Review: The Mortuary Assistant Finds Atmosphere, Loses Its Nerve

Willa Holland navigates dread and routine in a video game adaptation that leans more reflective than relentless.

Review:  The Mortuary Assistant

There’s no such thing as a safe place—whether you’re inside a video game or sitting in a dark theater—and The Mortuary Assistant leans hard into that idea. One of the more anticipated horror releases of 2026, this adaptation arrives with a built-in audience thanks to its wildly popular source game. I didn’t play the game myself, but like most people in 2026, I’ve seen enough walkthroughs, streams, and breakdowns to understand why it struck a nerve. Even from the trailers, it’s clear the film is trying to mirror the game’s core loop as faithfully as possible.

The film centers on Rebecca Owens (played by Willa Holland), a young woman navigating the quiet dread of mortuary work while something far more sinister creeps in from the edges. Holland is a solid choice—grounded, watchable, and capable of carrying isolation without overselling it. The film comes from Jeremiah Kipp, a filmmaker who’s been quietly prolific for years, bouncing between shorts and features, and someone whose work (Flatface especially) has shown a knack for mood and atmosphere.

Releasing this theatrically is a smart move. We’ve already seen with Iron Lung that if you’ve got an established IP with a passionate fanbase, theaters are no longer off-limits for niche horror. There will absolutely be people showing up opening weekend specifically because they love the game.

Where The Mortuary Assistant works best is when it leans into what made the game compelling in the first place: routine tasks poisoned by unease. The environment matters here—the shadows in the corners, the sense that something is watching, the way normalcy becomes a trap. There’s body horror, there’s supernatural creepiness, and there are moments where the film genuinely taps into that slow-burn dread.

But the film also stumbles by trying to add weight where it may not be needed. A heavily personalized backstory for Rebecca becomes the emotional spine of the movie, and while I understand the instinct—you’re making a film, not a Let’s Play—it often pulls focus away from the horror. The game’s appeal, at least from the outside looking in, seems rooted in the environment manipulating you, not in prolonged explorations of family trauma and inner turmoil.

That extra layer makes the pacing feel uneven. The movie teases strong scare potential, then detours into familiar territory: strained family dynamics, bad decisions, emotional baggage. It starts to feel less like a descent into madness and more like another first-world trauma narrative draped in demonic imagery. For a story built around monotony and dread, the film sometimes forgets that less really is more.

To be clear, this isn’t a failure. The atmosphere is well-crafted, the casting works, and when the film locks into the mechanics and rituals tied to the mortuary itself, it’s at its strongest. But it never fully commits to letting the setting do the damage. Instead, it splits its attention, and the fear loses momentum.

As more video game adaptations roll in, this one highlights an ongoing challenge: understanding why a game resonates. If you drift too far from that core, you risk sanding down the very thing that made it special.

I wanted to like The Mortuary Assistant more than I did. The bones are there. The dread is there. I just needed the pacing tighter and the scares pushed further.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

I’m genuinely curious to hear what fans of the game think when it hits theaters on February 13.