Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Adam Gierasch
Cast: Michael Bowen, Jessica Lowndes, Ashley Schneider, Robert Patrick, Jenette Goldstein
RunTime: 1 hr 25 mins
Released By: Shaw
Rating: R21 (Violence and Gore)

Opening Day: 25 June 2009

Synopsis:

It's the middle of the night. You're driving on a lonely road. Suddenly, out of nowhere, another car hits you. When you wake up there's shattered glass all over the pavement, your friends are injured, and the other car is gone. You're disoriented, hurting--but when you see the ambulance's flashing red and blue lights, you know help has arrived.

Emily Johnson, her boyfriend Bobby and their friends Clare and Jude are recent college grads driving cross-country, taking a last vacation together before they face the "real" world. An accident leaves them hurt and stranded on a lonely Louisiana road. When the ambulance arrives, it whisks them to Mercy Hospital. With a minimal staff and many of its floors empty, the hospital is an eerie place--but that's only the beginning. The staff is conducting inhuman experiments on helpless patients under the instruction of Dr. Benway, a direct descendant of the infamous New Orleans family that committed atrocities in the 19th century.

Movie Review:

Blood, gore and guts- if that’s what you’re looking for, you can be sure Autopsy will deliver by the bucket-loads. The directorial debut of Adam Giesrach- who together with co-writer Jace Anderson have been responsible for several horror projects like Toolbox Murders (2005), Mortuary (2005) and Mother of Tears (2007)- this is a slasher-pic that knows exactly who its intended audience is and spares nothing in satisfying their lust.

The set-up is as simple as you can get- five students returning from a Mardi Gras party meet with a car accident and are sent to an abandoned hospital somewhere in the outskirts of New Orleans. There at Mercy Hospital, they meet with some nasty staff under the direction of Dr Benway (Robert Patrick), a not-so-ethical surgeon willing to do whatever it takes to save his sick and dying wife.

It is within the walls of the three-storey hospital that Gierasch gleefully indulges in every possible means of horror-schlock. There’s a scene where a woman’s head gets bashed in with a fire extinguisher, another where an ex-convict orderly uses a sandblaster to remove fingerprints and footprints from sawed off body parts, and not to mention a particularly vomit-inducing sequence where a cadaver spills his guts out onto a poor woman’s face. Yes, with the capable help of special effects master Gary J. Tunnicliffe, Gierasch conjures up some old-school gore that will probably make even the bravest and gutsiest of viewers recoil in disgust.

Sadly, no amount of bloodletting on screen can disguise the movie’s grossly undercooked story. There isn’t much plot that actually happens in between the various repulsive scenes, nor is there much to know (and hence care) about each of the characters. Indeed, it’s as if the five characters are simply meat-bags running around the hospital, waiting for their turn to be sliced open by the diabolical doctor and his maniacal crew.

Just as dispensable are the mostly unknown cast, who are content to do little more than their already meager roles offer them. The only exceptions are the movie’s two veteran actors, Robert Patrick (the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day) and Jenette Goldstein (the tough Latina character from Aliens and “Janelle” in Terminator 2: Judgment Day), giving their snarly bests in their respective villainous roles.

But bad acting and nonexistent plot aside, it’s not likely that those looking for some copious bloodshed are likely to mind- instead, if you belong to that category, you’ll probably be kept fascinated by the creative and inventive ways the filmmakers have come up with to turn one’s insides out. For all other viewers, you’re likely to find Autopsy one sick, sick, twisted film you want to keep far away from.

Movie Rating:



(If you have a morbid curiosity to see how your insides look like, Autopsy is just the tutorial you need)

Review by Stefan Shih