DVD Review: Autopsy
Autopsy (1975)
Studio: Blue Underground
DVD Release Date: February 27, 2007
Directed By: Armando Crispino
Cast: Mimsy Farmer, Barry Primus, Ray Lovelock, Carlo Cattaneo
Brutal As Hell Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Review By: Marc Patterson
I’m a moody film viewer. I get easily cranky, high critical, and can be a real grump sometimes. When I’m in the mood to watch a slasher, I want to see campy fun and bodies getting hacked without mercy. When I’m in the mood for a spaghetti western I want to see that dark, hardened hero that really isn’t much of a good guy at all. Same thing with a giallo. I expect sexy fashionable women, twisted plots, and a killer that comes at you from left field. Autopsy, well let’s just say that it doesn’t really stick to the rules of the giallo.
From the opening credits this film is bleak with an apocalyptic and hopeless overtone. I can tell we’re not in for a feel-good giallo. In between flashes of solar flares we are presented with a montage of disturbing scenes of suicides. Layered on top of the images is an equally disturbing score by composer Ennio Morricone, who takes a more sinister and discordant approach than what we have come to expect from this master composer. Once into the film we are taken into the pit of a dreary morgue that seems unusually backlogged with bodies. If you’re feeling uneasy, that’s quite okay. The fun has only begun.
An obese woman is rolled in, breasts and all hanging out. Damn. Even the sleaze is uncomfortable to watch. Simona (Mimsy Farmer) is a resident doctor at the mortuary, but is on the brink of a nervous breakdown from long hours of work. She starts to hallucinate the dead bodies coming back to life. Quite unexpectedly the corpses begin to have sex with each other. Either she’s a little tweaked, or sex really is all there is to life.
Moving beyond this the story begins to unfold. Simona is working extraneously on a thesis that examines the differences between suicides and murders made to appear as though they were suicides. This becomes the underlying angle on the film at large. Are the sun spots causing the alarming amount of suicides taking place, or is there something else occurring?
Autopsy is fairly atypical of most gialli. Whereas we are accustomed to high fashion, lavish sets, and ultra-stylistic camera work, Autopsy delivers none of these. In these regards alone the film seems bland. However, the bleak, washed out, dreary presentation seems quite intentional, and certainly lends towards the dismal feel of the story. The film also lacks the presence of the quintessential black-gloved killer, but again as the film is investigating suicide vs. murder it would be inappropriate to introduce such a staple of the genre as this.
If you’re the kind of individual who enjoys a copious amount of sleaze in your gialli, then this film may or may not do it for you. The film is not without a satisfactory amount of sleaze however, given the abundance of sleaze, there wasn’t much to make it enjoyable. The sex and nudity is awkward, painful, and uneasy. You’re certainly not going to get your jollies from watching this film.
Presentation wise, this version holds up to what we’ve come to expect from Blue Underground, and is an improvement over the 2000 Anchor Bay release. The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and we are given the choice of Italian, or English dubbing. The English dubbing sounds nice, and I have no real complaints with the audio.
All in all, Autopsy isn’t a bad giallo. The acting is solid, and the directing is competent. It’s quite apparent that a solid attempt was made at creating a film with pseudo-intellectual overtones, but on those merits it falls far short. What we are left with is a twisted, bleak, and unique thriller from an era defined by highly stylized murder sequences and directorial flourishes. While not standout, it is worth viewing for any fan of the genre.
