Autopsy - The Documentary (18) Reviews

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Good Points: Good quality footage and a brave release by the BBFC.

Bad Points: Little explation of procedures involved. No extra features including no scene selection.

General comments: Autopsy - The Documentary - Proudly sporting a bright red sticker on the case exclaiming "BBFC Warning: Contains Sustained Medical Horror", the makers knew exactly what market they were looking for with this release. Yeah, ghouls and horror geeks! We've searched out Faces Of Death, Faces Of Gore and Traces Of Death to name but a few...and now we have Autopsy - The Documentary.

Ok, so we've seen it all before on a rather ropey tape copy, but never have we seen it in such pristine, bright, clean and sterile gory glory. The footage involves Dr. Thomas T. Noguchi, a student assistant and some chap who just stands there punctuating the procedures with "ahhhhhh's" and "uh-huh's"....oh and of course the corpse of a large old women. She keeps her dignity by the usage of blurring her face, nipples and genital area out, which is somewhat of a relief.

The footage takes us through the opening up of the corpse (which is possibly the most revolting part), followed by the removal of the various bits 'n' bobs from the inside. And what's that they use to crack open the breast bone? A pair of household garden cutters, surely not!

The various bits are weighed, dissected and mumbled about throughout (including the brain and spinal cord). Unfortunately, no real narration is given by our leading man, just a barrage of mumbled questions to his side-kick student pal who stumbles through his answers with a repeated nervous mumble.

The DVD has no extra features and the footage is all on one track - so no scene selection. This is a disappointment, as it would have be a nice (if not obvious) touch to add some medical notes on the procedures and possibly an interview with the Doctor involved. It runs for a rather tedious 50 mins (approx), and is released on Region 2 PAL.

All in all, I found the DVD mildly interesting, but it became tedious and dull after a while. With little explanation of what was going on, it was less educating and informative that one would hope.