Married co-screenwriters Jace Anderson and Adam Gierasch (working here with E.L. Katz) earned a decidedly mixed reaction as co-scribes of Tobe Hooper’s decent TOOLBOX MURDERS remake and Argento’s dodgy but oddly likeable MOTHER OF TEARS. They team up again for this movie, which marks Gierasch’s directorial debut and proves to be his best work to date by some margin. A splatter-enhanced, 80’s horror influenced (c.f. RE-ANIMATOR, DR BUTCHER M.D. among others) variation on the hospital paranoia of COMA and THE AMBULANCE, this nimbly paced, ultra-gory crowd-pleaser delivers old-school gore, tension and sick laughs in equal measure.
Pretty Jessica Lowndes (also in Tobe Hooper’s “Dance of the Dead” MASTERS OF HORROR episode) is among the young folks whose Mardi Gras partying hits a bum note when a car accident leaves them stranded in the ass end of nowhere. An ambulance shows up and takes them all to the inappropriately named “Mercy Hospital”, manned by a skeletal staff of oddballs, seemingly bereft of other patients and home to a shedload of illegal experiments linked to the cancer-ridden wife of ever so slightly mad doctor Robert Patrick.
Lowndes is super-hot though the main acting pleasures of this breezy flick stem from the cast veterans, all underplaying to hugely entertaining effect as the hospital’s quietly deranged staff. Once the badass, ultra-toned Vasquez in ALIENS, the now mumsy-looking Jenette Goldstein is the deceptively nice Nurse Marian; Robert Patrick, always good value, is the kind of medic who drinks spinal fluid fresh from the tap; and the underrated Michael Bowen excels as a Puccini-loving nutball.
A tense build-up keeps us waiting for the graphic gore that eventually hijacks the flick, though there’s plenty of eye-candy in the shape of a bold primary color scheme employed by veteran cinematographer Anthony Richmond. In an era where nearly every new horror flick strives to look washed-out, handheld and ugly-gritty, this movie richly echoes the vintage 70’s/80’s work of Argento with its vivid, vaguely surreal use of blues and reds. Richmond has a long and impressive C.V. that includes several films for Nicolas Roeg, notably the still-stunning DON’T LOOK NOW.
When AUTOPSY cuts loose, it doesn’t skimp on the grue. The script has some novel, pleasingly warped visual coups, notably a literal “organ tree” that results in a grim image worthy of top-form Argento or Cronenberg. FX genius Garry J Tunnicliffe, in one of his best showcases to date, provides an excellent array of traditional gore FX. You know the kind of stuff : meat-cleaver-to-the-face, impromptu cranial surgery; disembowelments that unleash internal organs onto the face of a screaming girl…and an awesome IRREVERSIBLE-inspired head pummeling with a fire extinguisher.
Given that this is the post-SAW horror era, the final girl here goes through a more sadistic hell than the heroines of the 80’s horror the film pays affectionate tribute to, but in all other areas this is a splendid retro shocker, capped by a nicely resonant final scene.
-Steven West
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
