Dir. Orcun Behram (2023)
A hearse driver hired for a secret transport of the body of a young girl begins to believe she may not be all the way dead.
I'm not super familiar with Turkish horror. The only one that I can say I've seen off the top of my head is Baskin, an admittedly stellar film filled with all sort of gnarly effects and creature design. If that's the type of film that the West Asian country produces, I'm totally down to watch more, and I got the chance with the upcoming Funeral. Coming to Screambox on August 27th, it's a fantastic film that I'm hoping a lot of horror fans get the chance to watch. A deeply heartfelt film with a little bit of everything for genre fans, this one needs to go right to the top of your watchlist.
A hearse driver named Cemal (Ahmet Rifat Sungar) is hired to hide out with the body of a young woman named Zeynep (Cansu Türedi) who was killed in an honor killing by her family. He is tasked with hiding the body for a month until the family is ready to claim it. He drives the girl's body into the countryside, discovering very soon thereafter that she might not be quite as dead as she initially appeared. As Cemal begins to develop feeling for the undead Zeynep, he realizes that he will do anything to help feed his new companion.
Touted as the Turkish zombie answer to Let the Right One In, The Funeral is an outstanding slow burn horror about love, sacrifice, and devotion. It's also quite brutal, with lots of flesh and blood to satisfy the gorehounds in the audience. Director Orcun Behram does a phenomenal job of capturing the mood necessary to make a film like this work, and stars Sungar and Türedi are outstanding as the hearse driver and his undead love. Cinematographer Engin Özkaya captures the bleak and foreboding feeling the film desperately needs to be successful, and he does it about as well as it could possibly be done. It's dark, gritty, and disturbingly frank, a matter-of-fact view of an impossibly relatable plot.
It's not a particularly inventive story on its own, though its certainly a refreshing take on the zombie film. To my knowledge, there hasn't been one quite like this made before, and anytime you can bring a fresh perspective to an ancient-by-film-standard genre, it's well worth exploring. It's also super fucking dark, with a lot more going on than just the aforementioned plot, and none of it good. I hate to use the word nihilistic because it doesn't completely fit the film, but if you're into nihilistic horror you will immediately understand the feeling this film portrays.
The Funeral is enthralling, an incredibly well done film that kept me on the edge of my seat, a rarity for a slow burn. It's disturbing, gory, and utterly brilliant. I feel like the horror genre as a whole has largely leaned too heavily into the slow burn of it all, but when it's done right, and can be among the very best in the genre. While I don't know that The Funeral quite hits that point, it's a stellar film, one that will stick in my head for quite a while. And you can't ask for a whole lot more than that. Bravo.
Who this movie is for: Slow burn horror fans, Zombie movie devotees, Burlap sack salesmen
Bottom line: I loved this one. It's a bit slow, and at times relies on some dream sequences that may not have been entirely necessary, but it hits on every level, from emotionally to downright gross. The actors are incredible, the direction and cinematography leave nothing to be desired, and it's a stellar example of European/Asian cinema with an American sensibility. Brutal and loving at the same time, this is one you'll definitely want to check out. It's coming to Screambox on the 27th of this month, so you can stream it there with a subscription.
