The Funeral Home (2021)

3 Stars (out of 4)

Casket Case

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

This haunted-funeral-home movie from Argentina isn't really very heavy on the scares, but it does cook up some pretty horrifying ideas that get stuck in the psyche. Bernardo (Luis Machín) runs a funeral home and, perhaps unwisely, also lives on the premises with his wife Estela (Celeste Gerez) and her daughter from a previous marriage, Irina (Camila Vaccarini). Ghosts from the funeral home invariably find their way into the dwelling. Bernardo's father, an emotionally abusive prankster prone to leaving the gas stove on, is one of them, and Bernardo has yet to finish his business with him. Estela is "haunted" by her abusive, late husband, who was so cruel to her she got her "tubes tied" to prevent him from getting her pregnant again. But Irina only has good memories of her father, and she hopes that she may get a "visit" from him. Unfortunately, a malevolent spirit has somehow joined the fun, and terrible things have begun happening. The Funeral Home avoids too many spooky FX, staying mostly with its characters in their strange environment, half life and half death, and winds up with a truly unexpectedly beautiful coda.