The Mortuary Assistant (2026) Review!!

Synopsis – Newly certified mortician Rebecca Owens joins the night shift at a mortuary, embalming bodies alone after hours. As disturbing events escalate, she uncovers demonic rituals, dark secrets from her enigmatic mentor, and her own buried trauma as she tries to survive the night before her body becomes a vessel for possession.

My Take – For decades, video game adaptations were synonymous with failure. While some managed respectable box office numbers, critics and audiences alike lamented their inability to capture the spirit of the source material. That perception has shifted in recent years with successes like Uncharted (2022), The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023), the Sonic the Hedgehog films, and the upcoming Minecraft Movie (2025). Studios are now scrambling to secure gaming IPs, from blockbuster franchises to viral indie sensations.

Blumhouse’s Five Nights at Freddy’s proved the genre’s commercial viability, while Markiplier’s independently produced Iron Lung (2026) became an unexpected hit. Charred Pictures is currently adapting Faith: The Unholy Trinity and Dead Take, continuing the trend of smaller-scale horror projects. Into this landscape arrives this latest Shudder release, based on Brian Clarke’s 2022 indie game developed under his one-man studio, DarkStone Digital.

Directed by Jeremiah Kipp (Slapface) and co-written by Tracee Beebe alongside Clarke himself, the film begins with promise. Its premise—grief, mortality, and demonic possession—offers fertile ground for atmospheric horror. The adaptation remains loyal to the game’s lore, and its imagery occasionally delivers unsettling chills.

Unfortunately, the execution undermines the potential. Awkward editing and uneven pacing sap tension, while the scares never escalate to the level required for a truly effective horror experience.

What could have been a lean, unnerving genre piece instead feels disjointed, unable to sustain dread or emotional weight. With its pedigree, the film should have been a reliable entry in the growing wave of video game horror adaptations. Instead, it joins the long list of faithful yet flawed efforts—features that capture the essence of their source material but falter in translating its terror convincingly to the screen.

The story follows Rebecca Owens (Willa Holland), a trainee in her final days at River Fields Mortuary under the supervision of head mortician Raymond Delver (Paul Sparks). Though eager to prove herself, Rebecca quickly notices Raymond’s peculiar behavior—his refusal to let her work night shifts and his insistence on keeping certain rooms off-limits. Haunted by a troubled past and recovering from addiction, Rebecca has embraced this grim profession as a way to cope with her solitude.

So when Raymond calls her in the middle of the night for an emergency, she has little reason to refuse. What she doesn’t realize is that the mortuary is more than a workplace—it is a battleground where demons attempt to cross into the living world through the dead, seeking to possess human souls. Raymond has long served as the guardian of this threshold, but on this night, Rebecca must inherit his duties. Confronted with grief, mortality, and the supernatural, she faces the terrifying prospect of becoming possessed herself as she fights to survive until dawn.

Much like the Five Nights at Freddy’s films, this one also benefits from having its creator, Brian Clarke, involved in the screenplay alongside Tracee Beebe. His presence ensures the core of the game’s story remains intact, with a few thoughtful expansions. Yet, as with Blumhouse’s productions, fidelity to the source material isn’t always a strength.

The film’s lore brims with potential, and the mortuary setting provides an inherently eerie backdrop. Clever use of light, shadow, and practical effects heightens the atmosphere. But the narrative is weighed down by overwritten, often confusing exposition. Rules of the world are withheld for too long, with Raymond repeatedly insisting Rebecca must figure things out herself before finally explaining them outright. These info dumps stall suspense rather than build it. Rebecca’s backstory suffers similar mishandling.

Her struggles with addiction and personal loss are introduced piecemeal, serving an overly obvious metaphor that never fully integrates with the rest of the film. Holland works hard to ground these elements, but they feel disconnected from the central horror. The film’s attempts at jump scares fare no better. Delivered in quick succession, they lack impact, often overlapping with other supernatural events in ways that dilute their effectiveness. The result is a horror film that mistakes volume for tension, undermined by its lack of subtlety.

The film’s biggest strength is Willa Holland. Holland delivers a layered portrayal of Rebecca, her jittery urgency escalating as the night spirals out of control. A standout moment sees her waking in her sparse apartment, confronted by her A.A. sponsor (Keena Ferguson Frasier) pounding at the door—a sequence Holland plays with raw confusion and palpable terror. Paul Sparks, meanwhile, is pitch-perfect as Delver, his dry delivery underscoring the character’s unsettling detachment. On the whole, ‘The Mortuary Assistant‘ is faithful yet flawed entry in the growing canon of video game horror films that fails to deliver the cinematic scares needed to stand out.