Anthologies are movies with a main story that, in some way, introduce us to several short stories within the same movie. Sometimes the short stories tie in with each other, in others they don’t, and primarily the main overlying story has something to do with the short stories. This can be a great way for new directors to get their feet wet with a shorter film than a full length, as some anthologies have different directors for each segment. Although, in the case of The Mortuary Collection and others, it’s all created by the same person(s).
Here’s a good collection of only some popular anthologies: Tales From the Crypt, V/H/S, Trick ‘r Treat, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark…, Creepshow, Southbound, The ABCs of Death, Dead of Night.
And the list really can go on. If you think of Creepshow, your “host” was the silent creepy ghoul known as "The Creep". His narrative would lead us through the different odd stories as if we were reading a comic book, and they rarely had anything to do with each other. This works for some anthologies, but I’ve found when the main story is intertwined in with the compilation of shorter chronicles, and is successfully pulled off, it raises that movie in the ranks of anthologies.
The Mortuary Collection is one of the latter.
The Mortuary Collection was written and directed by Ryan Spindell. This would be his first full-length movie in both chairs. I hope we see more from him like this movie since he did such a great job, overall. In a witty move, he squeezed in a few clips from one of his older short story movies, The Babysitter Murders.
Comprised of the frame story and three films, The Mortuary Collection is a neat successfully written compendium of short movies with an overall theme of “people get what they deserve”.
The legendary Clancy Brown plays as a creepy mortician (Montgomery Dark) for Raven's End Mortuary. He keeps record of not only the deaths that occur in Raven's End but also how and why the person died. He begins to share these stories with an eager drifter in Caitlin Custer's character, Sam. She has arrived at the Mortuary in response to the "Help Wanted" sign posted outside the building. In the "interview" process, Sam presses Montgomery to share some the stories he knows to be "dark and twisted".
From there we get three tales that progressively get darker and more twisted. They take place in succession from the 50's, 60's, and 70's. Each one has a grim display of cringe-worthy gore with a little grossness thrown in for good measure. Some of the scenes had me squirming in my seat, especially during the short called "Unprotected". Thus my title to this movie review. The stories themselves are well-written and disturbing in their own nature.
"The Medicine Cabinet": A thief who discovers something terrifying behind a bathroom mirror. "Unprotected": a college student who discovers he should’ve worn protection when hooking up with a mysterious temptress. "Till Death": a man, who is caring for his catatonic wife, discovers what happens when he decides to fake her death to free himself of the burden. And finally, "The Babysitter Murders": ending with a wrap-up to the frame story (80's) in which Sam tells Montgomery her own secrets and dark path to why she has truly arrived at the Raven's End Mortuary.
Although each tale does not specifically have anything to do with each other, aside from Raven’s End being the main setting, there are characters interlaced between each of them. Such as the doctor (played by Mike C. Nelson), he appears in three of the four stories, which includes the frame story. He’s never the main character in any of the parts but has a crucial role each time. You have to pay close attention for the connections between each story.
Each tale has a different pace, mood, and color, but you can tell the style of Spindell’s in each one. I loved the tone of the entire film, dark yet colorful in contrast, as well as old and mysterious. The dialogue between Sam and Montgomery, after each telling of the macabre stories, is humorous as Sam challenges the mortician to dig deeper for the more morbid and disturbing stories.
The Mortuary Collection has great settings and tone throughout the entirety of the movie. The acting is spectacular, the storyline does a great job of tying all the stories together, and the gore is very colorful, frequent, and quite disturbing. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark... was only PG-13, but The Mortuary Collection is Not Rated, which comes with substantial freedoms with content and gore.
The twists are unpredictable and supports the storyline in superb fashion. Particularly the twist in the final story, for which Sam is the narrator. This is the part of the movie that really made me like The Mortuary Collection more than just a run of the mill just-okay horror movie. It was good enough to make my Top 15 Horror movies of 2020!
I definitely recommend this one for horror fans, and especially for anthology and gore lovers!
The Mortuary Collection
Released: 10/15/2020
Rating: NR
Genre: Horror, Fantasy
Running Time: 1 hour 48 minutes
Director: Ryan Spindell (First Full-Length Directorial Debut)
Writer: Ryan Spindell (First Full-Length Directorial Debut)
Stars:
Caitlin Custer as Sam (Teen Wolf 2015 series, Extraction)
Clancy Brown as Montgomery Dark (Shawshank Redemption, Starship Troopers, 298 Acting Credits!)
Jacob Elordi as Jake (Euphoria Series, The Kissing Booth)
Many more!
IMDB Rating: 6.4 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 74%
Metascore: 67 out of 100
Streamable on these Apps with subscription at time of Blog Post: Shudder, DirecTV, AMC+
Rentable on these Apps at time of Blog Post: N/A
The Mortuary Collection Official Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj21P4DBrqM
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