Review #151: The Mortuary Collection (2019)

This review was originally written in 2022.

Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #6 - The Mortuary Collection (2019)

What can I say? I'm a sucker for horror anthologies, so when I saw this one on the list I knew I had to check it out. The framing device for this film (a girl applies for a job at a creepy-ass funeral home, where the undertaker tells her the stories of how the people died) is kind of... incredibly hokey, but it comes around in a really interesting way in the end that I really liked. Apparently this movie started as a short called "The Babysitter Murders", which they then built the framing device around (and added a couple more stories to round it out), but I wouldn't have guessed it had I not read it on IMDB, because I definitely feel like an equivalent amount of care was put into each of the segments.

The movie isn't perfect, though. Each story was fairly predictable (I saw the frat boy storyline coming from a mile away) and the acting was all pretty cheesy, but at the same time each segment had a ton of charm and the super-ambiguous time period and the distinct visual style really "fit" the movie better than anything I could think of to replace it. It made each story definitely FEEL like a story being told, which I would wager was the intention. I also think that the very first story segment of the woman in the bathroom (which was incredibly short, not really a full "story", just a little vignette) was INCREDIBLY well done, to the point where I kind of feel like the movie peaked in the first ten minutes. But that's not necessarily a problem with a film like this!

I don't really have much else to say- just that this was a fun romp, an unexpected gem that I think all of you should go check out! It clearly doesn't take itself more seriously than it needs to, and I can tell everyone involved had a blast making it.

Overall Rating: 7.5/10 Broken Elevators

Funny Cameo Anecdote: Near the end of the first proper story, when the frat boy goes to meet his one-night-stand at her house, a guy (in the credits as "Ralph") met him outside. I kept telling myself, "That guy looks REALLY familiar, like I've seen him before" and over the next few minutes I was racking my brain trying to figure it out. I eventually settled on, "Oh, of course! It's that podcaster I listen to, the one who looks just like James Bachman. Funny seeing him in a movie." So I looked him up afterwards, and to my surprise, it was NOT the podcaster who looks like James Bachman, it WAS James Bachman! I have no idea why he was in this movie but good to see him getting work!