Having played The Mortuary Assistant (albeit on PlayStation 5 and not the preferred choice of PC), I am all too aware of its ability to get under the player’s skin with its combination of tension, atmosphere, scares, and grimy visuals. It’s patient, it’s cruel at times, and it has a menagerie of weird and wonderful monsters. Most film adaptations struggle to match the tone of their games, and, frustratingly, The Mortuary Assistant is no different. Whilst not a disaster by any means, the film lacks the suffocating dread that the game is known for. Sure, it has a few moments of tension scattered through its ninety-minute runtime but nothing that felt overly effective, and the film just doesn't deliver any truly scary or frightening feelings. By far the most effective aspect is the use of The Mimic, the embodiment of the devil's envy of humanity according to the game's Night Shift Database. The prosthetics and make up used to realise the monstrous look were great and the sparing use of the character proved to be very effective.

 

It adapts the majority of the games major beats and does incorporate the branching narratives well, though the narrative is flashback-heavy focusing on the lead character, Rebecca Owens (Holland), and her backstory as she struggles with sobriety and the death of her parents. The character receives arguably more development here than in the game and she is more personable, mostly down to Willa Holland's game performance. Through the characters' descent, the story deals with elements of psychosis and whether what we are seeing is genuine but it's not done particularly effectively. Some of the things Rebecca witnesses (or does she?) would send most people into the fetal position, sobbing for their existence. Not Rebecca though, she continues to wander the mortuary, making phone calls, researching demons, and so on. It's quite jarring at times when a deeper dive would have possibly served the story and character better, rather than the more surface level approach taken here. 

 

The Mortuary Assistant takes its tight runtime and stretches it out as much as it can. After an interesting start, the films peters out somewhat at the midway point before leading to a fairly underwhelming finale. The opening scenes do build intrigue, but, in an attempt to mirror the feel of the game, everything slows down shortly after and things never seem to get out of second gear. Visually it looks grimy and similar to the game without ever fully replicating the claustrophobia present in the OG, and Kipp makes solid use of dynamic tension through the rule of thirds which is prevalent throughout and adds to the initial simmering tension in the film's early stages. The sound design in the early stage, specifically the embalming scenes, is icky, slurpy and an ASMR fan's dream, and, along with the procedural scenes, made for a solid impression.

 

Whilst there are far worse video game adaptations out there than The Mortuary Assistant, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed by it. It has fleeting moments but not enough to elevate it above simply mediocre, for me.