Morgue

Morgue is a supernatural horror movie made on a shoestring budget in Paraguay that is much better than its average to abysmal ratings.

The movie revolves around Diego Martinez, a lowly paid security guard who lives in a cheap apartment and drives a decrepit car that is about to fall apart. One night, he hits a man on the road and decides to run and hide. Plagued by guilt, he is relieved to get a call from his employer that informs him that he has a night shift at a hospital that might get him some welcome distraction. However, that shift is everything but a routine job as strange things are going on that will change Diego Martinez' life forever.

This horror movie convinces on numerous levels. The film is short, gets to the point, has excellent pace, entertains from start to finish and never overstays its welcome. The atmosphere is excellent in decrepit apartments, on abandoned roads in dirty suburbs and particularly in the creepy hospital with its terrifying morgue. Pablo Martinez' realistic acting in his very first film carries the movie with few dialogues and a limited number of characters very well. The special effects aren't overused and give the movie an authentic touch that will send shivers down your spine. The light and sound effects as well as the gloomy soundtrack enhance the atmosphere splendidly. Director and writer Hugo Cardozo has been inspired by atmospheric horror movies of the seventies and employs their classic trademarks in a refreshing way as if he were an experienced veteran.

If you are sick and tired of predictable sequels flooding North American cinemas, Paraguay's independent atmospheric horror movie Morgue is a very interesting alternative for a great movie night with friends for Halloween. The film is now available digitally and physically in North America and certainly worth the money and time of curious genre fans.

Diego Martínez is selfish and has no money. His girlfriend is concerned with his roaming eyes. He kills a pedestrian with his car in a hit-and-run. He gets a call from his boss. He has been assigned to guard a mostly empty hospital. There is one body in the morgue which presumably is the guy he ran over with his car.

This is a limited horror indie. The production is very limited. They probably had an empty building for a few nights and ran with this horror idea. I really like some of the ideas like catching the dead ghost in the background. The naked ghosts are very creepy. It's all very spooky. At the end of the day, this is limited. It has only one main character. There are no great special effects. It's really a Twilight Zone episode. It's a campfire ghost story. Even at less than ninety minutes, it does go on too long.

Morgue is a film that in my opinion suffered from the lack of a bigger budget and a better execution. The script is pretty good and the lead actor does it pretty well. The ending may for many be unexpected and to some extent quite original. Being Paraguayan and knowing how much it costs to make a film in my country, I just want to take the opportunity to congratulate the creators of the film, they did a great job. And for those who want to see more films from my country, I recommend "7 Cajas" which in my opinion is one of the best films I have seen in my life and I am not saying it because it is from my country but because it really is a film with a script and a very original execution.

Following a string of bad luck, a down-on-his-luck young man accepts a job as a security guard at a morgue and happily accepts the job, but the more he stays there the more he comes to believe that something might not like his presence at the location and tries to get out of the building alive.

For the most part, this was a rather impressive genre outing. When this one works rather well is the general atmosphere and eerieness of the location which is milked rather effectively. Given the already uneasy feeling and tone found in the location to begin with, the turn into a full-on genre effort is quite effective a the scenes playing with him are incredibly effective. The desolate nature of everything and the near-total silence a he wanders around checking on things and encountering the creaking doors, shadows running by in the background or the limbs of the deceased falling out from under the cloth on the gurney are all utilized to bring together an effective and wholly chilling atmosphere. This atmosphere is then utilized incredibly effectively to generate some rather impressive and fun encounters with supernatural entities. The initial scenes of him thinking that something's in there after looking at security camera footage or the selfies he takes on his phone start things off nicely, while the main confrontation is the big selling point here with the chase through the morgue's hallways tending to the trespassing vagrant. This becomes fun with the zooming chases and the shocking discovery that adds a wholly different dimension to the situation which is then carried along throughout the rest of the film carrying into a highly effective and chilling finale. These factors manage to hold this one up the most as there are a few issues to be had here. One of the biggest problems is the fact that this one decides to spend so much time on the build-up of his bad luck that it doesn't generate any kind of overt genre atmosphere for a while into the movie. The scenes of him getting stuck in the city with a crummy car that doesn't run, the inability to find a job and the demanding girlfriend who's completely unreasonable and mistrusting of his explanations don't do much to enhance the atmosphere of the film until he's already at the facility which in a film of this length doesn't generate any real interest since the point's already been made. The other slight issue with the film is the general lack of threatening actions carried out by the figures inside the building, which is rather curious. Rather than spend the time doing something to demonstrate their unpleasant attitude towards his presence there, the whole thing revolves around the eeriness of the building and how whether he's seeing things or not which doesn't have the intensity it should towards the latter half when they just uncharacteristically begin playing with him. It all feels out of order with how they acted towards him to begin with and sticks out rather obviously with how they suddenly begin tormenting him psychologically, so even though the action has a lot to like it's all the intent behind it. These factors bring the film down.

Rated Unrated/R: Language and Violence.

This film is certainly not a Hollywood blockbuster, but it doesn't deserve to be rated under 5. It's a pretty effective old school indie horror movie. No spectacular hightech FX, but it works quite well anyway. A little slow though. You should give it a try. You won't regret it.