Abhiroop Das
Created by Pablo Larraín, ‘My Sad Dead,’ also known as ‘Mis muertos tristes,’ enters into a world where ghosts may be real, and can be perceived only by a handful of people. Dr. Ema Bascary, a retired doctor with a controversial last few months in practice, is among those people, and often spends her spare time interacting with the dead. However, the death of her mother, soon followed by the arrival of her niece, Julie, begins stirring things once again. Julie also appears to be capable of talking to the dead, and her eventual journey changes the entire town’s relationship with the spiritual realm in this Spanish-language psychological horror. One tragedy that seems to affect people the most is the death of Naty, Florencia, and Joanna, a trio of young models, singers, and dancers, who are shot in the neck by an unknown assailant, only for their ghostly cries to be heard all across the town. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Killer of Naty and Her Friends Shows Up in One of the Early Sequences
While ‘My Sad Dead’ suggests that the man who took the lives of Naty, Florencia, and Joanna may be linked to Naty’s father, we ultimately never get to know his identity. All we know, then, is an image of the man stepping out of his car to shoot the three girls, that too recreated from a ghostly memory, and visualized by Ema. While she isn’t exactly known to be an unreliable narrator, her take on the event is far from enough to bring the culprit to justice. On a thematic level, it expresses the weakness of Ema’s ability, such that she is able to intuit the world’s suppressed suffering only after the damage is done and the dead have no chance of coming back to life.
Interestingly, we see the killer early on in the movie, well before he pulls the trigger. In the scene where Naty, Florencia, and Joanna go shopping with their new money, one of the shots lingers on just long enough for us to catch a glimpse of the hooded person. His attention already seems to be on the three girls, and it is unclear as to whether he has been tailing them up to this point or simply chanced upon them here. While it is apparent that he follows them from this point onward, ultimately returning with a car to take their lives, whether the act is premeditated well in advance or spontaneous, reveals a lot about the killer and why he chose the three girls in particular.
The Killer Serves as a Microcosm of Everything Wrong With the Town
During her amateur investigation, Ema determines that Naty had been using a fake name, and that may be their clue to the killer’s identity. Indeed, it is eventually revealed that Naty’s real name was Isabella, and that she had changed identities in fear of her and her father being targeted. Even Naty’s ghost makes references to how her father’s life is in danger, which makes a strong case for this being a revenge killing or a fear tactic. However, this essentially means that Florencia and Joanna were killed to leave no witnesses to the crime, which adds an even more macabre twist to the already grim sequence.
In contrast to the first theory about the killer planning this move in advance, another interpretation is that it was the action of a violent man looking to release his anger and frustrations. This isn’t anything unusual about the town either, as from the very first moment we are told that many young people in the town have given into violence and dacoitery, turning everyday life into chaos. The sounds of distant gunshots are common in the film and seem almost strategically placed to desensitize the characters and viewers alike. The death of Naty and her friends, however, re-humanizes this tragedy, with a larger commentary on humanity’s evils being made through the loss of innocent lives.
Read More: My Sad Dead: Why Can Ema and Julie See Ghosts? Are They Real?
