Mortuary exhibits flashes of potential but, ultimately, the script by Jace Anderson and Adam Gierasch doesn’t know what to do with the goodwill it earns in the first 30 minutes.
Director Tobe Hooper has garnered an excellent reputation with horror fans on the strengths of 1974’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and 1982’s Poltergeist. Mr. Hooper sadly passed away in 2017. His later films, of which Mortuary is one, were received less enthusiastically by horror audiences. It’s hard to say how much of that blame lies with the director vs. the screenwriters or producers. But, if I asked 5 horror fans to name three Tobe Hooper films besides The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist, I’d be surprised if anyone mentioned this one. And if they did, I’d highly doubt it be a recommendation.
Mortuary tells the story of Leslie Doyle (Denise Crosby,) a recent widow and newly trained mortician who has moved across the country with her kids to accept a job in a small town in California. Her son, Jonathan (Dan Byrd,) and daughter, Jamie (Stephanie Patton,) are shocked at the condition of their new home. The ramshackle, formerly abandoned funeral home in which their mom will be working will also be their residence. Adding to the creepiness of the house, there’s a cemetery in their front yard.
When Jonathan drives into town looking for a job, he encounters Liz (Alexandria Ali,) who, along with her friend, Grady (Rocky Marquette,) informs him of the history of his new home. A local legend says that the last living descendant of the family that previously owned the house lives in a crypt in the nearby cemetery. Abused by his family and disfigured, Bobby Fowler murdered his parents and is now said to lurk in the shadows of the town. Soon, Leslie, Jonathan, and Jamie start having strange experiences in the house. And, you guessed it, there might be a connection to the Fowler legend.
The first act spins up a nice bit of world building. The family dynamic between Leslie, Jonathan, and Jamie feels realistic. The oddball collection of townsfolk who visit the Doyles to introduce themselves gives the film a humorous — and slightly unsettling — vibe. (The real estate agent who laughs at everything for no reason is simultaneously creepy and campy.)
As the story moves into the second act, the focus turns away from the Doyle family unit and settles on to Jonathan’s relationship with Liz. The tone also shifts away from unsettling to unusually funny. Or, perhaps I should say, unusual and funny. There’s a scene involving Leslie’s first embalming that feels like slapstick rather than horror.
By the third act, the story turns on a dime and produces a wholly unsatisfying conclusion. Prior to the last reel, Mortuary never feels cheap as much as intentionally weird. The set design and lighting serve the movie’s offbeat initial set-up quite well. The makeup effects — while mostly limited to Leslie’s deceased customers — are appropriately ghoulish for a genre film. But the extremely cheap looking CGI used during the film’s climax made me wonder if the production completely ran out of money before they could finish filming. I am not exaggerating when I say some of the scenes look like they’re leftovers from an unreleased 1995 PlayStation game.
Mortuary exhibits flashes of potential but, ultimately, the script by Jace Anderson and Adam Gierasch doesn’t know what to do with the goodwill it earns in the first 30 minutes. It goes from scary to funny to laughable. The first two may have been by design but the latter is unfortunate.
2.0 out of 5.0 stars
