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Movie Reviews:

Mortuary-  Blu-ray

Echo Bridge Entertainment - 2008

Directed by Tobe Hooper
Written by Jace Anderson & Adam Gierasch

Starring

Dan Byrd
Alexandra Adi
Courtney Peldon
Rocky Marquette
Bug Hall
Stephanie Patton
Denise Crosby

A mother (Denise Crosby) treks across country with her teenage son (Dan Byrd) and young daughter (Stephanie Patton) to take a job as the caretaker of the Fowler Funeral Home and cemetery.  This run down mortuary is strangely situated within an industrial park and is virtually beyond repair.  Dirty, dank in need of a complete re-model it would make more sense if they tore it down.

The place has a history that not only that it's haunted but that the deformed Fowler boy still lives in one of the tombs.

As the family tries to settle into this odd dwelling and town, things go from bad to worse.  Before you know it Mrs. Doyle (Denise Crosby) is battling undead corpses, a mold monster and the urban legend Fowler boy.

MORTUARY has some effective moments with creative special visual FX and special make-Up FX.  It was nice to see actress Denise Crosby in a horror film for the first time since PET SEMATARY.

Dan Byrd does a good job as the frustrated son who tries t make new friends, snag the cute girl (Alexandra Adi) who works at the diner where he lands a job. 

But the real star of the movie is Stephanie Patton who plays the young daughter.  She is the most natural in the movie with her actions and dialogue.  I'm not surprised looking back on the movie, Tobe Hooper choose to focus on her in the car during the opening drive because she is the star of the show.

I'd also mention Alexandra Adi as the cute girl at the diner who is kind of a shorter, darker version of Anne Hathaway.  Courtney Peldon does generate some on screen heat with her bleach blonde hair and cleavage.  She kind of reminds me of a suped-up version of Linnea Quigley.

Tobe Hooper has made better movies (THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, THE FUNHOUSE, POLTERGEIST and LIFEFORCE) but I've seen him make worse (SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION and THE MANGLER) also.

My biggest problem would be from the screenplay, which doesn't illicit an ounce of believability.  Ninety percent of the dialogue comes across forced and the characters are clichéd.  I don't believe a mother would put her kids in the living condition of the decayed, ramshackled structure seen in the film.  The writing duo did a much better job with TOOLBOX MURDERS remake but aren't so lucky this time.

This Blu-ray does have a Making of documentary "Inside the Graveyard" runs almost an hour long.  I was a little disappointed that it's mostly video taped footage of the movie being shot.  Tobe Hooper supplies Commentary and this comes with the Theatrical Trailer.

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