 "The Conjuring" proved to be a spark of inspiration for Øvredal, and he said, "it was such a classical horror movie that came at a time where all these movies had tried to do all kinds of different stuff and then suddenly it was like getting back to basics".After watching the film, Øvredal told his agency he wanted to "find a pure horror script", which resulted in being sent "Autopsy".The script had previously appeared on the annual Black List.