Two years after its initial release, the Hungarian film, Post Mortem, makes its UK debut across all the major VOdD platforms. In it, Tomás is a post-mortem photographer turning his trade in the aftermath of the First World War and befriends a curious child called Anna who invites him to her village. He is tasked by Anna to take photos of the victims of the Spanish Influenza that has plagued her small Hungarian town and maybe a ghost or two. As Tomás hears about the town’s apparent ghost problem, he goes from sceptic to believer.
Through beautiful cinematography, rural Hungary’s picturesque scenery and the backdrop of the 1918 pandemic, Post Mortem fits snuggly into the folk horror and ghost stories of its peers such as The Devil’s Backbone, The Woman In Black and We Are Still Here. Performances by Viktor Klem (Tomás) and Fruzsina Hais (Anna) shine as they take up the unlikely roles of the town’s paranormal investigators and forge a friendship like a post-WW1 Mulder and Scully. Visuals are a strong point in the film. Each unfortunate victim turned modelling subject is introduced through the film’s skilled make-up department who give weight to each ghoul’s personal story through some ghastly practical effects. The film’s setting deals with the exploratory ways that Tomás and Anna interact with the apparitions. Gone is the modern technology we are accustomed to in recent paranormal movies – as it simply does not exist. Instead, Tomás must use
his knowledge of photography and new fangled (for the time) dictaphones to record the ghostly
events.
A good old ghost story – one that can have me up at night checking around my room, mobile in hand and overthinking every creak in my floorboards? Now that is a rare gem!
The greatest compliment I can pay Post Mortem is that it is terrifying – no small achievement in these days of so-called “elevated horror”. I found myself jumping out of my skin at the slightest jolt of a corpse or the slam of an attic door. Paranormal stories have always been something I’ve been afraid of. Give me a blood-soaked Giallo or a 1980’s slasher and I’ll sit happily with a bag of Haribo without so much as a blink. A good old ghost story though – one that can have me up at night checking around my room, mobile in hand and overthinking every creak in my floorboards? Now that is a rare gem! So good job Post Mortem – thanks for the nightmares, I guess?
With Post Mortem ending on Tomás and Anna riding off into another town, I for one would be
very interested in a sequel with these Hungarian Ghostbusters. The world and proposition it sets up are that strong, to not only learn of Hungarian horror’s existence but to immediately want more of it too. A great achievement.
Post Mortem will be available on Digital Download from 31st October
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Post Mortem
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