Shudder Saturday: The Mortuary Assistant (2026)

When I saw the trailer for The Mortuary Assistant a few weeks ago I thought it would be something I would enjoy. It looked enjoyably creepy and entertaining. I had no idea that it was based on a videogame of the same name. To be fair, it doesn't feel like a videogame movie. I am mentioning the source material here for those who may be even more inclined to see it due to an already-established connection.

Directed by Jeremiah Kipp, who has already helmed a few other features in amongst the many shorts that make up the majority of his filmography, this is the tale of a young woman, Rebecca (Willa Holland), who starts a new job in a mortuary and soon finds herself surrounded by dark and demonic forces aiming to hurt and destroy her. The situation seems to be known to her boss (played by Paul Sparks), and it's almost like a rite of passage if she can survive her first night on the job.

Co-written by Tracee Beebe and Brian Clarke, the latter responsible for the videogame, what you get here is an atmospheric horror film that spoils things by moving far too quickly between what could be real and what could be imagined. Horror can often make use of vivid imaginations in an effective and tense way, especially when a character is so disorientated that they end up walking themselves into potential danger, but it needs to be done with care, and I think it works best when used sparingly, unless the overall effect is one of spiralling insanity. The Mortuary Assistant starts the shenanigans so quickly, and refuses to let up with them, that it quickly becomes impossible to care about anything that is happening onscreen. There's some decent imagery, and the lead remains someone you hope will survive the ordeal, but wondering if everything is real or none of it is real just leaves you shrugging as yet another scary moment occurs.

Holland does a good job in the lead role, and her ability is especially important while she carries the film for the majority of the runtime, but she's weighed down by a screenplay that gives her an all-too-familiar tragic backstory without enough full context and detail regarding her daily life as it is now. Sparks never feels like more than a creepy figure delivering exposition (funnily enough, he's a bit like a videogame guide), and there's not enough for the likes of Keena Ferguson Frasier, Emily Bennett, Mark Steger et al., to get their teeth into. 

There's enough to enjoy here if you're after something that feels entertainingly spooky. It's just a shame that it's also so hard to be invested in. I stopped caring about how the film would end as soon as things started to go bump in the mortuary. The more the main character was confused, yet also not reacting as strongly to the things happening around her as I would, the less I cared about where it was all going.  

4/10

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Shudder Saturday: Alone With You (2021)

In a scenario that many people may struggle to identify with, Alone With You shows a central character who is stuck in an apartment on her own, somehow losing track of time, worrying about what she might be missing from the outside world, and generally losing track of a marble or two. If she had taken some time to make at least one loaf of banana bread then this could have very easily been called Covid Lockdown: The Movie.

Emily Bennett is Charlene, a young woman who is expecting her girlfriend to return home at any moment. Preparing everything for a potential nice evening in together, it soon becomes apparent that something isn't quite right. Nobody is coming to the door, and it's almost as if the world outside has disappeared from view. And the other people that Charlene can get in contact with, including her mother (Barbara Crampton), aren't being very helpful.

As well as starring in the main role, Bennett also co-directed and co-wrote this feature, alongside Justin Brooks. Making behind-the-camera feature debuts, after a number of shorts, they make great use of their circumstances and resources to deliver something that feels both timely and timeless. There are a number of classic touchstones here, with a couple of Polanski movies being the main titles I kept thinking of, but it is also recent events that stay front and centre.

Responsible for carrying 99% of the runtime, Bennett does a very good job in her lead role. She resists the urge to rely on eye-rolling and twitches, convincingly showing someone who is a bit nervous, becomes increasingly uneasy, and eventually looks set to drown in a rising tide of panic. Although there are also small roles for Dora Madison and Meghan Lane, it's Crampton who I feel is the other cast member worth highlighting, playing a mother who may just be a bit tired and sad, or who may be helping to insidiously wear down and stress out someone who is clearly not in the best place.

Starting from a place of relative normality, things quickly spiral into more surreal and strange moments, disconcerting for both the main character and those viewing her plight. Some may not appreciate the lack of logic, the lack of any clear storyline or motivation, but there's enough there to pick up on as things move towards a finale that is both a bit disappointing and yet also seemingly inevitable.

I can see why this might not be the first viewing choice for many, especially when you think of how many of us are still desperately trying to make up for what may be viewed in history as "the lost lockdown year/s", but it's an interesting psychological thriller that benefits from the fact that the film-makers really nail down that mind-clouding feeling of "house arrest" that most of us are now all-too-familiar with.

7/10

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