The Overlook Theatre Reviews: The Autopsy of Jane Doe

9 of 10 viewers "Liked" "The Autopsy of Jane Doe" (2016, USA)

Here's what the creatures had to say:

Dabbles - "There's so much that worked for me; the effects were perfect, the character development was set up good. But then the "Informationels" kill the mood. The plot was well mapped out, the editing and pacing were so perfect. But in the end, I had to knock a few points due to the way the explanations went." - 4 Stars

Speed Demon - "Haven't felt this creeped out in a awhile. Especially to the point where my brain started to hurt. This film delivers on keeping you on edge. It was on its way to receiving five stars from me but due to certain scenes that were unnecessary and disappointing I figured I'd give it four stars. A must watch for sure. Highly recommended." - 4 Stars

Trash (R) - "The Autopsy of Jane Doe is a really good, good-looking, and accessible horror movie for people who don't watch a ton of horror movies. It's just graphic and edgy enough to shock someone who isn't watching this stuff every day, and if you're not trained to recognize genre tropes, you won't see the confusing seams of subgenres stitched together. While the first half lured me in, a father and son trying to solve the mystery of an impossible corpse, at the point of the highest suspense and dread, it pulls the rug out from under you and shifts its focus to spectacle and scares. I wanted that cerebral, creepy story of discovery to continue, and although I was disappointed and puzzled by the weird ending, it's still a really good movie. I've been trying harder to not judge a movie by what I wanted the story to do compared to what it did, but to be entirely honest, my real problem with this movie is no one fucks the corpse." - 3.5 Stars

Lord Battle - "What starts as a Lovecraftian decent into madness via a supernatural occupational hazard for a family run funeral home, is wrapped up like a pre-James Wan ghost story. The Autopsy of Jane Doe peaks near genius and falls deeply into mediocrity." - 3 Stars

Huntress - "I must have held my breath through half of The Autopsy of Jane Doe but I spent the other half completely glued to every word and graphic special effect. The filmmakers definitely did something right because I felt the blood leaving my face more than once. It's crazy to think that this movie only consisted of a couple of rooms, a hallway, and a handful of characters." -4.5 Stars

The Berkeley Blazer -*Spoilers*- "Interesting premise, profession, and characters frame a mystery centered around a cadaver whose secrets unfold via the probing tools and minds of a endearing father and son team. Is it poetic justice that the scenes described by the title are the best (by far) in the film. The Autopsy of Jane Doe falls apart the second it gets started (i.e. when the unreal plot thickens). These are some great actors that get eaten by a gaggle of silly ghosts and half baked revelations. Jane Doe is, despite its penchant for collapsing apart mid-stride, a film worth watching. It's just unfortunate that what could have been a masterpiece settles for mediocre in a perplexing and jarring way." - 3 Stars (I give the first 40 minutes of this film a five)

The Great Hornito - "I really liked this movie until the end. The bad ending wasn't enough for me not to love this movie though. I rarely get scared when I watch horror movies but The Autopsy of Jane Doe terrified me. The end was not that bad, the explanation of what Jane Doe is just came off a little preachy to me." - 4.5 Stars

Math Mage - "Amazing build up makes the letdown ending even more disappointing. The Oculus element could have been done better, the Ring element was also underutilized. - 3 Stars

The Impostor (R) - The Autopsy of Jane Doe exceed my expectations. I was struggling with my Top 10 Horror list and just knew I needed to see this before years end. But I didn't expect it would take the number one spot for me! Overall creepy as hell, every fan of horror must see this film. May start a bit slow but I was engaged. Ending was a bit cheesy but it didn't take away from entire experience." - 5 Stars

(R) - Viewed the film remotely, which may have impacted the reviewer's opinion.

The Overlook Theatre Final Rating*

(Below is for after you've seen the film)

It's hard not to notice the similarities in the creatures reviews; from straight forward articulations like "I really liked this movie until the end." to fiends finding the need to make up words like "Informationels" just to get the point across... (or maybe Dabbles speaks common as a second language...). In fact, this film has inspired the most post-screening arguments I've ever seen but to be fair I played a big part in that. When I wrangle our proudly non-academic reviews from the humanoids I often challenge them to back up their emotional statements. The best example of this comes from my challenge to The Great Hornito, who immediately after the screening started yelling about how much he hated the film. When I pressed him to explain where the hate came from, I was given the simple answer of, "Well I was really scared in the beginning, which never happens. Then it got fucking stupid!". I knew that when Terry and Austin had been theorizing about what was actually happening, the shift in the theatre's vibe had become palpable. The monsters had accepted this theory as truth but had not deemed it worthy of wrapping up the film.
I personally find their theorizing to be an important plot point that illustrates the Tilden's decent into madness and considering all the emphasis in the opening about needing hard facts and after mistakenly killing Austin's girl friend, they've fallen far. 

Math Mage quickly jumped into the arugment The Great Hornito and I were having, trying to articulate what the buzzed brawler was trying to say. This rapidly annoyed me as I already knew what I was reaching for and found the Math Mage getting in the way of Horito's process. Needless to say the civil discussion had become a shouting match, which would normally grab everyones attention but it appeared at least 3 other conversations of the same variety were happening at the same time.

- Lord Battle

The Overlook Theatre materialized in a residence for a special screening on  1/5/2016

*Based on the star ratings turned in by character reviewers, others viewed and got to "Dislike" or "Like" but that does not affect the rating.