Memory of the Dead Movie Review

“La Memoria Del Muerto” or “Memory of the Dead” had its world premiere at this summer’s Montreal Fantasia International Film Festival. The Argentinean horror movie is played in Spanish, with English subtitles, and is… peculiar.

Fourty-nine days after her husband passes away from a sudden death, Alicia assembles the closest friends of her deceased husband, telling them that should remember Jorge, her husband, one last time. Truthfully, she has reunited them to perform a dark ritual that could bring her husband back from the dead, bringing the world of the dead outside of her home. Hell ensues for each guest, as they are each visited and tortured by ghosts of their own individual past.

Director Valentin Javier Diment has a pretty twisted mind. Many deranged events occur to each individual, some more twisted than others. Some superb special effects are included here and there, some at which you might cringe at how realistic they look, i.e.; the scene with the eye- and mouth-sowing.

A very peculiar mind, indeed, does the director have, but I find that the story was very odd. For a good part of the movie, it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, yet it seems to be going everywhere at once. I was sort of annoyed while viewing it since some characters’ reactions to some things were contrary to what their beliefs were just minutes before and didn’t change much to the story. However, the director succeeds in tying up all the loose ends at the end of the movie with a slightly intriguing ending that will have you chuckling and shaking your head at once.

With an odd storyline, yet superb special effects, “La Memoria Del Muerto” or “Memory of the Dead” deserves a rating of 3 stars out of 5.