After Dark Horror Fest 3: Autopsy

Another in the generically named series, this was probably our favorite movie of the day. It's also misnamed: There are, in fact, no autopsies. This reminds me most, I suppose, of Horror Hospital, from the mid-70s.

A bunch of college-age kids get into a car accident and are taken to a hospital (in New Orleans? Katrina is mentioned!) whereupon they one-by-one get to "see the doctor".

This is a mad-doctor-tries-to-save-his-wife movie, in the vein of The Brain That Wouldn't Die, e.g. It's really kind of old school. And it helps that the mad doctor is none other than the T-1000 himself, Robert Patrick.

And, speaking of James Cameron alumni, in the Nurse Ratched role, we have none other than Jenette Goldstein (Sgt. Vazquez in Aliens, John Connor's foster mother in Terminator 2), looking more than a bit frumpy if not downright frowzy.

This is the movie equivalent of a fun-house ride. There are a lot of set-ups for scares, and the scares and done knowingly, in such a way that you're set up for one thing but get a completely different surprise. These don't always make sense but, seriously, why should you care?

This is also the first movie that wasn't unrelentingly grim. There are some good, deliberate laughs in the movie. And this movie gets the "best image" award for the fest (so far), involving a great deal of let's say "floating viscera".

It's a little bit campy and a lot creative. A fun, fast-moving watch!