The Mortuary Assistant (2026)
The Mortuary Assistant is the latest horror videogame adaptation, a subgenre with a checkered history. I wasn’t a fan of Five Nights at Freddy’s or Until Dawn. This movie didn’t knock my socks off, either. It’s slightly better than the aforementioned adaptions, but that’s a low bar.
Rebecca (Willa Holland) is the titular mortuary assistant. She’s a recovering addict who is haunted by the death of her father, who passed away when she was a kid. After passing her final embalming exam, Rebecca is officially hired by Raymond (Paul Sparks), the strange and eccentric owner of the local mortuary.
She’s excited to start her new career, which she believes will help her continue to overcome her drug-addled past. Of course, this is a horror movie, so everything goes terribly wrong.
Turns out that a demon is inhabiting the mortuary. It mostly lurks inside the bodies of the deceased, but it’s searching for a live host. Rebecca gradually learns the mortuary’s dark secrets, including the ominous fate of Raymond’s previous assistant. The demon terrorizes Rebecca by triggering memories of past trauma.
The central problem with The Mortuary Assistant is that it’s bland. The scares are routine and predictable. This movie would have worked better if it had been made as a dark comedy, but the script doesn’t have a sense of humor.
Much of the screentime is devoted to Rebecca having violent visions, which are portrayed to us as real events and then revealed to be in her head. This variation of the stale old “it was all a dream” trope is done way too many times.
The Mortuary Assistant features good practical effects. That’s probably where most of the budget and effort was invested. The story has potential. A demon terrorizing a mortuary is certainly a worthy concept. It needed better written characters or a more campy tone (or both) to be a worthy addition to the crowded demon possession subgenre.
The performances are stilted. Willa Holland and Paul Sparks are veteran actors who have done good work in the past. They needed a script with better characterization.
I’ve never played the videogame this is based on, so I can’t offer an opinion on how it compares. I think it’s safe to assume that the game is more engaging. If it was as dull as this movie, there’s no way it could have built a fanbase.
Rating
The Mortuary Assistant is a little better than other recent videogame adaptations, but isn’t particularly memorable. There’s plenty of better stuff to stream on Shudder.
Rating from 1 (avoid at all costs) to 10 (masterpiece): 4.5
