Perhaps the most wild and audacious opening ever seen in a giallo, 1975’s Autopsy, co-written and directed by Armando Crispino, starts with a rotisserie of people committing suicide in both shocking and outlandish ways. . . only for the camera to then take us into one of the last taboo places in film, the morgue, to show us the bodies piling up in the life of half American/half Italian Simona Sanna (Mimsy Farmer) – this is clearly not the Rome we normally see in movies.
Now, you may be wondering what all these bodies have to do with her. . . well, she is a young doctor working on a research project revolving around the difference between suicides and well hidden murders made to look like the former. As you might imagine, it is grave subject matter. . . so much so that she is struggling in her romantic relationship with photographer Riccardo (Ray Lovelock) and is even hallucinating that those dead bodies are coming back to life.
Clearly a slightly unreliable narrator, it does not help when her unknown American neighbour who lives above her, Betty Lenox (Gaby Wagner), drops by one night, then is found dead on the beach the next morning. . . another apparent suicide. Soon meeting her erratic brother, Father Paul Lenox (Barry Primus), a former race car driver who killed a bunch of spectators in a horrific crash at Le Mans (only to take the cloth), Simona also learns her playboy father, Gianni Sanna (Massimo Serato), may have had something to do with the now dead redhead.
Tossing her even further down the rabbit hole, Simona turns amateur sleuth, trying to discover whether her neighbour’s suicide, along with others that will follow, are part of this recent trend found in the city, or whether they are well disguised murders hiding something much darker.
With the heat beating down on the Eternal City, Crispino builds a story around something he read back in 1970. . . that solar flares can cause suicide numbers to rise. Tying a murder mystery within it, all the men are seemingly in heat, our female protagonist is hallucinating, and people in general are offing themselves. . . in other words, death and danger is around each and every corner.
Clearly of its time, Crispino adds an almost psychotropic vibe to the first person shots – psychedelic distortion that puts us in the head space of Simona, while an almost DayGlo erupting volcano effect warns us every time some violence is around that aforementioned corner. Matched by Ennio Morricone’s unnerving score, its use of almost otherworldly voices and chaotic strings adds an extra bit of edge to the entire piece. Together, it is competently arranged. . . returning to a more relaxed but suspenseful pace following the over-the-top beginning.
Another interesting feature, which is something found in many gialli, is an intoxicating mix of modernity fused with a gothic storytelling nature. Look to Mimsy Farmer’s outfits – sleekly mod fashion with short skirts and zippers, the hip apartments (with floating fireplaces, layered interiors – clearly Cosmo Kramer should have lived in 70s Italy), and unique exterior gardens for the modernity, while its almost Edgar Allan Poe-esque narrative, with its unreliable narrator, tricky murder mystery, and historic setting (despite the modern touches) creates a most fascinating juxtaposition between new and old.
An edgy mid-seventies giallo adventure, Autopsy, which is also known as Sunspots in its native Italy, as well as The Victim and Corpse in other territories, is a mesmerizing trip into a very infrequently explored horror venue (these aspects providing it with its cult status). Finding a different angle for his story and characters, there is no denying that this is an original mystery/thriller – impressive, when considering how many giallos were made during the early to mid seventies. So, experience some ‘murders in the rue morgue’ in this most unique picture, it’s a deathmatch made in heaven.
This film can be watched in Italian with English subtitles, or in dubbed English