FUNERAL SINIESTRO
(SINISTER FUNERAL)
dir. Jairo Pinilla, 1977
103 mins. Colombia.
In Spanish with English subtitles.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 — 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 — 5 PM
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 — 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 — 7:30 PM
In keeping with our long tradition of exhibiting Latin American genre cinema, Spectacle is excited to premiere the new 2K restoration of Colombian horror master Jairo Pinilla’s debut feature FUNERAL SINIESTRO, in collaboration with Petroglyph Media.
Much like earlier Spectacle favorite THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE, FUNERAL SINIESTRO is told from the perspective of a child, this time Isabel (Constanza Rincón), the adopted stepdaughter of an evil landowner named Lucrecia (Derly Diaz), in the forests outside Bogota. Incensed by the fact this young girl is entitled to half of what her late husband left behind, Lucrecia tries to get rid of Isabel in a variety of ways; Isabel’s reciprocal attempts to find help outside their unhappily shared hacienda escalate things, leading to a struggle between life and death.
Steeped in Catholic macabre and inspired by the filmmaker’s experience of witnessing a dead body as a child, FUNERAL SINIESTRO is widely considered the first ever horror film from Colombia. While Pinilla is sometimes dismissively referred to as “the Ed Wood of Colombia”, the film is played entirely straight, a horror thriller that works just as well as a meditation on grief and isolation. Whatever FUNERAL SINIESTRO might lack in production value, it more than makes up for in slow-burn psychological intensity, aided immensely by the performances of Rincón and Diaz (alongside the filmmaker himself in a supporting role.) It builds to an unnerving final act that channels the spirits of Poe and Lovecraft, a must-watch for fans of ALICE, SWEET ALICE or LA RESIDENCIA.