The Mortuary Assistant (2026)
Willa Holland, Paul Sparks, John Adams, Keena Ferguson Frasier, Mark Steger, Emily Bennett
Directed by: Jeremiah Kipp

This movie just dropped on Shudder a few days ago. I had no idea what it was, and the blurb made it sound like a generic possession film, with the same basic premise as The Possession of Hannah Grace. But since I’m a sucker for possession films, I decided to give it a go. And oh boy…

Rebecca is a newly appointed mortician and gets a call from her boss that he needs her for a night shift. When she arrives, strange things begin to happen, and she finds herself in a life-or-death struggle with a demon.

I’d heard this was based on a video game before watching it. But since I’d had a good time with Until Dawn recently, I decided to give this one a go. What a mistake. This film is awful, bordering on embarrassing. The lead gave such a one-note performance, and the man who played her boss was literally made out of wood. It was a confused, jumbled mess, with scenes that had nothing to do with each kind of stitched together. I don’t need every little thing spelled out for me in a film, but a little would be nice. Even the exposition dump that we got didn’t explain anything. I imagine that if I’d played the game, I might have understood a bit of what was going on. But you shouldn’t have to have played the game to understand the film. The film should stand on its own. I will give credit where credit is due, however. The makeup and gore effects were top notch. Too bad they were in such a turd of a film.

So do I recommend it? No, absolutely not. What a waste of my time. 3/10

M.

This film is currently streaming on Shudder.