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Fantasia 2020: ‘The Mortuary Collection’ Anthology is an Impressive Delight

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The Mortuary Collection

Horror anthologies are ever-popular and evergreen, giving audiences a chilling collection of tales that allow for fully realized frights without the stories overstaying their welcome. The Mortuary Collection is like a five-course meal, each dish with its own flavour and purpose. Writer/director Ryan Spindell — in his feature film debut, no less — has whipped up an impressive, cohesive storytelling spectacle that will surely satisfy. 

At Raven’s End Mortuary, Montgomery Dark (a heavily made-up Clancy Brown) presides over the funeral rites of corpses whose histories he keeps recorded in the countless books on his shelves. One day, a young woman named Sam (Caitlin Fisher) answers his Help Wanted sign, and her curiosity about death and his past “clients” leads him to relate a few of the most bizarre tales. 

The stories span over four decades — from the 50s to the 80s — and the production design for each is absolutely perfect. The sets? Perfect. The costumes? Perfect. The cinematography, the lighting, the props? All perfect. It’s an undeniably beautiful film that I really want to just curl up and live inside (the house! I die). 

The aesthetic is everything you want it to be, and then a little bit more. Right from the opening moments of the film, you’re drawn in by the detailed setting and enchanting score by Mondo Boys (She Dies Tomorrow, Phoenix Forgotten). There’s a fairytale quality to it all that you immediately want to be a part of. 

The Mortuary Collection

The first story told (in which a savvy pickpocket’s curiosity is ultimately her undoing, set in the 50s) has a gorgeous symmetry in every shot that just makes your brain happy. The second segment (wherein a recklessly promiscuous frat boy learns about safe sex — the 60s) has fantastic comedic timing and brilliant execution of close-up shots. The third (a husband caring for his catatonic wife becomes desperate in the 70s) plays with emotion and tone, right up to its visually stunning conclusion. The fourth tale (a babysitter comes to blows with an escaped asylum patient — naturally, the 80s) was first a short film from which The Mortuary Collection blossomed, delivering all the tropes you know and love before shaking them up for one final showdown. 

Each segment plays differently, but the benefit of having them all behind Spindell’s capable helm is that — despite the variations in tone and even decade — they all form one cohesive film. It would be incredibly easy for this type of feature to become a mish-mash of ideas, but Spindell masterfully weaves everything together so that it doesn’t feel like a spattering of parts. 

It’s a wonderful collection of cautionary tales that deserves a place on the mantle of great horror anthologies. The Mortuary Collection has the vibe of Creepshow with the polished quality of Trick ‘R Treat. You can see a deep love for EC Horror comics and anthology films of the 70s and 80s running through its veins. Above all, it’s just plain whimsical fun with tales that will tickle your horror-loving brain. 

As Montgomery Dark states in the film, it’s not the length of the tale, it’s the quality of the content. If you by any means enjoy horror anthologies — hell, even if you don’t — The Mortuary Collection should find its way onto your watchlist. It’s bloody, it’s beautiful, and it’s got charming character coming out of every creepy crevice.

The Mortuary Collection

You can watch The Mortuary Collection as part of Fantasia 2020’s digital film festival. For more from Fantasia Fest 2020, click here to read my review of Neil Marshall’s The Reckoning. 

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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Trailer for ‘The Exorcism’ Has Russell Crowe Possessed

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The latest exorcism movie is about to drop this summer. It’s aptly titled The Exorcism and it stars Academy Award winner turned B-movie savant Russell Crowe. The trailer dropped today and by the looks of it, we are getting a possession movie that takes place on a movie set.

Just like this year’s recent demon-in-media-space film Late Night With the Devil, The Exorcism happens during a production. Although the former takes place on a live network talk show, the latter is on an active sound stage. Hopefully, it won’t be entirely serious and we’ll get some meta chuckles out of it.

The film will open in theaters on June 7, but since Shudder also acquired it, it probably won’t be long after that until it finds a home on the streaming service.

Crowe plays, “Anthony Miller, a troubled actor who begins to unravel while shooting a supernatural horror film. His estranged daughter, Lee (Ryan Simpkins), wonders if he’s slipping back into his past addictions or if there’s something more sinister at play. The film also stars Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg and David Hyde Pierce.”

Crowe did see some success in last year’s The Pope’s Exorcist mostly because his character was so over-the-top and infused with such comical hubris it bordered on parody. We will see if that is the route actor-turned-director Joshua John Miller takes with The Exorcism.

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