More than any other genre, horror films rely heavily on atmosphere. An effective horror film can suffer from a lack of one, and a run-of-the-mill film can be elevated by a great one. Morgue is big on atmosphere.
We meet our hero Diego Martinez (Pablo Martinez), a down-on-his-luck character in need of employment. He soon finds it as a security guard . . . at a morgue.
One thing director Hugo Cardozo does well is create tension. You feel for Diego even before anything weird starts happening. A security guard at a morgue seems like an easy gig. But then one wonders: what exactly are they guarding? Cardozo could have explored this theme a lot better. However, Morgue becomes a somewhat tiring, predictable film.
First-timer Pablo Martinez gives a good performance, but he is given very little to work with here. The film tries to totally coast off its atmosphere. It has the correct setting, given that morgues are inherently weird places. However, Cardozo could have got a lot further than he does here. To his credit, Cardozo maintains that the events in his film are based on a true story, a way to try to elevate the horror in a way cult classics like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Entity did. However, that claim, like pure terror, ultimately falls flat.