Mortuary

Once again we have a horror movie that has an interesting premise, a somewhat good story and what happens? It just does not live up to its potential as it makes mistakes that turn it from a really good horror movie to a watered down horror movie that has you thinking what might have been. The story, mother moves herself and two children to a little town to start a new career as a mortician. Granted this in itself is a bit hard to believe a father may have been a more realistic choice to lead the film, but whatever I can role with it. The older teenage son is against this move and is the typical teen in that he voices his opinion against the house and everything about what his mom is doing...I usually don't care for that type, but here I have to agree with him. Why she bought the place is beyond me, as I do believe the house was made a bit to rundown to be realistic. I doubt anyone with any lick of sense would want to move in having seen that house beforehand. Well there are mysterious things going on and there is talk of a person who lives in the cemetery in the front lawn and all that and it could have been really good, however, it is so far fetched in some areas, it moves so slowly at first, and then it doesn't want to end. The deaths are not all that gory, a bit of gore here and there, but not all that much. At times the movie seems to be trying to be a horror comedy and this hurts the movie as well. I like horror comedies a bit (I really enjoyed the flick "Slither"), but don't half-heartedly go about it. Either be a horror comedy or go straight horror. Some scenes are a bit out of place thanks to this bizarre shift at times. The actors are the typical b-movie types and so they are okay. Then there is the use of cgi...I am against it in areas in this movie, why they felt they needed it for the last thing is beyond me. You could have made a realistic whatever it was with minimal effort and money and it would have looked a lot more real. And the ending had me going "Huh"? Don't show what you showed in the previous scene and then hit me with that typical 80's horror ending...by the way if you have seen two horror movies with this type of ending you will know what is going to happen. Still though if they had developed the story better, stayed away from the comedy bits, and explained the thing and Bobby better this movie could have been a pretty decent horror flick as it is it has good and bad and is really just a mediocre flick.

This movie seemed to have a lot going for it in the beginning. An interesting story, a great location (who doesn't love old, decrepit houses with a cemetery in the front yard), and good performances (this is the third decent performance out of Dan Byrd that I've seen...he's got potential)...and for the first portion of the film, and had a great deal of atmosphere as well. Then something went horribly wrong; I'm not sure what, but as the movie began it's last half, it began to remind me of a spoof film I saw once called "Night of the Living Bread" (which is genius, by the way)...and I'm pretty sure, despite what some have said, that the movie was NOT meant to be a spoof. The lighting crew must've gone home, because you can't see a damn thing for the last 20 minutes except various facial features. The story became very confusing, as it couldn't focus on one of two villains...a deformed crazy-man living in a tomb, or an evil black fungus...hmmm. There was absolutely no climax to the film, and the end was so unbelievably predictable, that as it played out, I began to narrate it just a step ahead...and was spot on. *sigh*

The widow Leslie Doyle (Denise Crosby) has just lost her husband and moves with her teenage son Jonathan (Dan Byrd) and her young daughter Jamie (Stephani Patton) to a mortuary in a small town in California that she has bought with the intention of starting a new business, practicing her knowledge as mortician. When they arrive, Leslie realizes that she was lured by the former owner, Elliot, and that the decrepit Fowler Brothers Funeral Home was completely abandoned and with problem with the septic sewer. While Leslie tries to improve and clean the place and start embalming corpses, Jonathan is informed about the legend of Bobby Fowler, the deformed son of the Fowlers. Meanwhile a weird substance attacks people, transforming them in zombies.

Mortuary has a very scary atmosphere, with an old cemetery and a nasty and creepy house. The make-up, special effects and soundtrack are also very good. Unfortunately, the flawed screenplay spoils a promising horror movie. There are lack of explanations about Bobby Fowler and the creature that transforms the locals in zombies, and lots of mistakes. For example, in addition to the goofs listed in IMDb, the sheriff's car parked in front of the funeral house simply vanishes when he is attacked. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Mortuária" ("Mortuary")

In 1974, Tobe Hooper struck lucky with the low budget horror 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'. This has lead to the director getting himself on many a list of horror fans' favourite directors - but for me, he was only ever really average and his filmography since his debut does nothing but prove that. Mortuary only serves in proving it further, as while my opinion of the film isn't quite as low as the average review; it's clear that this is a terrible movie and certainly not the work of a director with as much experience in the genre as Tobe Hooper. The basic plot sees a mother, her son and her daughter go to live in an old funeral home so the mother can take up a position as the town mortician (despite having no experience in such a job). This base leads to a whole load of other plots that spring from it. For a start, we've got the son's developing friendship with some of the locals, the story of the deformed boy who lives in the bowels of the funeral home, and also some strange fungus that attacks people and turns them into zombies...

It's clear that this is not going to be any good right from the word go, but in fairness to it; the first half of the movie actually isn't all that bad. There's nothing special about it, but Hooper introduces his characters well and sets the scene for the horror. It's not long, however, before the film descends into complete messy stupidity and by then it's better to sit back and laugh at the proceedings. Hooper has got his cast all wrong here too. I don't want to sound mean, but a film like this really needs a pretty lead actress to keep concentration up, and Denise Crosby doesn't really suit that role; and also fails to put any effort into her performance. The son character is obviously meant to be cool, but Dan Byrd is too dorky to carry it off and the fact that he's so young looking doesn't give him any credibility. Child actress Stephanie Patton is not bad (the best performer of the three central ones), and Alexandra Adi is the best thing about the film. Despite all its flaws; Mortuary is at least not completely boring, there are a few amusing moments (mostly for the wrong reasons) and certain set pieces work well. But this is not the work of a 'master' and in that respect it is disappointing.

I'd been wanting to see "Mortuary" ever since I first read about it here on IMDb. I'm a pretty big Tobe Hooper fan, and while I hated his semi-recent "Crocodile", his "Toolbox Murders" remake was really good. This movie revolves around the Doyle family. Leslie Doyle (Denise Crosby of "Pet Sematary"), recently widowed, moves she and her two children, teenage Jonathan (Dan Byrd, "The Hills Have Eyes" remake), and her daughter (Stephanie Patton) to a decrepit house (with a graveyard for a front yard) in a small California town to start a funeral home. The house is disgusting and nearly falling apart, but Leslie hopes to fix it up, and begins her business. Jonathan is menaced by local teenagers, and falls for a girl at his workplace, Liz, and the two become friends. Then, after finding out her friend, Grady, is gay (thinking that the two were a couple), they begin kind of dating. But weird things are happening around the funeral home, and Liz tells Jonathan about the story of a deformed man who lived in the funeral home. Then people around the house start to die and an evil force begins to take over.

Tobe Hooper is great, I love most of his films (particularly the hailed classic "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre"), but his recent stuff hasn't been great. "Crocodile" was horrible and I was surprised he was even involved with it. But "Mortuary" is a fun little low budget horror flick that I really enjoyed. I loved the idea and the story was really well written, with plenty of creepy moments and some really creative sequences (particularly the last twenty minutes or so of the film). I haven't seen a horror film centered around a mortuary (or at least not one that comes to mind), and if you think about it, a funeral home is a great place to set a scary movie. The acting in this movie was very good, which was mildly surprising. This is the second performance I've seen from Dan Byrd, and he's got great potential. Denise Crosby, who played the wife in "Pet Sematary" is excellent as playing the mother, and was really creepy during her scenes where the 'evil presence' had taken control of her. Alexandra Adi, who played Liz, was a little weak at times, but overall not horrible.

Atmosphere in this film is really big. It really does feel like a small town - with typical country diners, and nosy police officers. And the house that the mortuary is set in was perfectly creepy and rundown, I loved the fact that it had a cemetery as a front yard - how much scarier of a house could you get? The main downfall of the film is the CGI special effects that are used. They aren't seen too often, but some of them were really bad, like something straight out of a B-horror movie. But this film is a B-movie in a sense, a good one though at that. The conclusion was quick and unexpected, and I was left kind of scratching my head, so that could've also been improved upon. Other than that though, I really liked the movie.

Overall, "Mortuary" is a watchable and fun, low budget horror movie. What it lacks in is made up for by the acting and the setting, and for the most part, the good outweighs the bad, and it's a notch above average. I guess you have to like this kind of thing to enjoy it, but I did. It's a throwback to those cheesy '80s horrors that we all know and love, and I thought Tobe Hooper did a fairly good job with it. Don't take this one too seriously though, that's for sure. 6/10.