this is HIGHLY recommended, a 1000 stars out of 5. Also recommended: The Baby (1973), Liquid Sky (1983), The Antichrist (1974), Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1983), early 80's Lucio Fulci gore (City of the Living Dead, The Beyond, House by the Cemetery). If you see these, prepare to leave your sanity behind!!!

Blue Underground continue their excellent restoration and re-issue of important Italian giallo films with Armando Crispino's 1975 effort "Autopsy" - just one of the six titles the film goes under. UK and US audiences may know it better as "The Magician" and "The Victim" respectively. By 1975 the formula of the giallo was cast pretty much in granite, and already signs of self-reference and parody were creeping into this most peculiar Italian filone. But Crispino instead opts for an elliptical temporal framework, and a rigorously subjective character perspective. The opening montage presents the audience with a series of random and unconnected suicides - this opening is a tour de force, and its narrative function is further elucidated by inserts of violent solar flares, and sunspots. Crispino uses the urban myth of sunspots causing suicide to act as a metaphor for what turns out to be a very conventional giallo motivation; inheritances, wills, and blackmail. However, with a lead character cracking up under the strain and suffering hallucinations (A brittle Mimsy Farmer), an epileptic racing driver turned priest (an edgy Barry Primus) and a photographer with a penchant for images of French dominatrix's (a strutting Ray Lovelock) - Crispino doesn't entirely manages to evade the clichés, but still he is able to present something that is very near to the narrative conventions of art cinema. This film emerged in the same year as Argento's giallo defining "Profondo Rosso", and is a far more unnerving and unsettling prospect, with an unusually drab visual style that emphasises the griminess of the implied incestuous relationship at the heart of the film. As all the action applies or relates to Americans or half Americans one can only assume that Crispino wasn't too enamoured with the US. Finally audiences can enjoy a totally unexpurgated print of a giallo that deserves a more prominent place in the field.

Combining different elements of giallo in a highly rational way for sure is strange and disorientating. If you want a mind-puzzler, this is it. DVD quality is very good, and you find the original soundtrack, too!

About as weird as an Italian mystery can possibly get, Autopsy gained notoriety upon its original theatrical release when the U.S. distributor encouraged rumors that real autopsies were conducted and filmed during production. Of course, this is about as believable as the final "real" murder in the exploitation film Snuff, but the movie became a 42nd Street and drive-in favorite anyway. What viewers really got was a twisted, unconventional giallo packed with creepy set pieces and a truly novel setting, there are also fine performances from Mimsy Farmer, Barry Primus and especially Ray Lovelock of 'The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue'-fame... While a stifling heat wave strikes Rome and sends many of the population fleeing into the countryside, a wave of suicides provoked by sunspots causes more activity than usual in the local morgues.

Sensitive pathologist Simona (Mimsy Farmer) is working on a thesis examining real versus staged suicides, and her work begins to get to her. Simona's disturbing hallucinations feature the fresh, mutilated corpses rising from their slabs, mugging for the camera, and even having sex on the morgue floor!. Simona's boyfriend, Ed (Ray Lovelock), is peeved when her visions interfere with their sex life. One day a gunshot suicide victim found on the beach is brought in, and Simona recognizes the victim as a beautiful woman she had seen earlier. The brother of the deceased, a slightly sinister priest (Barry Primus), believes the woman's death was actually murder, and Simona's research indicates he may be correct.

Compared to many other Giallo films, Autopsy features a believable, solid plot and it sticks to it without the overuse of unnecessary plot-twists. The score (by Ennio Morricone) was great and the main characters are creatively presented. How about a depressed pathologist who has weird visions of dead people? Or a racecar-driver turned priest and out for vengeance? Autopsy is a lot more suspenseful than it is gory (except for the beginning suicide scenes the rest of the film wasn't really that gory), even though the DVD-cover leads you to believe otherwise. Tension-highlights include a compelling sequence inside the `Death Museum' and an atmospheric experiment upon an entirely paralyzed victim. Add a bit of stylish nudity to all this and you've got yourself an undiscovered and ignored cult-gem. It may not satisfy horror-rookies on a quest to see tons of blood, but it'll sure please the more experienced horror fans. If you're searching for a top-macabre and unsettling horror film, then watch this underrated giallo film.

Mimsy Farmer who always seemed to put in a good performance does a good
job here in autopsy. Without a actress of her skill this movie would be half the movie it is. It wasn't among the better of the giallos of the period at the time. But it does have Ray Lovelock who is always a solid performer and other fine actors as well. The name of the movie would lead you to expect a solid amount of violence and gruesome giallo mayhem.
But it's not that violent and is more a traditional mystery thriller. There is like most 1970's giallos lots of nudity though and of course a twist at the end as we find out who the killer is. It's not a great flick but it's a acceptable italian mystery giallo that is completely average at best. That being said the print looks good and
is well mastered so it's a decent little giallo film for mystery fans.

It's a hot summer in Rome. Sun spots and solar eruptions are causing people to commit suicide, attempt rape, and have strange hallucinations. In Armando Crispino's bizarre giallo, "Autopsy," a serial killer is murdering associates and making their deaths appear to be suicide. Remember, the best place to hide a tree is in the forest. Agatha Christie taught us this in "The ABC Murders" when the killer makes one murder look like part of the random slayings of a deranged serial killer.

Mimsy Farmer (of Dario Argento`s "Four Flies on Grey Velvet") is Simona, the doctor performing an autopsy on a beautiful woman named Betty who is an apparent suicide victim; she was engaged to marry Simona's father. Barry Primus is Father Paul, a priest, who is Betty's brother. Together, they learn that Betty didn't commit suicide and now they must find her killer.

The intricate plot is interesting but sometimes bogged down by what must be the director's obsession with sexual perversion. Scenes of naked corpses rising up and having sex, Simona's sexual fantasies about the priest, and Simona's attempted rape by the mortician's assistant are some examples. However, beautiful Rome locales, an excellent score by Ennio Morricone, and great performances from the leads make "Autopsy" an enjoyable giallo.

"Autopsy" is recommended for giallo lovers. Horror fans who are not familiar with the genre should definitely rent before buying.

Autopsy is an ugly and unpleasant giallo from 1975 that I really didn't enjoy. Starring Mimsy Farmer, it tells the story of a spate of deaths that appear to be suicides but may actually be murders. Farmer plays Simona, a pathologist who has a very troubled personal life, as well as suffering from hallucinations at work, where she occasionally has visions of the corpses waking up! And that's just one confusing strand of a plot which is really hard to follow and much of it is unclear. Endless shots of sun flares keep flashing on the screen in an attempt to add style and intrigue, but this doesn't really work. You'll be hard pushed to make it to the end of the film having understood much of it... well I certainly didn't.

But the film certainly delivers in the gore department, with lots of bloody corpses on display, plus several scenes that give you long glances at (what seem to be) actual medical photgraphs of dissections and murder victims, some of which are extremely disturbing. There's also a fair bit of nudity. What's missing, though, is any sense of joy or tenderness. Main character Simona is in a constant state of paranoia, and none of the other characters seem very happy either. Mimsy Farmer can act reasonably well (although we never get to see her look anything but miserable), but she looks decidedly uncomfortable with being naked, and her lovemaking scenes are unconvincing and poorly done. True, her character does have some intimacy issues, but no tolerance to this is ever seen on screen, in fact every male chararacter in the film pushes Simona around like a sack of potatoes, even her so-called boyfriend. This failing is down to the screenplay which makes no attempts to flesh out the characters beyond simple speaking and doing. They just don't have personalities. Simona even gets sexually assulted at one point by an ultra-sleazy colleague, but this is played out purely for screen thrills (Simona retaliates by stabbing him wildly with a fork), and no mention of the incident is ever made again, or how it actually affects Simona. By the end if the story, I had lost interest in everybody.

To conclude, this is a gory thriller which has trouble engaging on any level other than looking at the screen to see gruesome stuff happening or people getting naked (whether alive or as corpses!). There's just not enough attention payed to character or story development. It's not even particularly nicely filmed. There are plenty of far more effective giallos than this out there, so I would'nt bother spending an hour and a half watching this Autopsy.

This has got to be one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I was expecting a scarey well written horror movie..wrong...What you get is a dimwit main character (Mimsy Farmer) who isn't even attractive and we're subjected to her nudity in some scenes in the film. It has a stupid plot (Ok she's seeing dead people come to life) The film has many chances to capture the audience but fails miserably. The sets [stink], the acting is bogus ..even the set locations are mundane
Stay away *don*t view this autopsy. The whole crew/cast missed the *autopsy* on this piece of [junk], or they all *had* an autopsy while making the film. Don't waste your money