FRIGHTFEST 2020 - The Mortuary Collection
THE MORTUARY COLLECTION - Trapdoor Pictures
Ryan Spindell's The Mortuary Collection is a Goosebumps-esque anthology series with small camp spooks.
Spindell's film has a decent array of horror available for all: a strong range from a creature feature, body horror and your causal blood and guts stories alike. All of these small but effective stories have a wonderful and whacky sense of unique flavour to them. Individualism and utter bizarreness not only carry this through but the execution of said small films are crafted with absolute delight in the realm of horror, tension and engagement.
Nothing is particularly frightening, even if the film does, in fact, think it has such themes up its sleeve. It is the weirdness that drives this anthology and, to the feature’s credit, it succeeds tenfold. Supporting players such as Caitlin Custer and Jacob Elordi pop up here and there in small but integral performances that make this feature click. Both nail their respective roles in comedic flair and confidence surrounding the context of their parts.
Even if the horror is somewhat lacking, the creepiness is here plentiful. Not only derived from its often spooky, short narratives but the personification of ghoulish is found in the performance from Clancy Brown as Montgomery Dark, a spectacularly morbid and devilishly gothic role that Brown utterly nails with every second.
The Mortuary Collection is an engaging ode to 1980s direct-to-video b-movies. A splendid albeit tongue-in-cheek horror that houses a vast array of spooky spectacles and showcases the strong screen presence of Clancy Brown with a few hidden surprises along the way.
