As usual, a mediocre film gets a right kicking from over-zealous horror fans. Now, without doubt, this film is a long way away from Tobe Hooper's best work, such as the original 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and 'Salem's Lot' but, d'you know what, it's a hell of a long way from his worst work such as 'Spontaneous Combustion' or the Marquis De Sade mess he made with Robert Englund (sorry, forget the title of that one momentarily...Night Chills or something like that!). It seems to me that Hooper has sporadically made worthy horror flicks interspersed with a combination of real crap and other stuff that is pretty interesting and not as bad as is made out - 'The Funhouse' for instance, which is flawed but much better than the majority of really bad slashers. If we're honest, 'Crocodile' was a benchmark moment for Hooper. Such a name having to direct such clichéd pap is as low as you can go, and yet one or two characterisations spoke of old Hooper. Since then he's been heading in the right direction. 'Toolbox Murders' was good - gory, decently acted and with buckets of atmosphere. All that is wrong with 'Mortuary' is that it has a script that knows not where it wants to go and has the age old problem of characters behaving in a ridiculously silly manner. Also, the ending is poor. However, it does have bags of atmosphere early on and the acting is fine, bringing to life some classic Hooper characterisations. So...not so bad and Hooper is still doing alright. Could try harder, though.
Review of Mortuary
