Morgues make for one of the most unsettling settings in any genre. The eerie disquiet of the sterile place and the idea of being surrounded by dead bodies create a sensory experience that forces a confrontation with mortality in an uncomfortable way. Horror exploits the inherent fears raised by stepping foot inside of a morgue.

The genre consistently spotlights that death is rarely the end.

First-time writer/director Hugo Cardozo unleashes terror in Morgue; a breakout hit in Paraguay purportedly based on actual events. The plot follows perpetually down-on-his-luck Diego Martinez (Pablo Martínez), who accepts a gig as a security guard at the local morgue. He thought he’s had a lucky break, but as the night wears on, eerie occurrences and the suddenly not-quite-lifeless body of the victim leave him to wonder: how much otherworldly rage does it take to wake the dead?

The film scared up more than 60,000 admissions in Paraguay to become the top local release of that year, with an American remake already in the works with Oscar-nominated writer Eric Heisserer (Bird Box, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Thing, Final Destination 5).

Well Go USA raises the dead with the Paraguayan horror Morgue, which is now available on Digital HD, DVD, and Blu-ray. To highlight how creepy morgue-set horror can be, we look back at five of the creepiest scenes that spotlight this setting.

Nightwatch (1994)

In this Danish horror thriller, a law student (Game of Thrones’ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) takes up the job as night watch man at a mortuary. He engages in an escalating game of dares with his rule-breaking friend, which happens to coincide with a necrophiliac serial killer using the morgue as his playground. The student becomes the prime suspect. One of the most common tropes of any movie featuring a morgue is the prank that sees the prankster torment their target by pretending to be the dead. It results in a pop-up “boo” style scare. Nightwatch makes this work; the slow build-up to the gotcha moment brings unease as the night watch man passes by a series of creepy red flags on his way to the morgues.

The Boneyard

A depressed psychic and her detective partners working on a grisly child-murder case leads them to a mortuary. The prime suspect in their case is a mortician claiming the mummified bodies of three children are ancient demons. Offerings of flesh will appease these demons, and without the mortician to keep them satiated, they soon begin to wreak havoc. It’s the psychic that first cues into the truth behind the mummified children; a petrifying vision of the corpses slowly moving of their own accord and reaching out for her is nightmares personified.

The Nightshifter

Stênio works as a coroner’s assistant and has the unique ability to converse with the dead. When a corpse reveals a secret about Stênio’s wife, it triggers his jealousy and sets a revenge plot in motion with deadly repercussions. The talking dead dispels some of the fear early on, but once Stênio steps past the point of no return, all bets are off. The creepiest scene sees its lead alone in the darkened morgue, removing his bloodied smock and laying his weary head on the desk for a nap. Disembodied laughter signals danger and malintent, which startles Stênio awake. While asleep, someone – or thing- shoved a ring down his throat and locked him inside a cold locker. Panic sets in as the clock winds down.

Phantasm 

While Phantasm and its subsequent sequels aren’t exclusively set within a morgue, the setting does make up a large percentage of the film’s real estate. It’s the home base for the Tall Man, a mortician from another dimension. The scene that solidified Phantasm’s ranking as a cult classic sees protagonist Mike Pearson getting hunted down by the caretaker and a strange silver sphere. The sphere misses Mike and lodges its drill into the caretaker’s skull, but Mike barely has time to catch his breath as the Tall Man then gives chase. The strange nightmare logic of Don Coscarelli’s film combined with the distinct set design and the menacing Tall Man creates a striking and foreboding impression.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe

A father and son coroner team gets pulled into a complex supernatural mystery when the body of a Jane Doe gets brought to their business by the local authorities. Their morgue becomes ground zero for a dangerous haunting in their attempts to identify her and the cause of death. The Autopsy of Jane Doe is packed full of scares, but it’s the ominous bell that sounds the alarm of impending doom. After an early scene that establishes the bell tied to a corpse’s toe, it comes back frighteningly once all hell breaks loose. The father and son attempt to flee through the dark corridor toward the exit, only to hear the ringing bell preceding the corpse lumbering for them. It’s a ghastly sight once the body catches up to them. It’ll give you goosebumps.

Look for Morgue on Digital HD, DVD, and Blu-ray today.