Trollhunter, way back in 2010, was a rulebreaker when it came to horror genrification. It was sort of a found footage/mockumentary, but done with such a deft and realistic touch that you didn’t really think of it that way. It was a monster movie, too, and a fantasy with a whole set of fairly elaborate rules. But there wasn’t a fairy or magic spell to be seen. It was even a satire, in a way, about bureacracy, government regulation, and human denial. It was also a bit of a cult phenom, and it’s popular even today.
Now André Øvredal, the director of Trollhunter, is returning with a new film that looks like the same kind of rulebreaker. It might be a zombie movie. It might be a medical thriller. It might be nothing of the kind. All we know for sure is that Øvredal is firmly in control,a nd that there are some recognizable and very talented actors in this one: Brian Cox (brilliant Canadian charcter actor you’ll remember him as Agamemnon in Troy, Stryker in a couple of X-Men movies, Langrishe in Deadwood, and of course the voice of the Green Dragon in Scooby Doo and the Samurai Sword) and Emile Hirsch (Lords of Dogtown, Speed Racer).
Even Øvredal’s pathway to this project is unconventional. The story goes that he was inspired to do a horror movie after attending a screening of The Conjuring. He immediately called his agent and told them that they should try and find a good horror script for him. A month later they showed him this script and he was immediately interested.
And here we are. The tense and mysterious trailer gives us just a hint of what might be hiding in the morgue, and frankly … it’s pretty cool:
The Autopsy of Jane Doe appears in a limited number of dark rooms near you on December 21
