Autopsy

When approached as a standard giallo, à la Argento, Autopsy can seem a major disappointment. This deliberately-paced character study is part psychological study, part mood piece and part giallo, but the latter element may seem muted if one approaches it with expectations of killers dressed in black slicing up nubile young victims.

The Victim begins shockingly with a montage of graphic suicides … it’s a stomach-churning opener and is swiftly followed by more gruesome scenes as [Mimsy] Farmer’s overwrought character begins to imagine that the bodies in the morgue are returning to life. Unfortunately, by showing these arresting images right at the start of the film, Crispino and co-scripter Lucio Battistrada end up disappointing their audience with the complex, and typically preposterous, giallo narrative which then unfolds. Despite some effective suspense-filled situations … the remainder of The Victim cannot live up to the aforementioned opening scenes.