Orozco the Embalmer (2001) User Reviews

Unflinching gritty documentary.

[nasteen8 · 8/10 · 17 October 2011]

I just watched this movie last night for the first time and wow, what an experience that was.

First off, this is a very well done documentary about an embalmer in the poorest parts of Columbia. The overall sense of filth and grime in this movie make it all that more appealing/appalling for the audience. I learned of this film through the blogs of extreme horror fans but this little gem is on a shelf by itself. There are no depictions of glorified violence, no stunts, no gimmicks, just matter-of-fact filming of what happens in the poorest neighborhoods after you die.

Most people wouldn't be able to handle, let alone like, this film but it is a very real take on life and death. Life is not always a happy ending and we all end up dead one day. Sometimes it's good to face that to appreciate life just a little more.

If you have a good nerve and want to see what happens after you die, check this out. If you have a weak stomach, I'd probably pass this one over.

8/10*

Very good film of the life and work of an embalmer in Columbia is a VERY graphic look at what happens after we die and the man who prepares the bodies for burial

[dbborroughs · 7/10 · 2 September 2007]

The story of Orozco, an embalmer in Columbia. Located in a poor and crime riddled village, Orzco provides his services for people on the downside of life. We watch as bodies are brought in to his shop and he prepares them for their funerals. As Orozco works he talks about life, his job and the people he serves. We also get to see another embalmer in the same town at work.

Clearly not for all tastes...rather most tastes, this is an in your face matter of fact document of the work of one man preparing the dead for burial. There is no cutaways, no trick shots, nothing to hide the work on the earth remains of those brought in (The film was shot on one video camera which is just pointed to record what was happening in front of it. There are no fancy anything, just a stepped up "home movie"). If you don't want to see how bodies are prepared for burial in a poor country do not see this film (its very graphic with literally blood and guts and other things). What you see is, in all probability, is a variation as to what may happen to you or a loved one one day and if you don't want to see what that entails don't look. Its tough going.

Listed by some as a horror film, the film really isn't (though what happens maybe considered horrific). This is a document of the work of a man who cares for his the people he services. You see the care he takes with each person making them look better in death then they may have looked in life. I was shocked to see how a body looking more like a doll would come in and in the time its in Orozco's hands the whole demeanor would change from thing back into a person seemingly asleep.

As you watch the film the embalming falls away and all that remains is the man himself.Orozco the man is the reason to watch the film, not the shocking images. He seems to have been a very nice man (he died after the film was completed) who seems to have been made more than a bit sad by his job and his surroundings. His take on life is unique and understandable and what ever you call it, dark, bleak, sad, it is in many ways more real than that of the lives we see on TV or in our daily interactions.

As the film went on I kept wondering if I will be lucky enough to have someone as caring as Orozco work on me when I pass over. Its a strange thought, but one can't help but ponder when viewing a film as stark as this about the end of life.

Recommended for those with strong constitutions and wishing to see a intriguing portrait of a man at work.

Powerful Cinema!

[Shaza123 · 8/10 · 25 May 2014]

An embalmer is a person who temporarily preserves and beautifies a corpse so that it may be ready for a funeral procession. It is a job I don't think I could ever handle. Apart from the natural squeamish reaction to the autopsies and the handling of a dead body, I think I would be overcome with sadness to see what's left of a person with no life left in them. But it is a job that needs to be done, and much respect to those who perform this job with much care and attention.

This documentary shows the everyday life of Froilan Orozco, an embalmer working in the poor areas of Columbia. This area is filled with violence and rubbish, human life is wasted every day. Where poverty is high, there is a general feeling of hopelessness. But despite it all, Orozco worked everyday, and during his lifetime, embalmed more than 50,000 corpses for an exceptionally cheap price. He cared more about the corpses he was preparing then about his own health. Orozco was an exceptional man.

I can't imagine many jumping the gun to watch this movie. It's harsh, it's unflinching, it's depressing. The camera does not shy away from the practise of embalming, it shows it in full detail again and again, all the while, listening to the wisdom's of Orozco as he talks about his job, life and death. Those who struggle with the harsh realities of life will no doubt struggle watching this movie. But, it's a movie which I highly recommend. This film is not exploitative, but it's honest film making. You watch this movie for Orozco. It's his compassion and care for his work that makes this very depressing movie, almost seem beautiful. An old man putting as much care as he can into death, it's really quite touching. No doubt there are many people who cut corners in this type of field. The movie Aftermath shows an extreme example as such. But a man like Orozco really inspires such admiration. He is the reason to watch this documentary. He brings a certain optimism to an incredibly bleak and depressing reality.

It's hard to recommend this to anyone, but it is a flick that I recommend just the same. Cinema doesn't get more powerful than this. A man like Orozco is truly one of a kind. I hope I am treated with as much respect after death as those he cared for.

Haunting Evocation of Death!

[samxxxul · 9/10 · 9 May 2020]

In 1996, Tsurisaki Kiyotaka, one of Japan's most infamous Pinku Eiga filmmaker/ death photographers, ventured into the Rue Morgue neighbourhood of Bogota, which is one of the most dangerous areas of the Colombia's capital. The film is an extremely disturbing look into the poverty-stricken side of the world and its practices in death.

This isn't gore porn or sleaze cinema but an intriguing portrait of a man at work who has been tending the dead for over 50 years. It is a shockumentary, but also an interesting sociological study regarding the acceptance of death.

Tsurisaki Kiyotaka spent 3 years following Orozco, a former police officer who now is an embalmer, with over 50 years of experience as a mortician who passed away during the production of the film. Sadly, the man who embalmed than 50,000 bodies in his entire life, was not embalmed. Nor does his grave exist.

'Orozco the Embalmer' is one of the most unrelentingly grim works in existence, the haunting evocation of the rigor mortis and its cadaverous expression ever made on film. This is an essential watch for the fans of Mondo films, Aroma Planning/ Baroque Studio and Shockumentaries, also those who watched Susumu Saegusa films, Der Weg nach Eden (1995) by Robert-Adrian Pejo, John Alan Schwartz's Faces of Death (1978), A Certain Kind of Death (2003) and Stan Brakhage's The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes (1971) will appreciate this unsettling piece of work.

Beautiful movie

[mrdonleone · 9/10 · 6 July 2019]

Not many movies want me to better my life. This is one of them, just like Mary Poppins. I mean, seeing how easily we become from living to dust and waste makes one really reoent of all the bad things one did in one's life, is it not?? Sure, it is. This is one nature documentary you'll never forget. I mean, some people might argue that it's cold and gruesome, even heartless what we get depictured on the screen, but they just miss the point: life is hard, and the moment this movie gets through your skull it's when you realize life is dying too, and once you're dead there's no coming back... not as this identity anyway. Maybe as a spirit, sure; but not with the same body. Or would we?? If so, we would have zombies like in Night of the Living Dead or some form of Bird Box disease working in it's opposite way; but you shouldn't overmiss the point that life is beauty as is it's ending and then what do we have? The beauty of living. Really, this movie made me very philosophical. Hats off to Orozco the Embalmer.

Real life turned into a gore documentary

[spanixtan · 10/10 · 17 January 2020]

A small film crew. Mr. Orozco, a real man is shown working on his corpses in a tiny and nightmarish one-room workshop with a stained glass window. We just hear him talk: no music or questions. The embalmer describes his routine and sometimes adds a comment about the poor conditions of the neighborhoods around, reflected in his job. The crew is in complete silence and Orozco seem to be speaking to a corner or just to somebody while he goes on with his task. We can realize that sometimes the old embalmer is answering to a question that has been cut off from the footage. He is aware of the crew, but his tone is not mother-off-fact or aloof; on the contrary: Orozco has a calm, sometimes merciful tone, of a normal man working in conditions unimaginable in most developed areas and complaining about it.He never rambles or drones on, but explains and answers questions of the film crew that the viewer can´t see or hear; just guess, because there must be someone recording, dealing with the sound and directing.The effect is an experimental documentary-movie edited to be shocking and limited to gore features: no way to show it as mainstream or horror in most countries. Maybe even forbidden in many places. At the end a humane note is added regarding Froilán Orozco, who no longer lives, but is remembered by some neighbors.