Director Mauro Iván Ojeda’s supernatural, haunting Argentinian film The Funeral Home is set to premiere later this month. I got the chance to watch it. Here are my thoughts.
The film is set at the home of Bernardo (Luis Machín), his new wife Estela (Celeste Gerez), and her daughter Irina (Camila Vaccarini), which doubles as a funeral home. Neither Estela nor Irina like this place, you see it’s haunted, but they have nowhere else to go. That’s not the only problem the family has, young Irina is still mourning the death of her father. She’s also a moody teenager that seems to think everything her mom does is wrong.
It only took me a couple of minutes to discover the film’s first flaw. Even reading at a fast pace I found the subtitles evaporating before I could get to the end of a sentence before the next line popped up. It’s a little hard to watch a movie and enjoy it when you’re constantly trying to focus on the text that zips by.
I will say this, the director did well creating a spooky setting. The family lives amongst caskets, both new and old, trashed wreaths and arrangements. The film has a dark light cast throughout it and the night brings an even more of a creepy feel.
Things are creepy from the get-go. But while the final scenes build-up to the movie’s disturbing ending, it was all lost for me in one moment that involves the girl dancing. It breaks the tension. Sure, it was meant to be a touching final moment between the girl and her family, but it comes across as weird. It feels out of place. Not to mention throughout the entire movie, we hear Estela talk about all the awards that Irina has won for dancing, yet her dance was less than impressive.
Don’t get me wrong, I think that the cast did a fine job with what they were given. Celeste Gerez really emoted her character’s sadness and desperation. But there were a lot of stereotypes in the movie, the bitchy teen daughter, the depressed mother, and a husband/stepdad who is a mean, controlling jerk. Things we’ve seen too many times.
I’m not going to say this is a bad film, but there are a couple of plot holes and a little bit of weirdness, for example why are watching a teenage girl sitting on the toilet? In fact, plumbing plays a big part in this movie, for some strange reason.
You can judge The Funeral Home for yourself, it’s out in virtual theaters on January 29 before heading to Digital on February 2 via Uncork’d Entertainment.
