Persephone's (Gothic) Insights

Here is part two, of my review for André Øvredal’s The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016). Part one covered Scandinavian horror and the premise of the movie; part two shall cover the rest of the film, and analysis it more closely in terms of its Gothic themes.  Tommy and Son begin their examination. They collect data, and evidence; they snap polaroids and take notes. Oddities crop up: Jane’s ankles and wrists are smashed, but the skin isn’t broken or bruised. Her narrow waist size isn’t congenital. “Curious,” they say as they scribble these facts down. No external signs of trauma mar her flawless form. The only visual clue that this woman ever died are her eyes, which have clouded over, indicating she has been dead for some time. Something is rotten in Denmark. They open her up. Here, the gore effects are the perfect combination of camera trickery, gnarly sound effects, and generous makeup. Jane is catatonic, throughout. However, countless portrait shots demonstrate her life...

I’ve had a chance to sit down and watch three new horror films: André Øvredal’s The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016), Paco Plaza’s Veronica (2017), and Alex Garland’s Annihilation (2018). I want to review each. For now, I’ll start with The Autopsy of Jane Doe, which I’ve divided up into two sections. Part one will cover Scandinavian horror and the premise of the movie; part two shall cover the rest of the film, and analyze it more closely in terms of its Gothic themes. Seeing as Øvredal is a Norwegian director making an American movie, I wanted to talk a little about Norwegian horror movies. Simply put, Norway’s a good source for horror. Even if the movie in question isn’t horror, per se, you can still feel the affecting chill in the snow-blinding landscape, itself. Just watch Hans Petter Moland’s crime thriller, Kraftidioten (2014); or even an American movie like The Thing (1982), where Carpenter’s unhappy Norwegians run around, blowing themselves up in the unforgiving Antarctic ...