The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)
- Eagle-eyed viewers have noticed a hidden easter egg referencing André Øvredal's previous film in the background of the opening scene.
- The incredible score for The Autopsy of Jane Doe was composed in just a few weeks after the original composer dropped out.
- André Øvredal originally wanted a completely different ending for the film, but test audiences preferred the one we see today.
The Autopsy of Jane Doe is a 2016 Norwegian-British supernatural horror film directed by Andre Ovredal. Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch star as Tommy and Austin Tilden, a father-and-son team of coroners in a Virginia morgue who receive the body of an unidentified young woman found partially buried at a murder scene. As they perform the autopsy, they discover increasingly impossible anomalies — her lungs are blackened as if by fire though her skin is unburned, her tongue has been cut out, and her organs contain inscribed cloth and a tooth wrapped in a mysterious cloth — while terrifying supernatural phenomena begin occurring throughout the morgue.
Andre Ovredal created one of the most effectively claustrophobic and genuinely unsettling horror films of the decade, using the confined morgue setting and the procedural framework of an autopsy to build dread methodically. Brian Cox brought gravitas and warmth to Tommy, a seasoned professional whose scientific certainty crumbles as the evidence defies all explanation. The Autopsy of Jane Doe earned modest theatrical returns but became a critical favorite and streaming hit.
