Mortuary (2005/I)

Director:

Tobe Hooper

Writers (WGA):

Jace Anderson (written by) &
Adam Gierasch (written by)

Release Date:

2005 (Australia)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

When the dead break free all hell breaks loose

Plot:

A family moves to a small town in California where they plan on starting a new life while running a long-abandoned funeral home. The locals fear the place, which is suspected to be on haunted ground.

Plot Keywords:

California | Funeral Home | Mortician | Small Town | Corpse

Cast

Dan Byrd	...	Jonathan Doyle
Denise Crosby	...	Leslie Doyle
Rocky Marquette	...	Grady
Stephanie Patton	...	Jamie Doyle
Alexandra Adi	...	Liz
Courtney Peldon	...	Tina
Bug Hall	...	Cal
Tarah Paige	...	Sara
Michael Shamus Wiles	...	Sheriff Howell
Adam Gierasch	...	Mr. Barstow
Price Carson	...	Bobby Fowler
Lee Garlington	...	Rita
Greg Travis	...	Eliot Cook
Christy Johnson	...	Dottie
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Joe Langer	...	Coroner
Paul G. Pagnini	...	Coroner's Assistant

Also Known As:

Six Feet Under (USA) (original script title)

MPAA:

Rated R for horror violence and gore, brief sexuality, nudity and language.

Runtime:

94 min | Philippines:90 min (cut)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Australia:MA | Germany:16 | Argentina:16 | Finland:K-15 | France:-12 | Singapore:NC-16 | Malaysia:18SG | Philippines:R-13 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Echo Bridge Entertainment

Trivia:

The quote carved on the vault's door, "That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons even death may die", is from H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu" and "The Nameless City". It is supposedly a couplet by Abdul Alhazarred, fictional author of the Necronomicon.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the Doyle's arrive at the Mortuary, it's daylight. Within a few moments, Jonathan Doyle is in Bobby Fowler's old room looking outside to the graveyard and it's pitch black.

Quotes:

Jamie Doyle: [sees a coffin] Is this where they took Daddy?

Movie Connections:

References Shallow Ground (2004)

Soundtrack:

Hashdealer

Well the back of the box made it sound like it would be interesting.

Once again we have a horror movie that has an interesting premise, a somewhat good story and what happens? It just does not live up to its potential as it makes mistakes that turn it from a really good horror movie to a watered down horror movie that has you thinking what might have been. The story, mother moves herself and two children to a little town to start a new career as a mortician. Granted this in itself is a bit hard to believe a father may have been a more realistic choice to lead the film, but whatever I can role with it. The older teenage son is against this move and is the typical teen in that he voices his opinion against the house and everything about what his mom is doing...I usually don't care for that type, but here I have to agree with him. Why she bought the place is beyond me, as I do believe the house was made a bit to rundown to be realistic. I doubt anyone with any lick of sense would want to move in having seen that house beforehand. Well there are mysterious things going on and there is talk of a person who lives in the cemetery in the front lawn and all that and it could have been really good, however, it is so far fetched in some areas, it moves so slowly at first, and then it doesn't want to end. The deaths are not all that gory, a bit of gore here and there, but not all that much. At times the movie seems to be trying to be a horror comedy and this hurts the movie as well. I like horror comedies a bit (I really enjoyed the flick "Slither"), but don't half-heartedly go about it. Either be a horror comedy or go straight horror. Some scenes are a bit out of place thanks to this bizarre shift at times. The actors are the typical b-movie types and so they are okay. Then there is the use of cgi...I am against it in areas in this movie, why they felt they needed it for the last thing is beyond me. You could have made a realistic whatever it was with minimal effort and money and it would have looked a lot more real. And the ending had me going "Huh"? Don't show what you showed in the previous scene and then hit me with that typical 80's horror ending...by the way if you have seen two horror movies with this type of ending you will know what is going to happen. Still though if they had developed the story better, stayed away from the comedy bits, and explained the thing and Bobby better this movie could have been a pretty decent horror flick as it is it has good and bad and is really just a mediocre flick.