‘My Sad Dead’ Review: An Urban Community Gets the Haunting It Deserves in Pablo Larraín’s Superb Modern Gothic — SkimNews
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- Pablo Larraín directed "My Sad Dead," a gothic ghost story set in Buenos Aires' Piedrabuena housing project, originally conceived as a Netflix miniseries but recut into a 186-minute feature for its San Sebastián competition bow.
- Mercedes Morán stars as Ema, a retired doctor who hears ghosts and has moved back to Piedrabuena to care for her dying mother, in what the reviewer calls "a fantastic performance of dry eyes and drier wit."
- The screenplay is co-written by Larraín, Anastasia Ayazi, and Guillermo Calderón alongside Mariana Enriquez, whose writings provided the film's foundational inspiration.
- The plot turns on a mysteriously contaminated water supply that lets all of Piedrabuena finally hear the screaming ghosts Ema has long endured alone, with the reviewer noting the premise could have become a "supernatural TV procedural" but doesn't.
- Reviewer draws a direct comparison to Krzysztof Kieślowski's "Dekalog," noting both originated as television projects set within a single housing complex and both function entirely as cinema regardless of their screen size.
- DP Sergio Armstrong and Larraín use a low-contrast, pinkish-gray palette that gives both the living and the dead "the pallor of a mortuary waiting room's magnolia walls," with ghosts often identifiable by gaping wounds and childlike confusion.
Why it matters: For Larraín, the film extends his run of scathing national portraits—now aimed at Argentina rather than his native Chile—while the recut from Netflix series to 186-minute San Sebastián competition feature is a notable pivot for a director whose recent work ('Spencer,' 'El Conde') reached wide audiences. The comparison to 'Dekalog' positions the film within a tradition of ambitious TV-to-cinema work, even as it refuses procedural TV logic.
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