THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE- FROM A CRITICAL MOVIE/BOOK REVIEWER

This is Movie Review #2, my 2nd book/movie review.
You may be thinking, "Materwelon, why tf are you reviewing movies and books?". Here's my aim:

• See what makes or breaks a story: this is extremely crucial to understand how movies with a great premise still fail and how we can build better stories for movies and books!!
  
  
• Helping writers (wattpad, novel, novella, etc.): by understanding what breaks a seemingly great story, iust a few alterations could increase anyone's audience and the likability of their story.

Context (skip this if you get it :)):
Genres: Horror/Mystery
Main premise: Two coroners start an autopsy of an unidentified girl to investigate the cause of her death. However, as they get closer to finding answers, bizarre events take place.



THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE: HOW TO HACK THE MOVIE INDUSTRY
I've decided on the title above and here's why. 

Setting: The morgue is a great setting for a typical horror story and is set up well. The information in the books they spend searching and the vast place and all set up along with Jane Doe's haunting presence is great. I wouldn't change anything here and it's completely believable. 


Characters: Austin and Tommy Tilden are decent, solid characters for this story and well chosen. Their dynamic is great and they movie did great with their conversations for when everything went wrong. Jane Doe is a typical horror character who is undefeatable (heard it before tbh). Though, I think the movie did a good job of refreshing the common trope to avoid cliches because instead of Jane Doe being this possesed doll, she's a literal corpse who seems to be dead but alive at the same time but I'll talk about this in more detail with the plot. Emma Roberts is also a decently written character. We don't get to know about her that much but her relationship with Austin has a touch of struggle to it as Austin doesn't get much time off of work and, not to mention, working at the morgue is a creepy job. (And not to mention, the guilt Austin has when he kills his own girlfriend is a great surprise element).

Plot: Now, here's where things get interesting because I thought this movie would have low ratings but they surprised me. Only the rating from IMBD seemed to hit right with me with a rating of 6.8/10 but 81% from audience reviews and  88% on rotten tomatoes was a little too good. So I had to investigate further. Why do people like this movie when I didn't? Turns out, it's not about what the movie is about but rather how they told the story through the plot. If you've read my movie review on Vivarium (2019), you'll know that the movie has low reviews because of the lack of plot progression and the vast majority of audiences didn't like the movie because it was too miserable throughout (including the ending). But isn't that the same case we have with The Autopsy Of Jane Doe? Not really. Here's where we come to an interesting storytelling discovery that largely impact the likability of horror stories (and most stories in general). In Vivarium, the movie's central focus is the miserable lack of escape that becomes monotonous and repetitive all the way throughout. We don't get the core understanding of Yonder or anything along the way, just misery throughout as the movie's central point. The Autopsy Of Jane Doe does something different. First, assumptions are set for the characters and the audience (eg: Jane Doe is a recently dead corpse). Then, the clues we find out along the way (that become the beats of the story) narrow the assumptions down towards the answer we now want to find (eg: so, Jane Doe isn't recently dead? Oh, nevermind, she's actually alive?? She was killed for being a witch but she isn't she's just a girl that's sad. WAIT WHAT SHE'S A WITCH? Ah, that makes sense since she looks for revenge on people but damn...)

Key takeaway here : 
Vivarium is a horror film where the lack of escape is the main narrative (monotonous and repetitive in every scene).
The Autopsy of Jane Doe is a horror film where the lack of escape is the final twist (much better and unpredictable). It starts as a methodical, fact-based investigation, and the plot progresses through a series of discoveries. Each new piece of evidence (the root, the tooth, the bells, the symbols) moves the story forward and gives the characters a new piece of the puzzle. The tension comes from their attempts to understand and combat the evil they've uncovered. The ending is a punch in the gut because it reveals that all of their efforts, their plot progression, and their "solving" of the mystery were ultimately meaningless in the face of an unkillable force.



How to make this movie a better one (although already great):

• Provide a more concrete resolution: Of course there are many ways to do this and most of them have a more positive ending but here's what I'm thinking. 1. A heroic sacrifice where instead of the father's death being a failed attempt, maybe it could've been a sacrifice that breaks Jane Doe's curse. This could provide a more poetic ending. 2. The defeat where they actually find a way to do a counter-ritual or something to break the curse. 3. The escape ending (something a lot of horror fans are dying to see) where they both outsmart Jane Doe and escape the morgue, leaving the curse there to be contained in the morgue but still hinting that in the future, it could be released again.
  
• Clarifying backstory: Now, this is less necessary than providing a better resolution but making Jane Doe's backstory a little less obvious may be more appealing through brief, terrifying flashbacks. The flashbacks of her torture could have the audience even being on Jane's side.
• More lore: A lot of things in many horror movies go unexplained. And while it's necessary for keeping the mystery in the story, the biggest mysteries of the story embedded in the plot ,rather than mini mysteries, can't go unresolved or unexplained. This point is less important but still a suggestion.
• Improving the final act: It was a great, slowburning thriller in the first 2 acts but the last act switched up into a chaotic ghost story. The final act could be extended to allow the characters more time to react, strategize, and make decisions that feel earned, rather than feeling like a series of supernatural attacks they can't control. Sometimes less is more.

• Unpredictability: The twist of the lack of escape in the end was perfect and was all built up from the investigations from earlier.
• The impact of positive endings: while Jane Doe didn't represent one, an alternate ending ,even with a little hope for the future and a sacrifice, could work better in future horror stories (eg: Scary Stories to tell in the Dark).