2020 has been the year of the horror anthology, with the releases of films and shows like Immortal, Monsterland, and Scare Package, to name a few. This week, Shudder released Ryan Spindell’s The Mortuary Collection as a spooky treat to those who prefer that all their scares aren’t put into one basket.
In The Mortuary Collection, we’re introduced to Montgomery Dark, played by the always incredible Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption, Starship Troopers). Mr. Dark is an aging mortician desperate to hire an assistant to help with the strenuous workflow at the morgue. When eager Sam shows up in search of a job, she expresses her interest in death, and asks Mr. Dark for stories regarding the dark subject.
Clancy Brown was such a perfect choice for this Creep/Cryptkeeper role. He has a wonderfully deep voice, an intimidating presence, and his look in the film just gives off that Lurch realness we didn’t know we needed. Brown frames the film brilliantly, but more importantly, continues to weave the tales and provide us with great moments between each one. The casting here was truly spot on and his style took me back to some of the great horror anthologies of the past. Well done! Sam (Caitlin Custer – The Babysitter Murders) was great too, adding a quirky personality in contrast to a pale, grim Brown. They had great chemistry and the two styles blended seamlessly.
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The first segment was probably the weakest of the four. This isn’t entirely surprising as you see this happen a lot in horror anthologies. It almost seems like an unspoken “wet your whistle” decision that all anthology directors make when doing their film. The first segment focuses on a woman in the 1950’s, discovering a tentacled monster in the bathroom at a party. There isn’t much depth or much length here. Honestly the story feels like it’s over before it ever really gets started. There were some cool practical monster effects here, and they were mixed well with the CG ones, so I do give the director credit for doing a lot with a little.
The second segment is wild and probably my favorite from the film. In the 1960’s, members of a fraternity are passing out condoms in preparation for their party, using sexual liberation as the key to getting women to sleep with them. When a beautiful woman shows up to the party, a frat brother tricks her into thinking he uses a condom. The next day, he starts suffering from nausea, aches, and other medical issues. Turns out, lying about using protection may not have been smart on his part. I won’t ruin the surprise for you, but let’s just say it gets gross, and might make you cringe away from the screen a bit! The acting is fun, the effects are goopy, and the moral of the story is an important one. Don’t tell women you’re using protection if you’re not. Period.
The third story was the most disturbing one for me. A man is depressed that his life has been completely changed to take care of his sick wife. Being that she’s barely responsive, he takes his doctor’s suggestion to “accidentally” give her too many pills to let her go peacefully. Once he gives them to her, she breaks trance and grabs his arm. He freaks out and tries to save her, causing a snowball effect of damage he now must control. Although the story is insanely dark, Spindell tries to pepper in a few slapstick moments to keep us from fully going down the drain. If this were a drama, it wouldn’t work, but because of the thematic silliness of the film in its entirety, it’s a welcome change. It feels right out of a Creepshow film. We also get some of the best practical effects in the film here, too. Honestly, you can’t really ask for a better segment than this. It hits all the emotional bases.
The final story is a great cap to the film, as Sam tells Mr. Dark that his stories are good, but she has one that will knock his socks off. She goes on to tell the story of The Babysitter Murders, a prior short that Ryan Spindell had made back in 2015. Once again, I’m not going to spoil it or the ending for you but take my word that it’s a fun finale where we’re left smiling until the end.
There wasn’t a whole lot I didn’t like about this film. There were what felt like some unnecessary moments of CGI in the intro and outro, that took us out of the creepy atmosphere. Those are small complaints in comparison to the amount of fun I had with the film. I went it into with the understanding that this wasn’t a huge budget, and I wasn’t going to get A-list actors or top-level CG effects. I’m happy with what we got, and it was a nice addition to the spooky season releases. Shudder has been lining up the great films this year and can add this one to the list, so check it out!
The Mortuary Collection is now streaming on Shudder.
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