The Funeral Home

Ready to get drawn into a dark family drama that handles the supernatural element with grace and style?  Then writer/director Mauro Iván Ojeda’s chilling journey into The Funeral Home is definitely for you.  Thanks to an opening which sets the stage for some seriously dreadful things to rollout upon, we already know that this meditation on all things which go bump in the night is going to be moody and pitch perfect.  Spanish language horror delivers once again!

"With plenty of momentum when it comes to deftly handling suspense and true terror, Ojeda’s film is a true slow burn."


 

The Funeral Home is yet another example of low budget terror which absolutely works thanks to an understanding of the genre.  It is also steady in its handling of suspense as a family of three - Bernardo, his wife Estela, her daughter Irina, all maintaining a “normal” life inside a funeral home - experience all sorts of haunted affairs.  They might even be used to it - which makes it no less creepier for The Funeral Home’s audience.  Such things - oh, let’s say like regular ghostly visits from the past bodies they’ve worked on - shouldn’t be normal, but they are for this family.

The eeriness continues when we realize just how far gone the family is when it comes to liking each other and accepting the past dark dealings of their deceased family.  Something deep, dark, and truly demented is slowly bubbling to the surface of this horror film and Ojeda keeps the audience in the dark, just like the shadows that keep consuming the family members in the funeral home.  

Once locked in, there is no escape. The Funeral Home allows no re-entry.The Funeral Home

The dysfunction and the death is visceral with each minute the film logs and you, if you are anything like me, will succumb to the moment, drowning in the gothic nature of this truly haunting film.  Bernardo is the undertaker here, but he struggles to find value in his domesticated life and each daily visit from the other side - whether they be mischievous or not - doesn’t help the doom that he feels.  It comes with his line of work, he thinks . . . but the real source of all the many happenings isn’t from the mortuary work alone.

There’s a helping hand at play here and, within the walls of The Funeral Home, is where it longs to keep the terrifying truth.  Madness, it seems, is relative.  With plenty of momentum when it comes to deftly handling suspense and true terror, Ojeda’s film is a true slow burn.  It will not simply give you the answers; this one leaves it all up to you and that is one of this film’s best moves as the mystery to be solved reinforces the terror surrounding this family.

Starring Luis Machín, Celeste Gerez, Camila Vaccarini, Susana Varela, and Hugo Arana, The Funeral Home arrives directly from its premiere at Fantasia and plays in theaters on January 29 before a digital release February 2 via Uncork’d Entertainment.

Things truly do go bump in the night!  Find out why in The Funeral Home.

5/5 stars

 

The Funeral Home

Blu-ray Details

Home Video Distributor:
Available on Blu-ray

Screen Formats:
Subtitles
:
Audio:

Discs:
Region Encoding:


Film Details

The Funeral Home

MPAA Rating: Unrated.
Runtime:
86 mins
Director
: Mauro Iván Ojeda
Writer:
Mauro Iván Ojeda
Cast:
Luis Machín, Celeste Gerez, Camila Vaccarini
Genre
: Horror
Tagline:
Nothing here ever rests in peace.
Memorable Movie Quote: "How can we not have presences if we have a funeral home in the house."
Theatrical Distributor:
Uncork'd Entertainment
Official Site:
Release Date:
Select virtual theaters January 29 and digital Feb 2
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:

Synopsis: Bernardo is an undertaker. He and his dysfunctional family lives amongst coffins, wreaths and mischievous supernatural entities that visit daily. They attribute the paranormal manifestations to the dead bodies from their mortuary work. Finding the real source of all this madness will be their quest, but they might find a terrifying truth.

 

Art

The Funeral Home