The Best Horror Movie You Probably Haven’t Seen Is Coming To 4K

From the dawn of human civilization to today, death remains the ultimate mystery. We’ve found ways to delay the end with science, we search for what lies beyond it using religion, and we reckon with its emotional turmoil through art. And while there are plenty of films and shows about grief and funerals and the complexities of losing someone, is there any genre more equipped to deal with our questions about death than horror?

From classics like Frankenstein and Dracula to newer gems such as It Follows and Hereditary, horror movies have long confronted audiences with their own fragile mortality. One film in particular flew under the radar when it was released 10 years ago, but this underrated gem reckoned with what happens after death in a very literal and terrifying sense, and now it’s finally getting a long-awaited 4K Blu-ray release from Severin.

How Was The Autopsy Of Jane Doe Received Upon Release?

When The Autopsy of Jane Doe premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2016, director André Øvredal was six years removed from the film that put him on the map. 2010’s Trollhunter, a Norwegian found-footage mashup of comedy, dark fantasy, and horror, was an international success, and Øvredal wanted something to prove he wasn’t a one-trick pony. After watching James Wan’s The Conjuring, Øvredal craved the opportunity to direct a “pure horror script,” according to an interview with Dread Central, something that felt “classical” and “back-to-basics” like Wan’s franchise-starter — which is exactly what he got when the script for Jane Doe fell into his lap.

Although it only received a limited theatrical release, The Autopsy of Jane Doe was a hit with horror audiences who did see it. The film grossed $6 million on an unreported but visibly small budget, and it left an impression on critics. Joe Lipsett of Bloody Disgusting described how “Øvredal masterfully balances the requisite gore with some well-earned jump scares and a foreboding sense of doom,” and Brian Tallerico at RogerEbert.com called it a “great haunted house movie – the house just happens to be the morgue” while praising the two central performances.

Why Is The Autopsy Of Jane Doe Important To Watch Today?

Simply put, The Autopsy of Jane Doe is a classic horror film in that it relies on building dread to the point of torturousness. Much like The Conjuring, Øvredal’s film saves the blood and gore for the title medical procedure, instead terrifying audiences with all-consuming shadows and disembodied noises in the dark that feel so intimately familiar to the ghost stories you’d tell by candlelight.

It starts with an inexplicable crime scene in a small Virginia town, where a young woman’s corpse is discovered, half-buried, in the basement of a home where a harrowing multiple homicide recently occurred. That mystery falls to the local coroner, Tommy Tilden (Brian Cox), and his son Austin (Emile Hirsch), who’s planning to leave the family business for greener pastures with his girlfriend, Emma (Ophelia Lovibond). But before that can happen, the two of them have to make it through one final autopsy — and when they start to cut into their Jane Doe, they open a Pandora’s Box of malevolent supernatural phenomenon tied to one of the most horrific periods of American history.

Although it’s far from a splatter film, The Autopsy of Jane Doe is uncomfortable viewing even before the nightmare begins because of how clinical and matter-of-fact its treatment of death and the autopsy process truly is. Tommy and Austin are no strangers to bodies on the slab, and the movie doesn’t shy away from juxtaposing the initial mundanity of the job with the reality of how horrific it looks to the living. An inevitability that terrifies most people is treated like another shift on the clock, and while there’s still a certain gravity that comes with working with corpses, it’s medical and sterile in a way that’s honest and unnerving.

Of course, this is no normal autopsy, something that becomes increasingly clear with each step. Jane Doe’s (Olwen Kelly, an actress chosen for her knowledge of yoga and breathing techniques) internal injuries indicate brutal torture that doesn’t manifest on her body externally. Once they dig deeper, they find occult markings on the inside of her skin and a tooth wrapped in ceremonial cloth inside her stomach, and with each layer they pull back, an unseen force begins to toy with them. The bodies in the morgue disappear, they’re haunted by specters just out of view, and eventually, the situation becomes so inexplicable that it can only be connected to the body they’re examining.

André Øvredal’s direction here is a masterclass in the ebb and flow of suspense and relief, a balance that his recent films (2023’s The Last Voyage of the Demeter and this year’s Passenger) seem to lack. Ian Goldberg and Richard Naing’s devilishly ingenious script is also part of the winning formula, as the film's structure is intimately linked to the autopsy. It feels almost like a murder mystery that spirals into a haunted-house story before it tosses all its cards on the table with the big reveal. But at the heart of it are two crucial performances by Hirsch and Cox: a father who wants nothing more than to keep his son safe and a son who yearns for the world outside the coroner’s office, and who both run headfirst into proof of how quickly and tragically the end can rush at you.

What Special Features Does The Autopsy Of Jane Doe Blu-Ray Have?

Along with the brand-new 4K scan, Severin’s two-disc release includes a host of featurettes about the making of the film. These include interviews with the director, Emile Hirsch, Olwen Kelly, both writers and several producers, and on-set interviews with most of the cast. It’s the perfect way for fans to dive deeper into a film they might already love, especially during the chilling Halloween season.