The Mortuary Assistant
One of the things I’ve always admired about Jeremiah Kipp’s films are how he starts, largely, with psychological dangers before they manifest into physical ones. His first feature, “Black Wake,” is an exception to that, but with his feature-length adaptation of his short film, “Slapface,” and now “The Mortuary Assistant,” he’s gotten back into doing that, and it feels like where he should live as a filmmaker.
Here, Kipp is working off of a screenplay by Tracee Beebe and Brian Clarke, based off of the latter’s video game. The film follows Rebecca Owens (Willa Holland), a young woman who has been trying to get away from her substance abuse, and is haunted by the death of her father. She is at the end of her time as an intern as an embalmer at a mortuary. She is in the middle of her “final exam” with her mentor (Paul Sparks) when we meet her; he seems pleased, but his praise feels uneasy. We are going to find out why as Rebecca tries to settle in to her job, but finds that more demons than just her past ones might be coming for her.
“The Mortuary Assistant” does a pretty good job of balancing the psychological terror that Rebecca is feeling, born out of her guilt of her past, and the physical threats she faces as the film continues. If I’m being honest, it was the psychological part that engaged me more, especially as she learns the truth from her mentor, that the physical that are, undoubtedly, a hold over of the game. Holland does a solid job is helping us track Rebecca’s mental state throughout the film, as well as making us feel uneasy about her choice of job, though we also can understand it. As the full details of the narrative are revealed the film takes on familiar genre shapes that are engaging, but also lose a bit of focus from what drew us in to begin with. Thankfully, Kipp as the director and his collaborators- especially Holland- are able to bring us through to the end, leaving us on an uneasy note narratively, but a thematically unique work, as well, as Rebecca finds herself in a similar mental trap as she was trying to get out of, but one that offers no easy solutions. “The Mortuary Assistant” is more than a little different from the filmmaker’s previous efforts, but the ways it is similar, are ones that are always going to be part of Kipp’s DNA as a director, for which I’m grateful.
