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Smart shocks punctuate "The Autopsy of Jane Doe," a tight little horror-thriller that surprises to the end. In a Virginia town, the sheriff (Michael McElhatton) finds a brutal crime scene, with three bodies upstairs and a female corpse half-buried in the basement.

That corpse (Olwen Kelly) is brought in to the local morgue, where the veteran mortician Tommy Tilden (Brian Cox) and his son Austin (Emile Hirsch) start work on the autopsy. The body has no visible signs of injury or trauma, but as the Tildens proceed through their investigation, they find one horrific surprise after another, unraveling a mystery that threatens their lives and sanity.

Director André Øvredal ("Trollhunter"), working from a compact script by Ian B. Golding and Richard Naing, uses the claustrophobic confines of the Tildens' basement morgue to generate pulse-quickening tension. He's also blessed with good actors — especially the veteran Cox, the original Hannibal Lecter — who can make the growing terror feel real.

'The Autopsy of Jane Doe'

Opening Friday, Jan. 13, at the Tower Theatre; rated R for bloody horror violence, unsettling grisly images, graphic nudity, and language; 87 minutes.