The Autopsy of Jane Doe is a 2016 American supernatural horror film directed by André Øvredal. It stars Emile Hirsch and Brian Cox as father-and-son coroners who experience supernatural phenomena while examining the body of an unidentified woman (played by Olwen Kelly). It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2016, and was released on December 21. It is Øvredal's first English-language film.

PLOT :

An unidentified corpse of a woman is found half-buried in the basement of a house where a bloody and bizarre homicide has occurred. One of the police officers concludes that there are no signs of forced entry and the victims seemed to be trying to escape the house instead.

Small-town coroner Tommy Tilden and his son Austin, a medical technician who assists him, have just finished the autopsy of a burned corpse when Austin's girlfriend, Emma, arrives and gets curious about the bodies in the morgue.The sheriff arrives with the mysterious body and tells Tommy that he needs the cause of death (COD) by morning. Austin decides to help his dad instead of going to the theater with Emma, but asks her to come back later. Since no one knows the body's identity and its fingerprints are not on police records, they refer to her as Jane Doe. 

- no visible signs of trauma and no scars or marks. 

- her eyes are cloudy, which is something that usually only happens to bodies that have been dead for a few days, yet the corpse looks fresh. 

- her wrist and ankle bones are shattered without any outward signs of injury. 

- They extract from her nails and hair a kind of peat that is only naturally found in the northern U.S. 

- her tongue has been non-surgically removed and one of her teeth is missing.

- her vagina was mutilated.

- the corpse bleeds profusely, something that usually only happens to fresh corpses. 

- Tommy attributes her abnormally small waist to the use of a corset, which were commonly worn by women in the past.

- Austin discovers that the blood he stored in the freezer strangely started to leak. 

- her lungs reveals that they are severely blackened, which is consistent with someone who has suffered third-degree burns

- Her internal organs reveal numerous cuts and scar tissue, likely from repeated stabbing. 

- they find Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium) in Jane Doe's stomach, a paralyzing agent that, again, is only found in the north of the country. 

- finds her missing tooth wrapped in a piece of cloth in her stomach. They find Roman numerals, letters, and a drawing on the cloth. 

- When Tommy finally separates the skin on her chest from the body, they find similar symbols on the inside of her skin.

- Austin folds the piece of cloth and discovers the name of a passage from the Bible and that the Roman numerals read 1693. Tommy finds the corresponding passage in the Bible, Leviticus 20:27, that condemns witches. Austin concludes that she must be a witch who died during the Salem trials, since all of the evidence adds up. Tommy rebuts this by stating that those women were not actually witches, it was only a case of mass hysteria, and that her injuries are not similar to the methods used during the trials. 

Synopsis :

In 1971, Carolyn and Roger Perron move into a dilapidated, old farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island with their five daughters. During the first day, the family moves in smoothly except for the dog, who refuses to come into the house. That night, the children play a game called hide-and-clap; while playing, one of the daughters finds the boarded up entrance to a cellar. After Roger inspects the basement with a match, the family goes to bed. Carolyn expresses concern because the dog is barking outside, and one of the daughters feels someone pulling at her feet.

In the morning, Carolyn wakes up with a mysterious bruise and the dog is found dead. Over the next couple of days, various paranormal activities occur; doors open and close seemingly by themselves and Carolyn hears clapping when nobody is there. At night, Cindy sleepwalks into the eldest daughter's bedroom, where she bangs her head repeatedly against an old wardrobe. The activity culminates in the eldest daughter being attacked by a spirit that looks like an elderly woman.

Carolyn seeks the help of Ed and Lorraine Warren, noted paranormal investigators, to validate their concerns. Lorraine senses that a particular malevolent spirit has latched on to the family. They conduct an initial investigation, and conclude they should get involved, explaining to the Perron family that the house may require an exorcism. However, this cannot be done without further evidence and authorization from the Catholic Church.

During the process of researching the house's history, Ed and Lorraine find out that the house belonged to an accused witch, Bathsheba. When Bathsheba's husband caught her sacrificing their week-old infant, she climbed to the top of a tree on the property, cursed all those who would take her land, and proclaimed her love for Satan before committing suicide. Ed and Lorraine then find reports of numerous murders and suicides in houses that have been built upon the property.

Ed and Lorraine return to the house with a police officer, in an attempt to prove the spirit of Bathsheba is inhabiting the house and receive authorization from the Catholic Church. Nothing seems to happen until nightfall, when Cindy begins to sleepwalk again. The cameras Ed and Lorraine have set up throughout the house observe her going upstairs and into the wardrobe, whereupon the door slams shut behind her. The others force their way into the room and find a secret passage behind the wardrobe. After Cindy is taken out, Lorraine enters the wardrobe and falls through the floor boards down into the cellar. There, she sees the spirits of people whom Bathsheba has possessed, and realizes Bathsheba's purpose: to possess mothers to make them kill their children.

Lorraine escapes the cellar and informs the others of her findings. They go to the nearest Catholic Church to organize an exorcism. They then get a call from Roger, who tells them that Carolyn had just left with two of the daughters. Ed and Lorraine rush to the house, where they find Roger and the police officer struggling with Carolyn as she tries to stab one of her daughters with a pair of scissors.

Ed suggests they call the priest, but Lorraine reminds him that the priest is too far away, and won't arrive in time. Ed asserts that he must do the exorcism himself. Lorraine arrives with 'the book' and Ed successfully exorcises Bathsheba from Carolyn.

The Perron family is allowed to move back in to the house, with the promise that it is free of demonic activity for good. Back at the Warren's, Ed puts the music box in their occult museum.

CAST :

VERE FARMIGA

Patrick Wilson

Lily Taylor

Ron Livingston

Shanley Caswell

Hayley McFarland

Joey King

Mackenzie Foy

Kyla Deaver