The director of Slapface returns with a new adaptation of the video game The Mortuary Assistant, balancing brilliant practical effects and shock value with emotional themes.
Video game adaptations rarely succeed at capturing the essence that makes their source material so captivating. Horror adaptations, especially, struggle to balance the atmosphere, tension and unravelling lore with enough immersion. The Mortuary Assistant manages that balance with confidence. After the success of the thoughtful indie horror Slapface, Jeremiah Kipp brings a new bone-chilling film to our screens with this Shudder Original. Examining complex themes with poignant metaphors and excellent practical effects, Kipp brings the indie game to cinematic reality while staying true to the narrative.
As a faithful adaptation (“a rare win for horror game adaptations” according to Ginger Nuts of Horror), the film follows Brian Clarke’s 2022 simulation with expert understanding and probes further into the game’s lore with even more fearsome detail. The game and the film focus on Rebecca Owens, a newly appointed mortician at River Fields Mortuary, whose checkered past still haunts her. As she starts a last-minute night shift, the liminal atmosphere of the mortuary turns sinister; embalmed bodies begin to move, and something in the dark begins to watch her. What follows is a long night of horror-fuelled hallucinations, physical battles and mind games as Rebecca’s worst fears and darkest truths come to light as she is left to wrestle with herself and the demonic entity.
Even in this cinematic iteration, the puzzles required for Rebecca’s survival are a clear part of its story and structure, maintaining the tension the game builds. As an audience, you beg her to complete each task, to survive until sunrise in this chaotic nightmare of a mortuary shift. It is truly a fright fest across the 100-minute run time, tapping into primal fears from claustrophobia to the terror of being relentlessly pursued. But more compellingly, the film portrays Rebecca’s deepest, darkest fears with themes of trauma, addiction and guilt playing a central role. Just as Kipp did so well in Slapface, his focus on these elements creates a clear metaphor for inner demons that build on the game’s emotional core.
A lack of autonomy throughout is a major part of the picture’s fear factor, as hallucinations and possessions leave Rebecca and the audience uncertain about what is real and what isn’t. Rebecca becomes her own worst enemy as the demon tries to use her as a host, preying on her guilt and trauma to get into her mind. This uncertainty creates a more intimate form of horror, in which the greatest threat is not only the strange, pallid entity haunting the mortuary but also the possibility that Rebecca can no longer trust herself or her own thoughts. The story effectively blurs the line between supernatural terror and psychological torment in this way, cleverly forcing the audience to question whether her suffering is caused by external forces or the demons she carries within.
The practical effects are another key draw of the film. From the very beginning, gore and viscera build the ever-growing tension with squeamish detail you can’t look away from. Details of embalmings, even at their most menial, set a bassline of unease that ensures you can’t relax, and impressive shots of sutures and wounds show the sheer skill of both the special effects artists and cinematography team.
A few clumsy lines of dialogue dampen the film’s immersive nature, and some rigid performances from the supporting cast occasionally disrupt the constructed atmosphere. Despite this, Willa Holland (The O.C., Arrow), as Rebecca, shines in a strong performance as a complex character, alongside the unnerving Paul Sparks as her odd mentor, Raymond Delver. As an overall production, it walks the line between entertainingly excessive and thoughtfully fearsome.
Full of jump scares, chase scenes and gory detail, Kipp knows how to make an audience watch with one eye shut. Yet, the emotional turmoil and affective themes make for a more balanced film that goes beyond cheap scares to lasting impact. It’s both a strong knowledge of the game and an understanding of what makes audiences tick that give Kipp’s faithful adaptation its strength, and fans of the game will be happy with what it delivers.
The Mortuary Assistant, based on the best-selling videogame of the same name, is now available on Blu-ray, DVD and digital.
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