Rating summary
| Movie |  | 1.5 |
| Video |  | 3.0 |
| Audio |  | 2.5 |
| Extras |  | 2.0 |
| Overall | | 1.5 |
Mortuary Blu-ray Movie Review
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 14, 2019
Tobe Hooper’s death in 2017 led to an arguably too brief reexamination of his career, one which is also arguably for better or worse still remembered
chiefly for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
and Poltergeist. That reevaluation may or may not ever get around to
Mortuary, a film which even some diehard Hooper fans would probably not argue is one of his better efforts. Mortuary has an
interesting enough (if undeniably derivative) premise, but its scares often seem cheap and it simply doesn’t have any of the cathartic energy of
Hooper’s best work.
Echo Bridge Entertainment released
Mortuary on Blu-ray toward the dawn of this format, and for those interested in a plot summary, I refer
you to my colleague Dustin Somner’s
Mortuary Blu-ray review of that edition. Dustin’s review is also a
good source for screenshot comparisons between the two versions.
Mortuary Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
Mortuary is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual's MVD Marquee Collection imprint and FilmRise, the first such pairing that I
personally can recall (though maybe I'm forgetting some prior Blu-ray release). Dustin gave a pretty lackluster assessment to the Echo Bridge release,
and while this is an upgrade, how much of one may be debatable. This exhibits the same weird blue tinting in many of the outdoor scenes
that Dustin mentioned in his review (I might even say it has a somewhat purplish cast to it), and fine detail levels have the same imprecisions here
that
Dustin mentioned in his review as well. The MVD release looks somewhat darker than the Echo Bridge release, though that said the palette appears at
least somewhat more natural looking on the MVD release to my eyes. In the more brightly lit moments, fine detail levels improve at least somewhat,
but there's a kind of digital look to this transfer that didn't strike me as particularly "filmic".
Mortuary Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
Unfortunately this release offers no lossless audio options, only Dolby Digital tracks in 5.1 and 2.0. In that regard, the Echo Bridge release may be the
preferable option for audiophiles. The surround track here has decent immersion and some nicely spooky placement of ambient environmental effects,
but it's not particularly forceful on the low end. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout without any issues. While there's nothing
seriously wrong here to warrant over concern, I'm scoring this at 2.5 to indicate it isn't even at the 3.0 level Dustin gave the Echo Bridge release, in
terms of providing more options (including lossless options).
Mortuary Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
- Audio Commentary with Director Tobe Hooper
- Behind the Scenes Featurette Inside the Graveyard (1080p; 53:40) is the same supplement from the previously released
Blu-ray. For a bit more information, see Dustin's review of the Echo Bridge release from several years ago.
- Trailer (1080p; 13:49) is sourced from some pretty unstable looking video.
Mortuary Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
Mortuary has a spooky enough ambience, even if it's far fetched to extremes. Kind of hilariously (and/or tragically, depending on how much
it ends up costing me), I'm dealing with a mold issue in my house right now, so the film's underlying premise of a virulent "organic" issue kind of
resonated with me, even if the film itself never really made much of a lasting impact. While video here is at least marginally improved over the Echo
Bridge release, the audio options on this release aren't as numerous.
