This Lore-Heavy Horror Recreation Adaptation Is So Shut To Being A Worthwhile Effort

Whereas the current online game adaptation increase has seen filmmakers flip to a number of the greatest properties of all-time, some have chosen to concentrate on extra viral sensations. From Blumhouse bringing Scott Cawthon’s 5 Nights at Freddy’s video games to the display, to Markiplier independently producing Iron Lung and turning into a shock field workplace sensation, even whereas going through off towards Sam Raimi’s gleeful horror return, Ship Assist.

Now, Dread is seeking to get in on this pattern with The Mortuary Assistant, and it is a disgrace the best way it falls simply in need of being an awesome adaptation. It stays very true to the story and lore of its supply materials, and has some appropriately chilling imagery, nevertheless it additionally proves to be a bit too overloaded and might’t fairly match the extent of scares of the sport.

The Mortuary Assistant’s Narrative Accuracy Cannot Absolutely Make Up For It Being Unscary

Primarily based on Darkstone’s 2022 recreation, The Mortuary Assistant facilities on Rebecca Owens, a younger girl within the closing days of coaching at River Fields Mortuary and dealing below Raymond Delver. Regardless of her eagerness for the job, Delver shows some odd behaviors, significantly in refusing to let her work the night time shift, and protecting her from accessing sure rooms.

The plot begins to ramp up when Rebecca is abruptly referred to as by Raymond in the course of the night time to assist course of a sudden inflow of our bodies introduced into the mortuary. Upon arriving, he locks her into the constructing, warning her over the cellphone that she’s develop into possessed, and instructing her to find out what demon has latched itself to her with a view to exorcise herself earlier than it is too late.

Solely given a handful of instructions by the shifty Raymond, Rebecca finds her efforts hampered by nightmarish reflections of her previous, together with her numerous struggles with drug habit and the tragic losses of her mother and father, in addition to demonic apparitions. As she begins to study extra of Delver’s personal shady previous, Rebecca in the end is challenged to find out what is the fact and the way she will be able to survive her ordeal.

Very similar to The Final of Us and 5 Nights at Freddy’s earlier than it, The Mortuary Assistant has the advantage of having its recreation’s mastermind, Brian Clarke, onboard the movie within the author’s chair, working with Tracee Beebe to translate his supply materials to the display. This does assist hold the very core of Clarke’s story intact for almost all of the movie, whereas additionally providing a number of good expansions.

Rebecca’s tragic previous and changes to residing together with her addictions get what looks like an even bigger highlight, which provides some layers to the protagonist that give her a greater sense of company with out having a participant on the wheel. It additionally helps add to the reality-blurring nature of the proceedings, with a few of Rebecca’s conversations with these in her life slicing to her core and initiating a number of the evolution we see by the movie.

Nevertheless, the place Clarke and Beebe’s translation begins to falter is their lack of ability to steadiness delivering a lot of Mortuary Assistant‘s lore with excising a number of key components from the sport. Essentially the most notable is that there is no such thing as a actual point out of Rebecca’s mother throughout the film, regardless of her demise from a drug overdose being the explanation Rebecca herself later turned an addict. Whereas a seemingly minor element, it in the end takes away from the full-circle tragedy of the character that makes her journey all of the extra impactful.

Moreover, the movie would not actually discover the truth that Raymond was truly Rebecca’s trainer in mortuary science previous to the occasions of the story, as an alternative leaping proper into her wrapping up her coaching to work in his mortuary. With out this connection, it begs the query of why she places a lot belief in him and would not struggle him on any of the issues he presents. It additionally takes away from a sure twist that comes later within the movie, as Rebecca’s discovery of a chapter in Raymond’s previous feels as if she’s studying extra a few stranger than somebody she’s speculated to probably care about.

To Clarke and Beebe’s credit score, they do acknowledge that not everybody has performed The Mortuary Assistant, and due to this fact must catch them up on how their tackle demonic possession and combating works. However with only a 91-minute runtime, it too typically looks like they’re drowning viewers in how a lot they should know with a view to observe the plot. Even worse is simply how lengthy they take to really lay out mentioned guidelines for each Rebecca and the viewers, with Raymond telling her a number of occasions she must determine all the pieces out on her personal earlier than lastly simply explaining issues to her.

Past simply being overwhelming in elements, this heavy concentrate on lore additionally takes away from letting The Mortuary Assistant be scary in any type. That is to not say Kipp’s route is lackluster, as he showcases a remarkably ingenious sense of fashion alongside cinematographer Kevin Duggin (The Jester 2), and properly retains viewers scanning the background for any entities lurking. The choice to concentrate on sensible results additionally makes each scene involving the embalming course of all of the extra chilling, and The Mimic a terrifying determine to see in live-action, even when the digital camera lingers slightly too lengthy to the purpose of risking its efficiency.

However the place Kipp nails the unsettling environment of the sport, when he goes for extra direct frights, whether or not they be leap scares or demonic apparitions of Rebecca’s family members, The Mortuary Assistant finally ends up feeling tepid. Understandably, he would not have the identical methods the sport does to ship fast shocks, however even the varied possession scenes really feel a bit low-cost and tacky, with the actors growling and emoting in such an animated trend it almost elicits chuckles.

Fortunately, Kipp has a minimum of discovered two nice results in hold The Mortuary Assistant from feeling too over-the-top with Holland and Paul Sparks. The Arrowverse alum brings a putting subtlety to the emotional rollercoaster Rebecca goes by within the movie, brilliantly capturing the little ticks and heartbreak as she offers with the demonic state of affairs amid celebrating a key habit restoration milestone. The Home of Playing cards vet, in the meantime, brings an acceptable shiftiness to Raymond that properly leaves viewers at nighttime as to his precise motives and the mysteries later unveiled.

However regardless of having some actually good elements driving it ahead, it is unlucky that The Mortuary Assistant by no means fairly finds its rhythm. It is wealthy in a chilling environment, has some appropriately unsettling imagery, and an awesome central flip, however with the fear by no means actually registering and overstuffing its brief runtime with lore, the film looks like a throwback to the ambitious-yet-mediocre days of the online game adaptation style.

The Mortuary Assistant hits theaters on Friday, adopted by Shudder on March 27.

Launch Date

February 13, 2026

Director

Jeremiah Kipp

Writers

Tracee Beebe

Producers

Patrick Ewald

Execs & Cons

• The story faithfully recreates its recreation’s and maintains its core character themes.
• Jeremiah Kipp’s route proves properly fashionable.
• The precisely recreated setting heightens the chilling temper of the movie.
• Willa Holland is a powerful emotional anchor, whereas Paul Sparks is a good rule-giver.

• The film fails to seize the identical terrifying heights of the sport.
• Its pacing rushes to ship the required lore for non-gamers.
• There are simply sufficient modifications to the sport’s story which can be missing in intelligence.