Autopsy Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Since they like to release eight indie-style or foreign horror films on one specific day each year, I'm always a little bit fascinated by the latest goings-on at After Dark. The fact that I don't actually like the majority of their films is sort of beside the point. Being a hardcore fan gives you the right to be critical, of course, but it also means you should always give a new flick a fair break. And the AD gang has given us access to some half-decent titles, and so I opt to focus on the good (Borderland, The Gravedancers, Frontier(s)) instead of the bad -- which is just about everything else. Although your mileage may vary.

And even though the next infusion of After Darkness won't arrive until January, I'm happy to note that they're putting together a rather solid slate. They'd already snagged a cool British chiller called The Broken (which I saw at Sundance ... and enjoyed) and a low-key occult thriller called From Within (which I saw at Tribeca ... and didn't), but now comes word on two new additions: The first one is also a Tribeca title, and it's an Aussie horror tale called Dying Breed. (Here's my review. I nagged Tim to play it at Fantastic Fest, but it ended up in the "very close but no cigar" bin.) The second is an American flick called Autopsy, which comes from screenwriter / first-time director Adam Gierasch (Toolbox Murders, Mother of Tears), and while I haven't seen this one yet, I've heard some quiet-yet-positive rumblings from my sources in the L.A. horror-geek scene.

The Broken, From Within, Dying Breed, and Autopsy will join Slaughter (aka Faithless), Perkins' 14, and The Butterfly Effect: Revelation when After Dark kick-starts on January 9. The eighth title has yet to be announced. Could it be this movie?

[Thanks to BD.com]

Robert Patrick is one of those actors who, for better or worse, I always associate with one role. Maybe it's due to the impressionable age at which I saw Terminator 2, but every time I see Patrick onscreen I react the same way. When I saw Walk the Line, I thought "Why is T-1000 being so mean to Johnny Cash?" When I saw him on greatest-TV-show-ever The Sopranos, I thought "Man, T-1000 needs to stop gambling so much!" And if I see him in the upcoming horror film Autopsy, I'm sure I will say "Why is T-1000 hanging out in that spooky hospital?"

Autopsy, in pre-production now for a scheduled 2008 release, is said to be about "a young woman who tries to find her injured boyfriend in a bizarre and dangerous hospital." It will be directed by first-timer Adam Gierasch, who co-wrote the screenplays for Tobe Hooper's Toolbox Murders, Dario Argento's upcoming The Third Mother, and something called Crocodile 2: Death Swamp! Gierasch is scripting with Jace Anderson and E.L. Katz, and the cast includes Jessica Lowndes and Tarantino favorite Michael Bowen. Patrick is currently on the big screen in Bridge to Terabithia ("What's T-1000 doing on that bridge?"), which I imagine would not make a good double feature with Autopsy.

News bites for the new week:

• Big-screen newcomer Jessica Lowndes, who has had guest spots on shows like Masters of Horror and Kyle XY, has landed the starring role in a new, upcoming horror flick called Autopsy. The movie will have her searching for her injured boyfriend in a "bizarre and dangerous hospital." I'm sure that the outlook can't be good considering that the movie is titled after the practice of opening up and examining dead people. The film already has a cast that includes side players like Michael Bowen and Jenette Goldstein, as well as a whole mess of up-and-comings.
• Nicole Ari Parker has done a bit of a metamorphosis with her career. After starting things out with indie features like The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love, The Adventures of Sebastian Cole and 200 Cigarettes, she's switched to a different flavah, namely flicks like Brown Sugar and King's Ransom. Continuing the trend, she's signed on to Martin Lawrence's The Better Man, a film Erik Davis posted about a few days ago. There's no word yet on who she will play.
• In January, I shared word that David Arquette's horror film, The Tripper, was going to slide into wide release this summer. Now it seems that the film has been dropped by After Dark and Arquette has told fans at the Wizard World convention in L.A. that he will release the film himself. Well, that doesn't bode well for the flick. How good can it be if an indie horror company doesn't want to release it? I wonder if he'll use a cow covered in blood-colored corn syrup to market the thing...

The LA county coroner has announced that the autopsy on Chris Penn was inconclusive, though it enabled him to rule out foul play as the cause of death. According to a spokesperson, the coroner speculated that Penn could have died as a result of a past illness (though he never said what the illness was) or the use of "multiple drugs;" the proverbial "natural causes" are also a possible cause. Since the toxicology screen won't be back for several weeks, it was not said whether the drugs discussed were prescribed or of the legal variety, but it's probably a safe guess that Penn had used both in the past.