Review: Post Mortem

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2022
Images from the Internet

Post Mortem
Directed by Péter Bergendy
Szupermodern Studios; Smartdog Productions
115 minutes, 2020 / 2022
www.facebook.com/postmortemmozi
www.condor-films.fr/film/post-mortem/

In the early years of photography, there was a weird subgenre of post mortem modeling. It was common to hire a photographer to take pictures of the recently deceased, propped up sitting in chairs, either by themselves, or most likely the corpse is surrounded by the entire family. From infants to grannies, it was the final memento to remember those who had passed on. You can actually see a lot of them with the search engine of your choice.

This Hungarian film takes place in, well, rural Hungary (but dubbed into English) in 1918, at the end of the Great War and in the midst of the Spanish Flu. People were dropping like flies around the world, and Europe was hit hard. It was also an extremely cold winter, and it was hard to get bodies buried (remember, no embalming back then), so they were piling up.

Viktor Klem

Into this situation comes photographer Tomás (Viktor Klem), whose near-death experience during a battlefield explosion gave him a vision of a face. Now recovered (physically), he travels around and photographs the dead. In this capacity, in some village where dead bodies are ever present due to the frost, he meets ten-year-old orphan, Anna (Fruzsina Hais), with whom he strikes up a platonic (yet still pretty cringeworthy to me) friendship, convinced she was the vision he saw after the explosion. She is being raised (or is actually taking care of) her invalid Auntie (Andrea Ladányi).

But in this village, which could pass for the shtetl in Hungary where my paternal grandparents originated, things just ain’t right. Noises in the attic and shadows on the wall hovering over Tomás’ bed on his first night have him unsurprisingly rattled. Amid the noise and such, he befriends the owner of the local Inn, Marcsa (Judit Schell).

Fruzsina Hais

As Tomás photographs his subjects, again solo or in family groups, in every picture there is a grey shadow behind them that is only seem in the image. Many times, we, the audience, get to follow their inky movements, which vary in speed.

Over the course of the film, the presence of the ghosts increase dramatically, as does their anger and their violence. They throw furniture, reanimate the dead, sometimes frozen in odd positions like a game of “Red Light Green Light,” or almost like the photos Tomás takes, throw people around like rag dolls, and do not seem to hesitate to make others join them through ferocious means.

Judit Schell

It is an interesting touch that these ghosts are previous inhabitants and relatives of the village, and yet their anger and viciousness does not stop with family members. Everyone is a potential victim. And Tomás is determined to get to the bottom of it, with the aid of Anna, of course.

They set up alarms in the form of strings and bells, and manage to record their voices on a cylinder phonograph, though all that comes through is rage. Tomás and Anna also feel the effects of the ghosts as they are dragged by the feet through town, held in place unable to move, or levitated. In fact, a lot of people are dragged by the feet through the streets. I kept thinking of that line from Blazing Saddles (1974), “Well, that’s the end of this suit.”

 

Andrea Ladányi

The SFX, both practical and digital, is so basic and at the same time incredibly stunning throughout. While the ghosts are nearly always seen as shadows, and occasionally crawling on all fours, their effects on the town was fascinating to me, especially the wire work as numerous people are tossed about, both solo and in groups. This includes the prologue battlefield scenarios.

This film has won numerous awards through Europe and in Canada (27 as of this writing), and that is hardly surprising. The image is washed out (remember, this takes place during the days of sepia, previous to black and white), and while it is not monochrome, it has a dark tone. One might say it was arty, but it does not make it harder to see. It has a nearly gothic undertone.

My one issue is that even though it is dubbed into English, I found the accents and low talking moments hard to make out. But still, this is one of the better ghost stories I have seen in a while, and I happily found much of it unpredictable. It also takes some risks in the plot that improve the story.

I can easily see why this has won so many awards, in both tone and plot, and the acting is perfect for the film. There are a lot of nice jump scares, but it is the malevolence of the spirits that make the story. Usually, I balk at films that are nearing two hours, but with the way the story and images twist and turn, my interest was easily kept throughout. It is streaming or available to own starting on Halloween, and if you get the chance to check it out, I say do just that.

IMDB listing HERE