Mortuary is a horror film with the atmosphere of mystery, some gore scenes and zombies. The story is bizarre and, in fact, quite clichéd. A family moves to a small town where they plan on starting new life while running funeral home. The local appears to be on haunted ground. The first half of the film is atmospheric and well-developed. The acting is surprisingly good and convincing and all characters are pretty lively. The old neglected house surrounded by graveyard seems to be really spooky. Problems begin during the second half of the film when the film tries to be more brutal and extreme. This part is certainly undeveloped and pretentious as the origin of a black fungus has never been explained. Besides, characters behave in a stupid, illogical way, which really hurts in this pic. As far as technical side of the film is concerned, the cinematography and make-up of zombies are good. However, terrible CGI effects completely ruin the end of the movie. Although in many ways ridiculous and sloppy, Mortuary is a decent, quite scary horror movie which I can solely recommend to horror fans. Nevertheless, I've expected much more from Tobe Hooper.
107 Reviews
Seriously, Tobe...zombie fungus?!?
Coventry24 March 2006
Most avid horror fans no longer consider Tobe Hooper to be a prominent director of the genre whereas I, naive dork that I am, continue to look forward to every new project that has his name attached to it. After all, he'll always remain the creator of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and, more recently, "The Toolbox Murders" turned out to be an engaging and scary little flick. Few positive things can be said about "Mortuary", however, as it certainly doesn't look like a movie made by someone with over 30 years of experience in the field of horror cinema. The plot is stupid and drowning in clichés, the dialogs are awful, the acting performances disastrous and the gory moments (not even that many, mind you) look even cheesier than those in zero-budget 80's slashers. And then still the old school embalming sequences look brilliant compared to the downright horrible CGI effect that are used near the end of the film. Add to all this a total lack of tension, humor or distracting nudity and we've got ourselves one of the worst horror movies of the year 2005. "Mortuary" makes no sense from the first second already and it gradually gets worse with every plot twist or new character that is introduced. A young widow drags her two children to a godforsaken village where she hopes to take a fresh start as
the local mortician! Okay, here we have a woman who clearly never worked with dead bodies before in her life and living in a slum surrounded by eerie gravestones is supposed to help her kids get over the trauma of losing their father? The mortuary has a dubious history, naturally, and bizarre fungus grows from every hole in the walls, turning a bunch of insufferable teenagers into slavering zombies. We never get a proper explanation about the fungus' origin or its exact connection with the deformed ghoul living in the Fowler family tomb. Maybe it's better like this, as I'm sure any form of explanation only would have made the movie even more stupid. This is just an irredeemably bad film, insulting the intellect of even the most undemanding horror audiences. Avoid at all costs!
Got off in a good foot...then tripped and fell flat on it's face.
monkeysontoast20 July 2006
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*
California Fungus Massacre!
The_Void5 July 2008
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.
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.
Horrible waste of time...don't give in to the Hooper hype
bjdelong29 April 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Don't let the Hooper name lure you into this stinking pile of crap. Just horrible- has a plot line that is just a mess ( is this a movie about a killer fungus or about a boy that is rumored to have died that may not be actually dead and may be hiding out in the cemetery?) The plot line doesn't confuse the viewer, it confuses itself. As to previous comments that this was supposed to be a comedy/ parody of the genre...uh, no. Undead is an example of that type of film. If someone that worked on the film wants to say this, hey- whatever you can do to justify your work now that it has come out and people realize its crap. Avoid this movie like herpes.
Everything and the Kitchen Sink Scene
stmichaeldet5 August 2006
Warning: Spoilers
So, what do you do when your hubbie dies and your life falls apart, and you need to start over? Move your family to a small town and become the local mortician, that's what! At least, that's what Leslie Doyle (TV's Tasha Yar, Denise Crosby) thinks would be a good idea.
Unfortunately, the old Fowler Funeral Home (foul-er, geddit?) is not exactly the shining opportunity I suspect she was hoping for. The place is abandoned, broken-down, and has a leaking septic tank full of toxic embalming chemicals. On top of that, the place figures large in local legend, since the Fowler clan was wiped out when deformed, abused young Bobby Fowler went on a brutal killing spree and disappeared into the night. Of course, the locals claim that Bobby is still alive, hiding out in the cemetery and showing up from time to time to perform obligatory small-town boogeyman duties.
Ordinarily, that would be enough to keep any horror film chugging along toward a satisfactory (if not terribly novel) conclusion. But, there's more! There's a nasty, black fungus that seeks out blood, a small pack of semi-intelligent fungi-infected zombioids, and a giant, underground slug with Lovecraftian pretensions to deal with. It's not long before all these monster plot lines are crashing into one another, fighting for screen time. All these beasties are ostensibly connected (Bobby serves the Slug who makes the Fungus which creates the Zombies), but it's really way too much for the film's 90+ minute run time, which means that set-up scenes get truncated and, by the end of the film, plot points seem to appear out of thin air. For instance, Bobby's obsession with little Jaime Doyle, which is used to kick off the climactic underground sequence, would have been far better served if there had been some room to show more of him stalking her early on.
There are a lot of good moments in Mortuary. Production values are high, make-up and effects are quite good, and, unlike many other horror films centered around a family unit, several good punches go unpulled and mothers and small children are fair game. But as a whole, it feels like three different films were smashed together to produce this one. On top of that, I had to deduct a point from my rating because the shock, it's-not-over-yet ending was lame even by the usual standards. See this one at your own risk; if you're willing to be Tobe's apologist for an hour and a half, you might even enjoy it.
Unfortunately, the old Fowler Funeral Home (foul-er, geddit?) is not exactly the shining opportunity I suspect she was hoping for. The place is abandoned, broken-down, and has a leaking septic tank full of toxic embalming chemicals. On top of that, the place figures large in local legend, since the Fowler clan was wiped out when deformed, abused young Bobby Fowler went on a brutal killing spree and disappeared into the night. Of course, the locals claim that Bobby is still alive, hiding out in the cemetery and showing up from time to time to perform obligatory small-town boogeyman duties.
Ordinarily, that would be enough to keep any horror film chugging along toward a satisfactory (if not terribly novel) conclusion. But, there's more! There's a nasty, black fungus that seeks out blood, a small pack of semi-intelligent fungi-infected zombioids, and a giant, underground slug with Lovecraftian pretensions to deal with. It's not long before all these monster plot lines are crashing into one another, fighting for screen time. All these beasties are ostensibly connected (Bobby serves the Slug who makes the Fungus which creates the Zombies), but it's really way too much for the film's 90+ minute run time, which means that set-up scenes get truncated and, by the end of the film, plot points seem to appear out of thin air. For instance, Bobby's obsession with little Jaime Doyle, which is used to kick off the climactic underground sequence, would have been far better served if there had been some room to show more of him stalking her early on.
There are a lot of good moments in Mortuary. Production values are high, make-up and effects are quite good, and, unlike many other horror films centered around a family unit, several good punches go unpulled and mothers and small children are fair game. But as a whole, it feels like three different films were smashed together to produce this one. On top of that, I had to deduct a point from my rating because the shock, it's-not-over-yet ending was lame even by the usual standards. See this one at your own risk; if you're willing to be Tobe's apologist for an hour and a half, you might even enjoy it.
Well the back of the box made it sound like it would be interesting.
Aaron137520 April 2006
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.
Total waste of time
Shivkala12 August 2005
A single mum with a teenage son and a child daughter moves to a small town and buys the local mortuary to start a new life. As one could expect there is an urban legend concerning the house and its former inhabitants. Therefore it is unavoidable that the local teenagers go there to impress their girlfriends and do dumb things...
Soon after the family moves there the 'horror' begins as recently deceased persons start to raise as zombies. Then there is a lot of screaming. And a lot of running around. And a lot of bad acting. As well as a lot of horror film clichés and bad jokes. Sadly, there a zero scary scenes, zero surprising moments and zero original ideas in this movies.
I expected much better from Tobe Hooper, but that is what I got.
Soon after the family moves there the 'horror' begins as recently deceased persons start to raise as zombies. Then there is a lot of screaming. And a lot of running around. And a lot of bad acting. As well as a lot of horror film clichés and bad jokes. Sadly, there a zero scary scenes, zero surprising moments and zero original ideas in this movies.
I expected much better from Tobe Hooper, but that is what I got.
Not as bad as I'd feared...
MetalGeek24 July 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Tobe Hooper's career in horror has had its ups and downs. For every bonafide classic on his resume like "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or "Poltergeist," there's a bomb like "Invaders from Mars" or "The Mangler" to counteract it. I haven't seen much of Tobe's more recent work, and the comments here on IMDb for "Mortuary" didn't exactly fill me with confidence at first. But what the hell, this DVD was cheap ($5.99 for a "Horror Collection" disc, with three other movies in addition to "Mortuary") so I figured "Ehhh, what the hell, let's give the old boy a shot." "Mortuary" wasn't as bad as I feared but wasn't exactly a masterpiece either. The story is standard stuff -- a recently widowed Mom (Denise Crosby of "Star Trek: TNG" and "Pet Sematery" fame - good Lord, time has not been kind to her) and her two kids move to a new town where Mom (who's fresh out of Mortician's School) plans to re-open the long-abandoned funeral parlor. The teenage son reminded me of a low-rent Barry Watson from "7th Heaven," while his pre-teen sister is, quite frankly, the most annoying Horror Movie Little Girl since Danielle Harris' mute Jamie Lloyd in "Halloween 5." Right off the bat, I found myself hoping that something horrible would happen to her. Does that make me a bad person? I hope not. Anyway, the house they settle into is a creaky, run down dump overlooking the graveyard, the septic tank overflows on a regular basis, and Mom's downstairs embalming area has weird black mold growing all over the walls. The kids are less than thrilled with their new living situation, of course, but none of this seems to phase Mom, who anxiously gets to work on her first batch of "clients" (she keeps her mortician's textbooks propped up on the corpse's chests as she works!) while the teenage son meets some kids at the local diner who tell him the legend of "Billy," a deformed kid who used to live in the house he now occupies. Seems that "Billy" bashed his parents' brains in after a lifetime of abuse and supposedly lives hidden from the world in one of the graveyard tombs outside the funeral home. Nice, huh? Eventually a couple of standard horror-movie stupid teenager characters have a late night run-in with "Billy," who infects them with some sort of zombie virus that causes them to reappear later, coughing up nasty black stuff on people. Needless to say, things go immediately downhill for everybody from here on. Oh, and did I mention that there's some sort of Lovecraftian demi-god monster with lots of teeth and tentacles living in a pit under the house? So, um, yeah, there's a lot going on here. For the last half of this film, I swear it felt like Hooper just gave up and hit the "TOTALLY RANDOM" button.
Fortunately, "Mortuary" is one of those movies that moves along quickly enough that you don't really have time to think about how ridiculous it is until it's over. By the time Crosby's character gets infected, becomes a zombie, and starts chasing her kids through a series of passages and tunnels under the funeral home (which look like they were borrowed from "The Goonies"), you may start to wonder if "Mortuary" was intended to be a zombie film, a creature film, or a disease film. It seems to me that Hooper simply mixed clichés from all three genres into one very loud, fast moving, silly soup. The CGI used to create the "monster" under the house is some of the cheapest I've seen outside of an Asylum film, and the abrupt ending reeks of "We have no idea how to end this, so we're just gonna throw one last shock at you rather than give you a satisfactory conclusion." I honestly didn't think much of this movie at first glance, but when I compared it to 2 other films that were on the same DVD ("Bloody Mary" and "Wages of Sin") that I watched afterwards, "Mortuary's" stock shot up a few extra points because the other two were WAY worse.
OK, so "Mortuary" wasn't a classic, but it at least kept me entertained to a certain degree. I'd say it's not a bad flick if you can get it cheap (like I did) or if it turns up on SyFy Channel sometime but you're not missing out on a hidden gem if you decide to skip it.
Fortunately, "Mortuary" is one of those movies that moves along quickly enough that you don't really have time to think about how ridiculous it is until it's over. By the time Crosby's character gets infected, becomes a zombie, and starts chasing her kids through a series of passages and tunnels under the funeral home (which look like they were borrowed from "The Goonies"), you may start to wonder if "Mortuary" was intended to be a zombie film, a creature film, or a disease film. It seems to me that Hooper simply mixed clichés from all three genres into one very loud, fast moving, silly soup. The CGI used to create the "monster" under the house is some of the cheapest I've seen outside of an Asylum film, and the abrupt ending reeks of "We have no idea how to end this, so we're just gonna throw one last shock at you rather than give you a satisfactory conclusion." I honestly didn't think much of this movie at first glance, but when I compared it to 2 other films that were on the same DVD ("Bloody Mary" and "Wages of Sin") that I watched afterwards, "Mortuary's" stock shot up a few extra points because the other two were WAY worse.
OK, so "Mortuary" wasn't a classic, but it at least kept me entertained to a certain degree. I'd say it's not a bad flick if you can get it cheap (like I did) or if it turns up on SyFy Channel sometime but you're not missing out on a hidden gem if you decide to skip it.
Together we can stop grave yard babies
nogodnomasters2 May 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Leslie Doyle (Denise Crosby) warps her family into a small town mortuary with a history and a bad septic tank. She is a beginner at the task and apparently has never apprenticed. Rumor has it the deformed Bobby Fowler, former occupant, is alive.
The film has a cast of characters that keeps the film alive from time to time: Rita (Lee Garlington) a burned out hippie who now runs a diner, The stuttering sheriff, and bully kid. At times it had scenes with the little girl that worked very well and then there were scenes that needed improvement. Over all a mildly entertaining horror film.
Guide: F-word, sex, corpse nudity
The film has a cast of characters that keeps the film alive from time to time: Rita (Lee Garlington) a burned out hippie who now runs a diner, The stuttering sheriff, and bully kid. At times it had scenes with the little girl that worked very well and then there were scenes that needed improvement. Over all a mildly entertaining horror film.
Guide: F-word, sex, corpse nudity
Tobe Hooper: Hack
rmorse218 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
I've never met Tobe Hooper and I have nothing against the man personally. That said, this truly awful film leaves no doubt as to Hooper's utter lack of directorial talent.
The plot is moronic, the scripting even more so. And true to form, Hooper blunders through the mess, making it all the worse.
STRUCTURE, people, STRUCTURE! Did Hooper and the screenwriter never study the basics of writing for film? The ending is completely out of whack, as if it were thrown in at the last minute at the producer's demand. If this pile of steaming film-making was supposed to be a tragedy (which it is--literally), the screenwriter is obligated to follow one of the simple rules of the form: Character with Tragic Flaw. That character would be Jonathan, yet there's no tragic flaw to be found. The ending is unwarranted--and Hooper should have known. Sheesh!
Don't watch this film on TV. Don't rent it. And for heaven's sake, NEVER buy it! Better you should throw your money down the sewer, which is exactly where "Mortuary" belongs.
The plot is moronic, the scripting even more so. And true to form, Hooper blunders through the mess, making it all the worse.
STRUCTURE, people, STRUCTURE! Did Hooper and the screenwriter never study the basics of writing for film? The ending is completely out of whack, as if it were thrown in at the last minute at the producer's demand. If this pile of steaming film-making was supposed to be a tragedy (which it is--literally), the screenwriter is obligated to follow one of the simple rules of the form: Character with Tragic Flaw. That character would be Jonathan, yet there's no tragic flaw to be found. The ending is unwarranted--and Hooper should have known. Sheesh!
Don't watch this film on TV. Don't rent it. And for heaven's sake, NEVER buy it! Better you should throw your money down the sewer, which is exactly where "Mortuary" belongs.
Mortuary Does What it Sets-out To Do
myboigie5 May 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This was just so much fun, not perfect, but a lot of fun. People are still expecting Tobe Hooper to direct another Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which is too bad, because this is a really enjoyable horror movie. It has a lot of great B-movie atmosphere, hot chicks, small town punks, and some original gore concepts. The idea of a conscious fungus colony is pretty creepy, gross and scary! It is definitely a Lovecraftian-theme, and some parts of the small town backstory resemble "The Colour Out of Space", "The Dunwich Horror", and a little-bit of "The Outsider". It also has some similarities with Lucio Fulci's "The House By the Cemetery", a film I love. I even noticed a few nods to Hooper's "Poltergeist", and "Eaten Alive", and 1998's "Phantoms". This is really just a very funny, and creepy ride. It doesn't have any great statements to make, and a lot of it isn't new, but the combinations are new. Sometimes, it's just good to have some fun with the genre.
Denise Crosby was really great as the single-mom who moves her family to a small California town as the new mortician. They find a really rundown old mortuary that rests on an island of muck, which lets us know we're in for some grim, dirty horror. Greg Travis returns from Toolbox Murders as a shady local-businessman who rents the accursed property to unsuspecting tenants, and his foppish gimp-character laughs all the time. Hilarious! All the characters are well-drawn, and likable with a few notable-exceptions, so those characters "die" early-on. They all seem and act as real people do, like Dan Byrd's character as the son, he's very believable. While the film is a light-horror with lots of humor, the plot line is actually very grim. Many online-reviewers have expressed anger at the ending of this film, calling it a "cheap-ending", but I don't see this at all. Did I mention the girl with the kool-aid hair looked pretty hot? But, honestly, could the ending be any more unexpected?
Not many American horror-directors allow sympathetic characters to die-off completely, or have their identities taken-over or destroyed. It's in the indie-productions or Asian and European horror that it occurs in the story, if it does at all. We remember John Carpenter's "The Thing" (1982) because he breaks this rule, even to the very-end of the film. Knowing the rules helps! At the time, many people were angered by this, but it's part of the original short story by John W. Campbell Jr. from 1938. There is above-ground horror, and there is underground-horror like Campbell and Lovecraft, Bloch, Derleth, etc. We know there are some things that you just don't do in a mainstream-film, which is exactly why they should be done in horror. To do horror well, you have to betray the audience.
The only way for horror to progress is by a violation of taboos, and a knowledge of what works. Killing the heroes certainly works, but it's too-bad for those who feel emotionally betrayed. The ending of Mortuary was just a fun fake-out. There were two other scenes that stood-out: the infected mother serving the kids dinner in a parody of domesticity, and the scene at the subterranean-well. The infected were just completely mechanical and insane, I loved it. The latter-scene was a nod to parts of "Invaders from Mars" (1986), Hooper's remake of the 1953 classic. If you hadn't noticed, many of Hooper's films center on a family unit in some way. He makes some pretty interesting comments on the family in his films, and not all of them are sympathetic. This film just supports his countercultural-background, and people get irritated by his jabs, or when they don't get it.
The only major complaint I have with Mortuary is that some of the CGI could have been better. It drew too much attention to itself, but some of it was pretty good. As much as it costs, why not do a few mattes and miniatures in the real-world? There was also a scene in the mortuary where some accident victims reanimate that should have been staged better, but this is a low-budget horror (el cheapo). I would wager this movie cost under $1 million, which is impressive considering the results. I doubt Uwe Boll or Paul Thomas Anderson could even pay-themselves on this, but their films basically suck at $30-40 million. The cinematography is great, with some looming low-shots, and very interesting night-photography and composition.
The house and its setting are very realistic and bleak--it makes one wonder exactly what is possible in some of our most-polluted quarters of America. Nearly every small town has a local boogeyman story like the Bobby Fowler character, and the mortuary house was well-drawn: a place of death, where nothing grows, but something there feasts on the dead and the living. After the biggest rain in 50-years, it something has reawakened to feast more-than-ever. The behavior of the "infected" is pretty unsettling and machine-like, keeping with Hooper's fear of a mechanical-horror. He seems to enjoy portraying people in social-roles (cop, mother, punker, movie-reviewer, skater, girlfriend, employee, sibling, goth, metalhead, authoritarian, homosexual, judge, manager, wife, husband, etc.) as a form of living-death, but who can complain when this is our lives? All-in-all, it was just-entertaining (I know, the end of the world!), with a few jolts and some effectively disgusting makeup. The tone gets more-and-more hysterical and bizarre, and that's what I expect from Tobe Hooper. This is the same level of film-making he was at when he did Eaten Alive, and it's low-budget but very solid. The origins of the zombification were pretty original, and there were some moments of greatness in the imagery. I'm a sucker for graveyards. This is a great-addition to the works of Tobe Hooper, he has nothing to be ashamed-of here.That's all if ever claimed to be. A decent B-movie horror with a some shocks.
Denise Crosby was really great as the single-mom who moves her family to a small California town as the new mortician. They find a really rundown old mortuary that rests on an island of muck, which lets us know we're in for some grim, dirty horror. Greg Travis returns from Toolbox Murders as a shady local-businessman who rents the accursed property to unsuspecting tenants, and his foppish gimp-character laughs all the time. Hilarious! All the characters are well-drawn, and likable with a few notable-exceptions, so those characters "die" early-on. They all seem and act as real people do, like Dan Byrd's character as the son, he's very believable. While the film is a light-horror with lots of humor, the plot line is actually very grim. Many online-reviewers have expressed anger at the ending of this film, calling it a "cheap-ending", but I don't see this at all. Did I mention the girl with the kool-aid hair looked pretty hot? But, honestly, could the ending be any more unexpected?
Not many American horror-directors allow sympathetic characters to die-off completely, or have their identities taken-over or destroyed. It's in the indie-productions or Asian and European horror that it occurs in the story, if it does at all. We remember John Carpenter's "The Thing" (1982) because he breaks this rule, even to the very-end of the film. Knowing the rules helps! At the time, many people were angered by this, but it's part of the original short story by John W. Campbell Jr. from 1938. There is above-ground horror, and there is underground-horror like Campbell and Lovecraft, Bloch, Derleth, etc. We know there are some things that you just don't do in a mainstream-film, which is exactly why they should be done in horror. To do horror well, you have to betray the audience.
The only way for horror to progress is by a violation of taboos, and a knowledge of what works. Killing the heroes certainly works, but it's too-bad for those who feel emotionally betrayed. The ending of Mortuary was just a fun fake-out. There were two other scenes that stood-out: the infected mother serving the kids dinner in a parody of domesticity, and the scene at the subterranean-well. The infected were just completely mechanical and insane, I loved it. The latter-scene was a nod to parts of "Invaders from Mars" (1986), Hooper's remake of the 1953 classic. If you hadn't noticed, many of Hooper's films center on a family unit in some way. He makes some pretty interesting comments on the family in his films, and not all of them are sympathetic. This film just supports his countercultural-background, and people get irritated by his jabs, or when they don't get it.
The only major complaint I have with Mortuary is that some of the CGI could have been better. It drew too much attention to itself, but some of it was pretty good. As much as it costs, why not do a few mattes and miniatures in the real-world? There was also a scene in the mortuary where some accident victims reanimate that should have been staged better, but this is a low-budget horror (el cheapo). I would wager this movie cost under $1 million, which is impressive considering the results. I doubt Uwe Boll or Paul Thomas Anderson could even pay-themselves on this, but their films basically suck at $30-40 million. The cinematography is great, with some looming low-shots, and very interesting night-photography and composition.
The house and its setting are very realistic and bleak--it makes one wonder exactly what is possible in some of our most-polluted quarters of America. Nearly every small town has a local boogeyman story like the Bobby Fowler character, and the mortuary house was well-drawn: a place of death, where nothing grows, but something there feasts on the dead and the living. After the biggest rain in 50-years, it something has reawakened to feast more-than-ever. The behavior of the "infected" is pretty unsettling and machine-like, keeping with Hooper's fear of a mechanical-horror. He seems to enjoy portraying people in social-roles (cop, mother, punker, movie-reviewer, skater, girlfriend, employee, sibling, goth, metalhead, authoritarian, homosexual, judge, manager, wife, husband, etc.) as a form of living-death, but who can complain when this is our lives? All-in-all, it was just-entertaining (I know, the end of the world!), with a few jolts and some effectively disgusting makeup. The tone gets more-and-more hysterical and bizarre, and that's what I expect from Tobe Hooper. This is the same level of film-making he was at when he did Eaten Alive, and it's low-budget but very solid. The origins of the zombification were pretty original, and there were some moments of greatness in the imagery. I'm a sucker for graveyards. This is a great-addition to the works of Tobe Hooper, he has nothing to be ashamed-of here.That's all if ever claimed to be. A decent B-movie horror with a some shocks.
Scary Atmosphere, Flawed Screenplay
claudio_carvalho1 April 2007
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")
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")
Terrible horror comedy from Tobe Hooper.
poolandrews23 June 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Mortuary starts as recently widowed Leslie Doyle (Denise Crosby) & her two young children Jonathan (Dan Byrd) & Janie (Stephanie Patton) arrive at a small town in California where they hope to rebuild their lives having taken over the local mortuary. There Jonathan quickly gets a job at a local diner & as the bodies pile up Leslie is kept busy, however there are strange local legends surrounding the mortuary & the previous occupants. Then a black fungus starts to grow around the mortuary & infect the dead which brings them back to life as zombies, it also infects the living & turns them into killers who do the evil fungi's bidding...
This deeply unfunny & unscary horror comedy was directed by the one time great Tobe Hooper whose career has been a literal roller-coaster & uneven to say the least, from his first film the classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) to his second the darkly grim & macabre Eaten Alive (1976) to the Salem's Lot (1979) film to The Funhouse (1981) to Poltergeist (1982) he had some cracking films to his credit & a good reputation in the horror genre. Then things began to fall apart, he went through a phase of making entertainingly bad films like Lifeforce (1985), the Invaders from Mars (1986) remake & The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) all of which I love but flopped both critically & commercially. Unfortunately since then Hooper has made nothing but bad film after bad film even going as low as to direct the lousy straight-to-video/DVD Sci-Fi Channel style creature feature Crocodile (2000) & then there's this, Mortuary. The script by Jace Anderson & Adam Gierasch (who also wrote the awful aforementioned Tobe Hooper directed Cocodile & his Toolbox Murders (2003) remake) really tries to be some sort of amusing teen comedy horror but fails spectacularly, I honestly don't think I even smiled let alone laughed at one single moment in Mortuary. All the gags really miss the mark for me, from supposedly funny scenes of zombies being sick on people to a seedy Mayor to a Sheriff with a stutter to a sarcastic café owner this is as funny as filling out tax returns. The horror side of things are no better, it's takes an absolute age for anything to happen & when it does it's nothing more than scenes of teenagers screaming & running from a few zombies. The script & plot are atrocious & nothing has any sort of explanation behind it. For instance we never find out what the fungus is, where it came from or why it suddenly appeared. We never find out why there's some guy living under the graveyard or what he motivations are or why no-one has ever seen him before. We never find out why salt kills the fungus or why at the end the film totally contradicts itself & has all the fungus survive even though we just saw it destroyed. We never find out what the fungus wants or why it controls people or what their purpose is. Basically Mortuary feels like lots of totally unconnected ideas thrown together without any sort of reason.
Director Hooper turns in a reasonable looking flick I'll give him that much but overall the film still sucks. The character's are awful, you will not care for any of them & by the end you will be rooting for the fungus & zombies. So what could save such a poorly conceived & written film like Mortuary? That's right, lots of blood, gore & zombie action. Unfortunately Hooper lets us down big time in this department too, there's a severed arm & zombie punches it's hand through someone's neck & that really is all the gore there is. For a film that goes on for over 90 minutes & is so bad that just isn't good enough. There's no nudity either in case you were wondering which you probably weren't. The film is competently made but there's no real atmosphere, it's not scary, there's no impending sense of doom or gloom & the whole thing feels very flat & not too dissimilar to a cheap TV flick.
Technically the film has reasonable production values, cinematography & special make-up effects although some of the CGI computer effects at the end are terrible. Filmed in Los Angeles. The acting isn't anything to get excited about & you know your in trouble when a little twelve year old girl gives the best performance.
Mortuary is a poor attempt at a horror comedy that is neither horrific or funny & the plot feels like it had no thought put into it at all, this is disappointing by anybodies standard but with the once great Tobe Hooper's name attached it's even worse. Funnily enough there were two films made in the same year during 1983 called Mortuary & then none until 2005 when another two were made during the same year called Mortuary as well!
This deeply unfunny & unscary horror comedy was directed by the one time great Tobe Hooper whose career has been a literal roller-coaster & uneven to say the least, from his first film the classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) to his second the darkly grim & macabre Eaten Alive (1976) to the Salem's Lot (1979) film to The Funhouse (1981) to Poltergeist (1982) he had some cracking films to his credit & a good reputation in the horror genre. Then things began to fall apart, he went through a phase of making entertainingly bad films like Lifeforce (1985), the Invaders from Mars (1986) remake & The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) all of which I love but flopped both critically & commercially. Unfortunately since then Hooper has made nothing but bad film after bad film even going as low as to direct the lousy straight-to-video/DVD Sci-Fi Channel style creature feature Crocodile (2000) & then there's this, Mortuary. The script by Jace Anderson & Adam Gierasch (who also wrote the awful aforementioned Tobe Hooper directed Cocodile & his Toolbox Murders (2003) remake) really tries to be some sort of amusing teen comedy horror but fails spectacularly, I honestly don't think I even smiled let alone laughed at one single moment in Mortuary. All the gags really miss the mark for me, from supposedly funny scenes of zombies being sick on people to a seedy Mayor to a Sheriff with a stutter to a sarcastic café owner this is as funny as filling out tax returns. The horror side of things are no better, it's takes an absolute age for anything to happen & when it does it's nothing more than scenes of teenagers screaming & running from a few zombies. The script & plot are atrocious & nothing has any sort of explanation behind it. For instance we never find out what the fungus is, where it came from or why it suddenly appeared. We never find out why there's some guy living under the graveyard or what he motivations are or why no-one has ever seen him before. We never find out why salt kills the fungus or why at the end the film totally contradicts itself & has all the fungus survive even though we just saw it destroyed. We never find out what the fungus wants or why it controls people or what their purpose is. Basically Mortuary feels like lots of totally unconnected ideas thrown together without any sort of reason.
Director Hooper turns in a reasonable looking flick I'll give him that much but overall the film still sucks. The character's are awful, you will not care for any of them & by the end you will be rooting for the fungus & zombies. So what could save such a poorly conceived & written film like Mortuary? That's right, lots of blood, gore & zombie action. Unfortunately Hooper lets us down big time in this department too, there's a severed arm & zombie punches it's hand through someone's neck & that really is all the gore there is. For a film that goes on for over 90 minutes & is so bad that just isn't good enough. There's no nudity either in case you were wondering which you probably weren't. The film is competently made but there's no real atmosphere, it's not scary, there's no impending sense of doom or gloom & the whole thing feels very flat & not too dissimilar to a cheap TV flick.
Technically the film has reasonable production values, cinematography & special make-up effects although some of the CGI computer effects at the end are terrible. Filmed in Los Angeles. The acting isn't anything to get excited about & you know your in trouble when a little twelve year old girl gives the best performance.
Mortuary is a poor attempt at a horror comedy that is neither horrific or funny & the plot feels like it had no thought put into it at all, this is disappointing by anybodies standard but with the once great Tobe Hooper's name attached it's even worse. Funnily enough there were two films made in the same year during 1983 called Mortuary & then none until 2005 when another two were made during the same year called Mortuary as well!
Not worth the time of day.
FantasyLights26 March 2006
This movie was CRAP. The previews led you to believe it was something worth seeing but it wasn't.
The acting was terrible on so many levels. The only relatively decent acting came from the mother but shes been in the business a while so we can only expect it from her.
There really was no solid plot it kept jumping around. Reminded me a lot of something a 5th grader would try to write for a creative writing assignment.
One minute there's some legend of a mutated child/man who haunts graveyards the next there's black ooze thats stealing peoples souls! It was hard to keep track of exactly what was going on.
And does no one in this town die of natural causes? I mean they stated it was a small town and with their death rate they should be off the map in a week. Also when the living people were taken over they could still talk. The dead were just... mentally incapable it's like they lost their brains when they died! The ending left so many unanswered questions. It was like they just went "O crap we've run out of money in our budget we have to end it now lets slap together something really dumb!" What happened to Rita? What about the creepy guy with the cane? Why in the name of all that is sane in this world would someone move into a house like that in the first place. What about the diner chick? Does she survive? O and where did the sheriff's car go? You mean to tell me no one noticed it was there? This movie was truly one of the worst movies I've seen in a LONG time. It puts shame to the horror genre.
The only good thing about it was that cracking jokes at this was so easy a 5 year old could have done it, and that made it fun to laugh at.
The acting was terrible on so many levels. The only relatively decent acting came from the mother but shes been in the business a while so we can only expect it from her.
There really was no solid plot it kept jumping around. Reminded me a lot of something a 5th grader would try to write for a creative writing assignment.
One minute there's some legend of a mutated child/man who haunts graveyards the next there's black ooze thats stealing peoples souls! It was hard to keep track of exactly what was going on.
And does no one in this town die of natural causes? I mean they stated it was a small town and with their death rate they should be off the map in a week. Also when the living people were taken over they could still talk. The dead were just... mentally incapable it's like they lost their brains when they died! The ending left so many unanswered questions. It was like they just went "O crap we've run out of money in our budget we have to end it now lets slap together something really dumb!" What happened to Rita? What about the creepy guy with the cane? Why in the name of all that is sane in this world would someone move into a house like that in the first place. What about the diner chick? Does she survive? O and where did the sheriff's car go? You mean to tell me no one noticed it was there? This movie was truly one of the worst movies I've seen in a LONG time. It puts shame to the horror genre.
The only good thing about it was that cracking jokes at this was so easy a 5 year old could have done it, and that made it fun to laugh at.
Incredibly bad.
HumanoidOfFlesh4 August 2006
The plot of "Mortuary" goes like that:single mom played by Denise Crosby of "Pet Sematary" fame and her two children,a teenage son and young daughter move from Chicago to a small town.Crosby has just finished Embalming School and has leased a rundown old mortuary Fowler Brothers Funeral Home.Her son finds a job at a local diner and quickly learns the story of Bobby Fowler;a boy so hideous his parents kept his face covered with a 'death shroud'.In the early 60's,the Fowler parents are murdered and the boy missing and was presumed dead,but the myth is he's alive and living in the catacombs under the graveyard and funeral home.First of all I can't believe that Tobe Hooper,the man behind horrifying horror classic "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" directed this mess.The script is laughable,the comedy elements are stupid and unnecessary and finally there is no suspense.The minimal amount of blood doesn't help either."Mortuary" fails even as the parody of campy 80s horror.Avoid this crap like the plague.Sorry Tobe,try harder next time.
Disappointing
miss_toucan22 April 2022
Mortuary
Scarecrow-8828 November 2008
Warning: Spoilers
I must admit that this film really hooked me in at the opening hour or so as the film centers on a closely-knit family of three, mother Leslie(Denise Crosby, Star Trek-The Next Generation;Pet Semetary)cutesy-pie, wide-eyed daughter Jamie(Stephanie Patton) and cynical, but sweet, son Jonathan(Dan Byrd)attempting to adapt to a small town, trying to renovate their mortuary which is in dire shape, needing extensive repairs and care. Something evil lies underground, a well housing something black which is attracted to blood, it's oil-slick tentacles reaching out for any it can find, such as when Leslie(..quite an amateur mortician, still learning her trade)cuts her hand after a mishap with her embalming machine as the hose breaks away releasing fluid all over the place...a fungus-like residue remains whenever it comes from underground for blood. There's a spooky myth attached to the mortuary regarding local boogeyman, Bobby Fowler(Price Carson)whose parents once run the outfit, that he butchered them and still lives within the area. It turns out that Bobby does indeed exist and that he often feeds victims to the well, their blood giving whatever it is nourishment. Oftentimes, the black goo from the well turns humans into loony zombies, such as a trio of misfits, two goofy punk gals, Tina & Sara(Courtney Peldon & Tara Paige) and their brutish and rude male love-toy, Cal(Bug Hall)who have a bad habit of starting trouble, such as picking an altercation with Jonathan or mistreating the graveyard nearby the mortuary.
The film, as typical with Hooper's oeuvre, has an array of eccentric supporting characters such as a stuttering, nervous sheriff and an always-laughing real-estate agent, a bit too cheery with off-the-wall remarks which produce most of the dark humor on display. I think the setting, a creepy mortuary with evil lurking within, works exceptionally well, and the graveyard is quite spooky, but the computer graphics are simply abysmal ruining what could've been an impressive follow-up to Hooper's The Toolbox Murders. The well isn't defined enough and is sloppily created, not looking the least bit realistic. Bobby goes from grotesque villain to heroic savior way too fast, and seems integrated into the film way too late. The corpses in Leslie's morgue, which are given life thanks to the black goo, are certainly effective enough, resembling the Romero signature zombies. The computer graphics(for how they are destroyed through the use of salt)are dreadful. And, the grim twist at the end doesn't make sense in regards as to what happens to Jonathan. Most of the murders that take place are handled specifically through the use of CGI(..even when the hand of a zombie bursts through the chest of a victim)which removes the effectiveness of the horror(..The Toolbox Murders, on the other hand, is much more effective due to it's use of practical gore-effects). And, I, for one, felt the film was hampered by the decision to turn Leslie into a zombie because the strength of the family was an important ingredient in the overall story(..and I just enjoyed the chemistry of the three leads as a family absent a father, trying to start over). Perhaps, Hooper and company wanted to turn Leslie so that the terror heightens towards Jonathan and Jamie, a hopeless situation where they must depend on themselves to survive. Those also facing the zombie crisis, are Jonathan's gravel-voiced love interest Liz(Alexandra Adi) and her pot-smoking homosexual pal Grady(Rocky Marquette). Lee Garlington has a nice supporting turn as a foul-mouthed diner owner, Rita, often mentioning her frequent drug-trips in the past(..she also serves as a mentor to Liz and gives Jonathan a job)informing Jonathan of Bobby Fowler. The dialogue, as usual in a Hooper film, can be quite profane and darkly humorous. As typical in a Tobe Hooper horror film, corpses have collected by certain victims within Fowler's lair, and the theme of innocence facing destruction is ever-present.
The film, as typical with Hooper's oeuvre, has an array of eccentric supporting characters such as a stuttering, nervous sheriff and an always-laughing real-estate agent, a bit too cheery with off-the-wall remarks which produce most of the dark humor on display. I think the setting, a creepy mortuary with evil lurking within, works exceptionally well, and the graveyard is quite spooky, but the computer graphics are simply abysmal ruining what could've been an impressive follow-up to Hooper's The Toolbox Murders. The well isn't defined enough and is sloppily created, not looking the least bit realistic. Bobby goes from grotesque villain to heroic savior way too fast, and seems integrated into the film way too late. The corpses in Leslie's morgue, which are given life thanks to the black goo, are certainly effective enough, resembling the Romero signature zombies. The computer graphics(for how they are destroyed through the use of salt)are dreadful. And, the grim twist at the end doesn't make sense in regards as to what happens to Jonathan. Most of the murders that take place are handled specifically through the use of CGI(..even when the hand of a zombie bursts through the chest of a victim)which removes the effectiveness of the horror(..The Toolbox Murders, on the other hand, is much more effective due to it's use of practical gore-effects). And, I, for one, felt the film was hampered by the decision to turn Leslie into a zombie because the strength of the family was an important ingredient in the overall story(..and I just enjoyed the chemistry of the three leads as a family absent a father, trying to start over). Perhaps, Hooper and company wanted to turn Leslie so that the terror heightens towards Jonathan and Jamie, a hopeless situation where they must depend on themselves to survive. Those also facing the zombie crisis, are Jonathan's gravel-voiced love interest Liz(Alexandra Adi) and her pot-smoking homosexual pal Grady(Rocky Marquette). Lee Garlington has a nice supporting turn as a foul-mouthed diner owner, Rita, often mentioning her frequent drug-trips in the past(..she also serves as a mentor to Liz and gives Jonathan a job)informing Jonathan of Bobby Fowler. The dialogue, as usual in a Hooper film, can be quite profane and darkly humorous. As typical in a Tobe Hooper horror film, corpses have collected by certain victims within Fowler's lair, and the theme of innocence facing destruction is ever-present.
This movie totally sucks
jujmintdae26 March 2006
This is the worst movie I ever seen in my life,The only bright spot in this movie was Courtney Peldon, the story line is hard to follow, and being in the funeral service myself, I know they don't let unlicensed people go around embalming bodies or running funeral homes, no one embalms by using a book in front of them, you have to go thru school, then there is a internship to serve, after that you get your license, and what is with the green embalming fluid in the machine she was using? If this is the kind of movies this guy directs, then I will make it a point to never see another movie he has directed, I cant believe that he read over the script, then said, sure I will direct this low budget awful film, again, the worst movie I have ever seen in my entire life.
Not great, but worth seeing again.
duckman_07922 May 2020
Spooky, entertaining, good acting, decent story. Maybe I'm odd, but the only thing that really bothers me about the movie is the graveyard. It looks more like a junkyard. Tombstones are not normally 3 feet away from each other and in disarray as if nobody was actually buried under them.
Awful and Boring
Carrigon25 March 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I'm giving this movie a two only because I like Dan Byrd and I've always liked Denise Crosby, but they are really slumming it with this movie.
The movie is full of old and tired horror clichés. The old story of the poor, deformed, abused kid supposedly murdered but still living....somewhere on the grounds. Beyond that, there wasn't much of a story. A family moves into a falling apart old house with a tiny cemetery on the grounds. The mother is a mortician. A weird crawling black fungus creeps about the house and eventually infects both the living and the dead. But, the movie drags so much, I was ready to stop watching after twenty minutes.
No one but Dan Byrd's character is even likable in this movie. There's not much of a story. And the zombies are so underused, you'll be asking, "what zombies?" Avoid this movie, there's not much to see with it.
The movie is full of old and tired horror clichés. The old story of the poor, deformed, abused kid supposedly murdered but still living....somewhere on the grounds. Beyond that, there wasn't much of a story. A family moves into a falling apart old house with a tiny cemetery on the grounds. The mother is a mortician. A weird crawling black fungus creeps about the house and eventually infects both the living and the dead. But, the movie drags so much, I was ready to stop watching after twenty minutes.
No one but Dan Byrd's character is even likable in this movie. There's not much of a story. And the zombies are so underused, you'll be asking, "what zombies?" Avoid this movie, there's not much to see with it.
Campy Fun
LittlePpod7527 March 2006
I really think everyone is missing the point of this movie. Maybe it was the marketing, which made it seem like a true Tobe Hooper horror film. However, after having worked on this movie, I know that it was meant to be more of a parody of its own self, and not to be taken seriously. This is what the writers intended. Also, having worked with Tobe, I know that he always saw himself as a director of comedy, but he just fell into the horror genre. This movie should be characterized as a horror/comedy combo (horredy). It's meant to be more entertaining than scary, complete with cheesy dialog. If you re-watch the film with this in mind, you may have a different opinion of it.
Not That Bad
Tweetienator21 February 2020
Not that bad like the rating indicates - of course, Tobe Hooper's classics The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist and Lifeforce are miles ahead regarding story and production, but anyway, Mortuary is a nice little flick with some similiarities to some horror classics - e.g. Return of the Living Dead comes to mind (without most of the comedy elements). Mortuary is for sure no new milestone in the eternal crypt of the neverending horrors but spicy enuff and the actors are giving a solid performance. On top we get a a nice nostalgic shot of the 80s and 90s and some good visual designs.
You may give Mortuary a chance, if you got a good appetite for movies like Return of the Living Dead, The Haunting in Conneticut, The Hallow, The Ruins, Splinter etc.
You may give Mortuary a chance, if you got a good appetite for movies like Return of the Living Dead, The Haunting in Conneticut, The Hallow, The Ruins, Splinter etc.
Garbage. Pure and simple.
scarred_inside17 April 2006
Warning: Spoilers
After seeing the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I can't believe that Tobe Hooper made this kind of absolute rubbish. I'm a big fan of zombie movies in general, but this was ridiculous. Zombification inducing fungus? A mongoloid with a cleft palate that feeds people to an evil well? Of all ways to kill a zombie, if you could even call whatever these people become zombies; they certainly aren't zombies in any traditional sense, but of all ways to dispose of them, SALT? I could write a better movie in my sleep.
The acting was bad. Let me say that again. The acting was REALLY bad.
The cinematography was horrible.
The dialogue was inane, clichéd, drivel.
The music added absolutely nothing to the movie.
Tobe Hooper has done much, much better work in the past, and hopefully he will do much, much better work sometime in the future. As for this movie, I could have spent it took to watch it trying to decipher the cryptic messages left in my regurgitated alphabet cereal.
The acting was bad. Let me say that again. The acting was REALLY bad.
The cinematography was horrible.
The dialogue was inane, clichéd, drivel.
The music added absolutely nothing to the movie.
Tobe Hooper has done much, much better work in the past, and hopefully he will do much, much better work sometime in the future. As for this movie, I could have spent it took to watch it trying to decipher the cryptic messages left in my regurgitated alphabet cereal.
Amazingly Awful (SPOILERS)
I_Am_The_Taylrus21 October 2007
Warning: Spoilers
SPOILERS
I just happened to see this movie on the Sci-Fi Channel. I knew it was going to be bad, mainly because it was on the Sci-Fi Channel, and I always like terrible movies to make fun of every now and then, but this movie was just truly awful. I could not find one good thing about this movie. The zombies were laughable, and just the obvious mistakes in this movie were strange. For example, why would a family have about twenty-five containers of salt? Just horrible errors like that make this movie almost unwatchable.
I would give the plot of this film right now like I usually do, but this movie has absolutely no plot whatsoever. It is all over the place. All I can say is that this movie is about black goo that turns people into zombies. When the zombies take over the town three teenagers and a little girl have to save the day. Everything else in this movie makes no sense.
Overall, this is a horrible movie that I just can not recommend to anyone. Every element of this movie is terrible. I must say, though, the worst part of this movie was definitely the ending. I mean, there was no ending. The black goo sucks the main character into the ground and the zombie mother of the main character, who was supposedly destroyed, attacks the sister and the film ends. Could the ending be any worse? Anyway, this is just a horrific movie that nobody should see.
1/10
Recommended Films: Swarmed
I just happened to see this movie on the Sci-Fi Channel. I knew it was going to be bad, mainly because it was on the Sci-Fi Channel, and I always like terrible movies to make fun of every now and then, but this movie was just truly awful. I could not find one good thing about this movie. The zombies were laughable, and just the obvious mistakes in this movie were strange. For example, why would a family have about twenty-five containers of salt? Just horrible errors like that make this movie almost unwatchable.
I would give the plot of this film right now like I usually do, but this movie has absolutely no plot whatsoever. It is all over the place. All I can say is that this movie is about black goo that turns people into zombies. When the zombies take over the town three teenagers and a little girl have to save the day. Everything else in this movie makes no sense.
Overall, this is a horrible movie that I just can not recommend to anyone. Every element of this movie is terrible. I must say, though, the worst part of this movie was definitely the ending. I mean, there was no ending. The black goo sucks the main character into the ground and the zombie mother of the main character, who was supposedly destroyed, attacks the sister and the film ends. Could the ending be any worse? Anyway, this is just a horrific movie that nobody should see.
1/10
Recommended Films: Swarmed
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