Festivals - Gerardmer 2021: The mortuary collection will be screened

By Mulder, 23 january 2021

The Mortuary Collection is an anthological horror film written and directed by Ryan Spindell. Clancy Brown, Caitlin Custer, Christine Kilmer, Jacob Elordi, Barak Hardley, Sarah Hay and Mike C are among the cast. Nelson. It had its world premiere at the Fantastic Fest on September 22, 2019.

At the Raven's End Mortuary, Montgomery Dark (Clancy Brown) presides over the funeral rites of the corpses whose history he keeps in the countless books on his shelves. One day, a young woman named Sam (Caitlin Fisher) answers his "Help Wanted" ad, and his curiosity about death and his past "clients" leads Dark to tell some of his most bizarre stories. As the stories come to life on the screen, we witness a pickpocket receiving his punishment; a fraternity seducer receiving a practical lesson on the importance of safe sex; a husband caring for his catatonic wife and taking a drastic action with very unpleasant consequences; and a variation on the horror movie cliché of the baby-sitter being terrorized by a fugitive. None of these tales end as one might expect, and once the last one is over, one last surprise awaits us...

Writer and director Ryan Spindell has been working on The mortuary collection for some time. He presented the project at Fantasia's Frontiers Market in 2013, and two years later shot the babysitter's story as an independent short film that has been successful in festivals. Today, this film is fully in the great tradition of the Amicus anthologies of the 1970s, with lush music by Mondo Boys and a colorful photo direction by Elie Smolkin that avoids the exhausted and stifled look of so many current genre films. Spindell launches us into meta-style reflections on horror narratives, intertwining a general macabre atmosphere with bursts of humor and moments of pathos, all presented with great panache by the very posh Clancy Brown. Above all, The mortuary collection is more than the sum of its individual segments, offering the pleasure of a complete narrative brought to its inevitable and bloody end.

Synopsis :
Sam enters a funeral home, inquiring about the job advertisement posted outside. She is greeted by the imposing Montgomery Dark, the mortician of her state. The job interview takes the form of macabre tales told by the mortician, to the great pleasure of the candidate.

The Mortuary Collection
Written and directed by Ryan Spindell
Produced by Allison Friedman, T. Justin Ross
Starring Clancy Brown, Caitlin Custer, Christine Kilmer, Jacob Elordi, Barak Hardley, Sarah Hay, Mike C. Nelson
Music by Mondo Boys
Cinematography: Elie Smolkin, Caleb Heymann
Edited by Erik Ekman, Joseph Shahood
Production companies : Trapdoor Pictures, Glass Eye Pix
Distribution: Koba Films (France)
Release date: September 22, 2019 (Fantastic Fest)
Running time: 108 minutes

(Source: press release)