5.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 1.5 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
The Doyle family moves to rural California to start a new life; perhaps a strange choice because their new life takes on the form of running the long abandoned Fowler Brothers Funeral Home. The locals fear the place, and there are whispers around town that the land the home lies on is haunted. The Doyle family will soon discover that something lurks beneath the soil — something that raises rotten corpses from their long forgotten graves and feeds on death itself.
Starring: Dan Byrd, Denise Crosby, Rocky Marquette, Stephanie Patton, Price CarsonHorror | 100% |
Thriller | 52% |
Mystery | 14% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 2.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
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.
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".
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 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.
2006
2018
2010
2014
Collector's Edition
1978
Unrated Director's Cut
2009
2010
2018
2017
Unrated Theatrical and Rated Versions
2013
2019
2009
2010
Limited Edition
1980
1982
Unrated Director's Cut
2006
1981
1987
2013
2019