Shudder has announced that they’ve acquisition of The Mortuary Assistant, the feature film adaptation of the best-selling horror video game from creator Brian Clarke. The film is directed by Jeremiah Kipp (Slapface), co-written by Tracee Beebe (Dog Years) and Clarke, and stars Willa Holland (Arrow) and Emmy Award Nominee Paul Sparks (Boardwalk Empire).
The movie is said to “follows newly certified mortician Rebecca Owens (Holland), who takes a job at the River Field Mortuary and is tasked with embalming bodies alone on the night shift, but something sinister lurks beneath the surface. She must navigate demonic rituals, unravel the secrets of her enigmatic mentor (Sparks), and confront her own buried traumas to survive the night – and prevent her body from becoming a vessel for possession.”
The film is based on the game which was released in 2022 for the PC. The game quickly became a viral sensation and cult favorite, and made available on additional gaming platforms including Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. The film will expand on the game’s world and mythology and delve deeper into the lore of the demonic entities plaguing River Fields.
“When Shudder indicated the clip from our film they wanted to share at Comic-Con, I was absolutely thrilled. The sequence captured everything I loved about Brian Clarke’s game: the middle of the night strangeness, its elegant minimalism, the ratcheting sense of anticipatory violence, the terror lurking around the corners – and most of all the resourcefulness and vulnerability of Rebecca Owens, played so thoughtfully by Willa Holland,” said director Jeremiah Kipp. “When Dread approached me with this project, it resonated with me on a deep personal level – the way horror invites all your darkest demons to come out and play. Shudder and Dread handled my previous film SLAPFACE with such generosity and care, it’s a profound joy to continue the relationship with The Mortuary Assistant.”
The film is scheduled to be released in 2026. Stay tuned to Horror News Network for more on The Mortuary Assistant.
