Mortuary Massacre

 



Director - Christopher James Miller (American Horrors, Chicago Dracula)
Starring - Kit Bateman (Chainsaw Sally, Ironhorse), Eric Berggren (Mind Polish), and Erin Blaisdell (Night of the Living Dead 3D, Toolbox Murders 2)
Release Date - 2016
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "Everyone will rest in pieces"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

 

     Halloween is a popular setting for most horror films.  Many horror fans are Halloween obsessed so it makes sense that filmmakers, mostly fans themselves, set their films against the backdrop of Halloween.  In fact, most distributors get in so many Halloween oriented flicks that they cannot release them as such films.  Most want to have steady releases all year and not just a huge influx of releases in October.  That brings me to the 2016 horror anthology Mortuary Massacre from director Christopher James Miller.  I was under the impression this film was centered around a pilgrim or sorts due to the cover of the release.  Fuck, was I wrong.  This Halloween centered anthology did not sell itself as a Halloween flick which is a bummer considering we are just on our second week in November.  Either way, I'm glad I was able to check out this Wild Eye release. 

     The film follows a mortician and a police detective as they discuss several corpses that just arrived over the course of Halloween night.  The first corpse follows an apartment building manager who snaps after his job and the tenants push him over the edge.  The second corpse follows a group of twenty-somethings that accidentally resurrect an old wild west outlaw that has a bone to pick with the descendant of his arch nemesis.  The third corpse is that of an aspiring actor who continued to lose roles to an overrated actor which sends him over the edge.  After they discuss these corpses the investigator is greeted with another grisly discovery. 

     I didn't know what to expect when I tossed in Mortuary Massacre.  The movie had several things I really enjoyed and several things that needed improved but it was still a fun watch.  The acting in this one is very uneven.  This is something I've seen in countless no budget productions and that doesn't make it a bad film.  Just some of the cast had a little more experience than others or was not as shy in front of the camera.  Each segment had break out stars while others just did enough to move the story on.  The stories for this one are fun for a late night horror flick but they don't have any replay value.  The wraparound segment is the low point of the film.  Not only does this segment have the weakest acting but the story is just not that interesting.  The actual segments of the film are fun.  They are rather slow paced but the stories eventually offer up a kick with some predictable but mindless fun.  Finally, this film has some fantastic practical effects.  The film does have a very strict budget and the effects show they but they do some very tremendous things with what they had to work with.  Overall, Mortuary Massacre is far from perfect but it is still a fun horror outing with some decent stories and entertaining practical effects.  Check this one out.