Tobe Hooper’s Mortuary revolves around the Doyle family and their relocation to the Fowler Brothers Funeral Home in a small town in California. After the death of Leslie’s (played by Denise Crosby) husband, she takes her two kids, Jonathan and Jamie and moves to the town to begin a new career as a mortician. Local lore has it that Fowler Brothers Funeral Home and the surrounding cemetary are haunted, not only by the spirits of the dead buried there but also by the hideously deformed Fowler boy, Bobby. The locals believe that he lives in one of the tombs there on the property.
Denise Crosby is best know to horror fans as Gage’s mom in Pet Semetary, as Lt. Tasha Yar on ST:TNG for Sci-Fi buffs and Bing Crosby’s daughter to the rest of the world. Crosby plays Doyle family matriarch Leslie. She has always been a good actress and probably provides the strongest performance in this film. The rest of the crew’s performances were pretty average. Although not detrimental to the movie, they really didn’t add anything to the final product either.

The storyline of Mortuary is familiar but not bad. I liked the first half of the film and felt the buildup was quite good, however, when the ending finally played out I found myself rather disappointed with the resolution.

The Special effects of this film are a strong example of CGI absolutely drawing any element of tension or fear right out of the film. Unfortunately there was way too much of it and it was done in almost a cartoonish fashion that sadly cheapens the movie.

In conclusion, I guess I just expected more from the man credited with directing the real Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist. Tobe Hooper has proven himself in the past as a great horror director, however this time around he just doesn’t quite pull it off. I don’t recommend this movie unless you are a diehard Hooper fan and completist. Go pick up a copy of the Blu Ray release of Salvage instead, it is a much better movie.

Mortuary is another one of the first Blu Ray discs from Echo Bridge Entertainment. The suggested retail price is $14.95 and any time you can purchase the Blu Ray at the same price as the standard disc, you can’t go wrong. Even though the 1080p didn’t rescue the bad CGI effects, the rest of the film looks great and the Smart Menu technology is a cool little gadget.

Special Features:
Director’s Commentary Track
Behind the Scenes featurette “Inside the Graveyard”
Theatrical Trailer

The Blu Ray Edition fo Mortuary is available courtesy of Echo Bridge Home Entertainment beginning on July 29th.

To Switch for the Blu Ray Edition of Mortuary or to purchase it from Amazon.com, click Here