Who’s ready for another journey across my Letterboxd Map?! This week we head down to Paraguay, not necessarily the first place you’d think of when you think “horror”. But we’re going to see what they bring to the table with… Morgue (2019).
Title: Morgue
Director: Hugo Cardozo
Released: August 22, 2019 (Paraguay)
Runtime: 1 hour 21 minutes
Available to stream on: Tubi
When we first meet Diego (Pablo Martínez), he’s in the store getting some groceries. His girlfriend video calls him and immediately assumes he’s off with some other girl. After panning around so that she can see where he’s at, she practically demands that he give her friend a ride home. Diego puts his foot down, says no, and goes back to his grocery shopping.
As he’s leaving the store and driving home, the girlfriend texts him trying to entice him to come over. He slams on his brakes, turns the car around, and heads her way. While he’s trying to respond to her, he drops his phone onto the floorboard. Looking down to locate the phone, Diego takes his eyes off the road just long enough to not see the pedestrian crossing the road. Diego hits the man, gets out to take a look, sees blood coming from the man’s head, and drives straight home.
Once home, he tries to sleep off what just happened. The next day he receives a call from his supervisor. Diego is needed to cover a security shift at the local hospital. Upon arrival, the guard he’s relieving shows him around and takes him to the morgue where he’ll be for the duration of his shift. Sit at the table, glance at the cameras every now and then, should be a piece of cake.
During his shift, he has another video call with his girlfriend and, you guessed it, she gets an attitude with him again. Except this time, her accusations of him cheating might hold some water. During the call, she very clearly saw a woman walk through the frame behind Diego. He shrugs it off and continues his shift. It’s very clear that he is the only living being in the building.
Or is he?
If I were to take issue with anything in Morgue (2019), it would be that there are some pacing issues. We spend a lot of time upfront with Diego’s personal life between his relationship and his financial and personal struggles. While a small sliver of that pays off at the end, the larger portion of it winds up feeling like filler. Had this been a short-film or part of an anthology rather than stretched out into a feature, I think you could then trim the fat and still not lose anything from the overall story.
Now, that being said, I had a lot of fun with Morgue (2019).
Yes, it is a low budget affair. But Cardozo and crew make the most out of what they do have. There’s smart use of shadows, lighting, and sound that help amp up the eeriness of an already creepy situation of being in a morgue. I also liked how they made you just as unsure as Diego as to whether or not there is an entity there playing tricks on him.
There’s also a clever twist at the end that I didn’t see coming.
While I wouldn’t suggest just anybody go and seek out Morgue (2019), I would suggest it to anyone who fancies themselves a fan of horror. If for nothing else, for an opportunity to see a horror film from a country that isn’t always in the mix.
Have you seen Morgue (2019)?
If so, leave a comment below or reach out to me on Bluesky and tell me what you thought of it!
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