7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly not terrible, April 28, 2009
I'm not exactly sure why, but I was expecting Autopsy to be a pretty bad entry in this year's After Dark Horrorfest. Well, Autopsy ends up being one of the better entries in this year's lineup, as it provides ample amounts of blood, gore, and entrails, and even a slight wicked sense of humor along the way. The story is typical slasher fare: a group of hard partying friends coming back from Mardi Gras wreck their car, and wind up at a creepy clinic run by the strange Dr. Benway (played by Robert Patrick, William S. Burroughs readers should definitely recognize the not-so-good doctor's name). Before you know it, they're picked off one by one, and wind up in some ultra gorey demises. While Autopsy offers little in the way of ingenuity, it does deliver what horror fans and gorehounds are looking for, and it does both groups justice as well. The acting is all over the place, and we really don't end up caring for any of the characters at all, but in the end, Autopsy winds up being a worthwhile horror dirge. All in all, while there are a number of flicks in this year's After Dark Horrorfest that aren't worth your time, Autopsy is one of the few that actually is, and is worth checking out in that regard alone.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Loads Of Fun And Loads Of Gore - Only The Lame Final Moment Keeps It From Being The Best Of 2009's "8 Films To Die For", October 10, 2009
The last of the "8 Films To Die For" that I watched this year is also probably the most "enjoyable." Whereas the other films seemed to want to encourage my suicide with grim themes and cold atmospheres, AUTOPSY harkens back to the old days of horror with gleefully over-the-top psychos and buckets of gore.
This is not to suggest AUTOPSY is the best film of the festival, but it is perhaps the most wildly entertaining. The threadbare story is of five college kids in Louisiana who end up in a car crash. Next thing you know, they are being whisked away to a nearby hospital, sharing an ambulance with a man they ran over, who they are told had left the hospital prior to an operation.
It becomes clear as soon as they arrive that this is not General Hospital! The nurse methodically separates each kid from the others, until only our leading lady, Emily, is left wondering the deserted halls looking for her friends. Soon enough she will be fleeing the resident "mad doctor," who apparently is harvesting organs to keep his dying wife alive.
Now, fear not - I am not revealing plot twists or surprises here, because this is not a movie about story and mystery - it's a simple plot upon which to hang some truly gruesome scenes. If you enjoy gore, you'll find plenty to love about this film - hacked-off limbs, drills to the head, faces pummeled to bloody pulp, intestines spilling all over other people (literally), and a truly bizarre live-operation that has to be seen to be believed!
Fortunately, the filmmakers realize what they are making here, and never for a moment try to make a serious attempt at realism. While the movie isn't silly, like the EVIL DEAD franchise, it does keeps a funhouse tone all throughout. The actors play their roles suitably, with Jenette Goldstein perhaps having the best moments as the germ-phobic nurse. Camera, lighting, staging are all done effectively for the genre.
I would probably have placed this film at the top of the heap, but there are some issues with the final act that let me down a bit. Firstly, the writers seem to run out of energy before the film ends, and we end up with A LOT of scenes of people just walking around empty halls to span the time. This happens enough that the audience has time to start wondering why these kids don't just leave the hospital. And, just when you'd expect a thrill-ride chase to begin when we are down to our final victim, again the pace seems to lag, and then the next thing you know, it's over.
And, there are some truly bad edits toward the end. In one scene, our heroine is caught and trapped, and then we see one of the boys whom we thought had left suddenly enter the room. But rather than turn to see the confrontation going on, he just casually WALKS straight through the scene like he's headed off for coffee or something. Emily then easily gets out of the hold the doctor has on her and runs off in his direction. Next shot, the two are running for their lives down some stairs without any conversation as to why he left he behind, or why he came back. It's a very awkward moment that destroys the carefully constructed mood of the chase.
Shortly after, we see have a shot of Emily walking upstairs (again, at a point when she no longer has a reason to be there, and should be hoofing it out the door). This shot is CLEARLY from earlier in the movie, as she is holding a weapon she lost several scene before and her shirt is suddenly clean after she had vomited all over it previously. In the next shot, she is again weaponless and shirt-stained.
But these are minor quibbles - the worst moment is the closing moment of the film, which is so bad and tacked on, it truly has the effect of rendering the entire previous 90 minutes null and void. It smacks of a last minute reshoot. It makes me think again that the writers ran out of energy or interest and just said, "ah, we'll just do this . . . that's good enough." After having enjoyed the rest of the film, I was left shaking my head wondering WHAT IN THE WORLD they were thinking! Unfortunately, a bad ending can really ruin an otherwise good film, and that's the case here.
After so many bad movies in this year's festival, I really wanted this one to be better - and for the most part, it was. But, as it sputters out of gas in the end, I couldn't help but be disappointed. Still, while it will never be remembered as a classic of the genre, it is certainly the most fun you'll have of the 8 films this year.
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