Surprisingly incoherent and boring

ridiculous rating

Charming and brutal

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

This movie isn't the worst horror film you'll ever see. It comes across as a cinematic version of a middling fill-in story from an old issue of CREEPY or EERIE magazine from the 1960s -- one that isn't too original but would be memorable if it were to be drawn by Bernie Wrightson.Unfortunately despite an acceptable buildup and a pace that goes from decent to over-the-top berserk, this film suffers from not having had the sort of attention given to it that would have made it the equivalent of the Wrightson-drawn CREEPY story. It comes off as having been drawn by one of those artists whose names you don't remember and know they hired because he would work cheap.Actually it looks very much as if cheap was the word for some reason and at some point during the production, for some reason it was decided that no one gave a crap any more about quality and that they needed to finish the thing ASAP which is why the conclusion, and choices and effects used in it, get noticeably further off track as the finale approaches, which consists of 15 seconds of footage that never should have been included at all because it doesn't follow at all logically from what we've just seen happen before it.The film suffers also from some serious "isn't"s: It appears from the opening, which shows a mother of 2 kids apparently delighted to be moving into a filthy windowless house with a lawn full of black septic tank overflow and a back yard full of tombstones, that the film is intended as at least a semi-comedy. But there's nothing really present that makes you laugh, so funny it isn't. Stike one.The actress cast as the mother, familiar to most from her appearances on STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, should be scary. -- SLIGHT SPOILER -- Her function in the story is to menace her own children when she is turned zombie by the evil forces in the mortuary-house, and she has a prime opportunity to show off some delightful dark creepy humor in a scene in which she, as the perfect zombie-mom, is to serve the rest of the cast dinner. The actress unfortunately entirely throws the scene away and does nothing with it. It's as if she can't be bothered to affect a scary countenance or give anything to the part at all. Either she doesn't actually know how to act or didn't care to do so in this film. Either way, she was the wrong choice for the part and is chiefly responsible for the feeling that the film jumps too abruptly into high gear all at once about 2/3 of the way through -- she should have been the middle gear and gotten things warmed up for the grand finale but, honestly, her community-theatre level uninvolved performance really sinks the whole central section of the picture -- we don't really accept her transformation because it's performed so poorly which strongly affects our perception that the other zombies yet to come are anything but other people who don't care about their parts. So scary -- she isn't. Actually she is a complete drag and therefore a liability which heavily damages the picture. Martha Stewart could have played the part better, and as far as I know, she can't act at all. And that's strike two.Finally, as others have noted, the "legendary" unseen boogeyman character doesn't get much to do and when he finally joins in the action he does very little, and "the chase" is then rapidly cut to. So, interesting, he isn't, particularly, either, and that's strike three.If this film had had more of a budget or anyone had actually cared about it, it could have been good. The kid & teen actors are fine (even if the young hero does have a sort of Bud Bundy from "Married With Children" quality about him, which isn't really a negative). But there's no time put into the crucial elements here -- it all comes off as very cheap and rushed and "done the quickest, easiest way," which undoubtedly it was. But even with all its flaws it does have at least one good scary moment, which is when we discover the little girl character has disappeared from the hiding place she was placed in and is likely in big trouble. You do genuinely fear for her and what's going to happen next and the atmosphere instantly jacks up 5 notches and becomes briefly scary, for perhaps the only time in the film.MORTUARY is not a bad "Tales from the Crypt" style story, and it's certainly not boring, it's just not what it should have been. It's not what you do in the case of a low-budget horror movie, it's how you do it that matters, and though this movie is never really dull, it's done with so little attention to detail it ends up blowing up in its own face rather than being the "creepy" Wrightson-style fun it could have been.

This film comes across like a bad version of 2009's "A Haunting In Connecticut". if you've seen that you pretty much know the plot: Innocent family move into a mortuary/house only to be plagued by demons and whatnot.Mortuary fails to be scary in any way, all the cliché "jump" scares fall flat, the music attempts to create a creepy atmosphere but totally fails. The story is predicable, the script is dull, the special effects are horrible and overused.The only decent thing in this film is the acting, in fact its really only Dan Byrd's performance. His performance manages to create some sort of sympathy for his character and its obvious the kid has some sort of potential.Not even a likable performance from Byrd makes this watchable, check him out in "the hills have eyes" a much better film in all areas. All in all: STAY AWAY THIS FILM IS AWFUL.

Okay, this film is pretty awful to be sure and it has flaws that are soon too hard to disguise, so I will begin with what I liked about it. The setting of that creepy house and those mortuary rooms, and the cemetery all helped create an effectively eerie atmosphere. The first half of the film is very suspenseful and even well-acted through most of this part. Tobe Hooper, falling to a nadir in terms of talent and money to work with it seems to me, does inject some taut situations - an errant hand here in a shadow and things like that. Then all hell breaks loose - so to speak - and this film quickly degenerates into something sophomoric and seemingly incompetently made. Just take a look at the final scene where a zombie fungus and its minions chase the remaining family through the house. It looks like some of the actresses there are taking direction whilst on camera! The acting turns real bad unfortunately, and this movie becomes a joke midway through. The film had promise. Some of the acting leads have talent. Denise Crosby plays the mother and is good and credible..until...yes, the second half of the film. The story is the biggest problem I would guess as it seems to have no direction midway and everything follows suit. Hooper is better than this and though it seems like ages since he made a real good horror film, I am generally a fan of his work. He can create some of the most disturbing scenes with less on screen than most of his contemporaries. Mortuary has some promise, some genuinely scary moments, and a whole lot of inept acting, direction, and storytelling.

Tobe Hooper is best known for 2 horror-classics: Texas Chain Saw Massacre(1974) and Poltergeist(1982). Although, he had some help from Spielberg on the second one. But that was a long time ago. His remake on Toolbox Murders was not a great film but with Mortuary he hits a new low. Since the story takes place in and around a mortuary, he must have thought: that is scary enough. So no exciting story with thrills. In the first half, nothing happens at all, and the characters are annoying and very irritating at times. Miss Crosby once starred in the great Pet Sematary (but that was also a long time ago...) The effects in the second half are rather fake, some are o.k. but overall they are not convincing (like the entire cast for that matter).I'm still wondering why I finished watching til the end, I guess I had some hope considering it was a Tobe Hooper movie. But I really hope he has retired since this turkey..