Pre-Oscar Shock: Post Mortem Chosen to Rep Hungary

It’s not often a horror film gets the nod as Hungary’s entrant for the Best International Feature Film category at the Academy Awards. In fact, in recent memory, it is the first to do so. The choice is surprising, as the film, written by Piros Zánkay, and directed by Péter Bergendy (best known for 2011’s feature film A Vizsga, or The Exam), has yet to see a local theatrical release. Perhaps it’s a Halloween treat come early.

According to moviesandmania.com, Post Mortem is a “horror film about a photographer who confronts ghosts in a haunted village after World War One. In the cold winter of 1918, Tomás (Viktor Klem), a young man who works doing post-mortem photography, ends up in a small Hungarian village. The strange nocturnal sounds, the hostility, the mysterious deaths and the sombre figures that appear in his photographs all urge him to leave as soon as possible. Nonetheless, Tomás returns to the village to investigate the ghosts’ intentions and find a way to eradicate them…”

So, it’s easy to see from the synopsis that the film is not a run-of-the-mill scare-fest, but also uses the genre to comment on both history and present times. Thus far it has experienced a good amount of success on the festival circuit, premiering at the 36th Warsaw Film Festival and subsequently screening at the Stiges - Catalonian International Film Festival and the Shanghai Film Festival among others. Working in the spirit of ‘folk horror’ it aspires to capture the substantial audience for intelligent horror, as with films like Midsommar and The Others. Though it’s early days, thus far Post Mortem has a remarkable 100% rating on film buff site Rotten Tomatoes.

With stunts by the same crew who also worked on Game of Thrones, and cinematography by András Nagy (Eternal Winter and Bibliotheque Pascal) the film should be a technical wonder up to the standards of all the massive budget films that shoot in Hungary. Post Mortem opens in Hungary on October 28, just in time for All Souls day. But for a little taste of what to expect, enjoy the English language preview below.

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