Mortuary Movie Review

Runtime: 94 minutes
Rating: R
Release Date: March 25, 2006
Director: Tobe Hooper

Leslie Doyle (Denise Crosby, Dolly Dearest) decides to move her two children to a remote house after the death of her husband. The old house was the mortuary in town, and she wants to start fresh and reopen the old building. Jamie (Stephanie Patton) is a little too young to really care, but Jonathon (Dan Byrd, The Hills Have Eyes) isn’t too happy with the change.

Jonathon heads off to the local diner to pick up dinner, and he runs into a local loser who somehow manages to have two girlfriends. The guy tells him the legend of Bobby Fowler who once lived in his house, and how Bobby was abused and horribly deformed. Rita, the owner of the diner, interrupts, telling them that Bobby never died, and she knows because she sometimes sees him scrounging for food out back. Jonathon doesn’t really pay attention because he’s too busy crushing on Rita’s niece Liz.

Cal and his girlfriends head into the cemetery near the mortuary and start fooling around when Bobby wanders out. It turns out that Bobby is actually infected by some weird disease and he passes it on to the teens. The teens disappear for a few days, which leads to the sheriff looking for them. They naturally start spreading the infection to others in town, including Leslie, leaving Jonathon and his friends as the only ones who can stop it.

Mortuary is easily one of the best Tobe Hooper films out there, regardless of what some might say. I saw it for the first time years ago, watching it on YouTube, and I recently bought a set that had it included with 7-9 other films. While those pretty much suck, this one is aces.

Lee Garlington who plays Rita is worth the watch all by herself. After one of the infected teenagers vomits on her, she flashes back to the 1960s and 1970s when she was a crazy drug user. She even manages to add humor when she’s not onscreen, shouting in the background about seeing colors. I also have a minor crush on Dan Byrd, which was once creepy, but now less so given that he’s of legal age.

Mortuary is an interesting film because it mixes horror and comedy without going too far in the comedic direction. The humor is definitely there, but it’s a little blacker than some might expect. I’m personally a big fan of the movie and even though I disliked most of the other movies in the set, I’ll definitely hold onto it.