Chirphymium
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
BelSports
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Zlatica
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
jadavix
"Mortuary Academy" is, if anything, actually less funny than its subject matter: two nerds inherit the "academy" of the title and, if I remember correctly, have to go to school there to get it.The whole thing is very confusing and hard to follow, and never provides an adequate sense of place. It has several fantastic character actors with a magnetic screen presence, and no idea what to do with them, so after you get over the shock at seeing actors from "In the Heat of the Night", "The Silence of the Lambs" and "The Usual Suspects" in garbage like this, you eventually stop paying attention to them because they aren't given anything remotely interesting to do. The movie introduces them and then just kind of leaves them to their own devices. Paul Bartel, the rotund, balding character actor who looks and sounds like he was put on Earth to quote Shakespeare, has the movie's only memorable character... trait. He's really not a memorable "character", per se, but how many movies, especially comedic films, are there about necrophiliacs? This is about the only material that could have been funny, and while it didn't get any laughs from me, I did guffaw in shock once or twice. Again, the movie just has no idea how to handle this potentially outrageous material; you probably won't even notice it because every leading up to it and following it is so boring.The title, I assume, is an attempt to cash in on the success of "Police Academy". Say what you will about that movie, but at least police academies are actually something that exist. "Mortuary Academies" don't even seem to exist in this movie.
Wizard-8
It's one thing to try and rip off "Police Academy", but it's another thing to put a spin on your rip off that concerns a very delicate subject - death, corpses, and the mortuary business. Oh, it's possible to generate laughs with those subjects, but it takes a lot of careful thought and execution, which is entirely missing from "Mortuary Academy". What will strike most viewers is how drained of energy most of the movie is, generating instead a sombre and grim feeling that doesn't exactly induce laughter. It doesn't help that the whole package feels unfinished - there are a number of confusing moments that suggest linking footage was never filmed for one reason or another. The movie has a somewhat interesting cast, but all the participating actors seem as weary and dejected as the movie's atmosphere, so even they can't milk any humor out of the material. It's no surprise then that the movie apparently spent several years on the shelf after being completed before being dumped on video and instantly forgotten.
Woodyanders
Meek and suicidal nerd Max Grimm (a likable Christopher Atkins) and his more smooth and assured brother Sam (an equally amiable Perry Lang) are forced to take a course at their family's mortuary academy in order to inherit two million dollars. Kinky closet necrophiliac and head administrator Paul Truscott (Paul Bartel in fine droll form) and his sexually frustrated assistant Mary Purcell (a terrifically brash portrayal by the ever-delightful Mary Woronov) are determined to flunk the siblings so they can take over the place. Director Michael Schroeder, working from a pleasantly twisted and silly script by Bartel and Bill Kelman, relates the cheerfully inane story at a steady pace and maintains an engaging tongue-in-cheek tone throughout. The game cast have a ball with the wacky material: Atkins and Lang are charming in the lead roles, it's always a treat to see Bartel and Woronov in anything, plus there are sound contributions from Tracey Walter as eccentric electronics wizard Don Dickson, Anthony James as twitchy and scary ex-con Abbott Smith, Lynn Danielson as the sweet Valerie Levitt, and Stoney Jackson as hip aspiring rap singer James Danridge. Popping up in cool cameos are Wolfman Jack as crafty rock band manager Bernie Berkowitz, Cesar Romero as a cruise ship captain, Richard Kennedy as a lawyer, and "Playboy" Playmates Dona Speir, Rebekka Armstrong, Kymberly Paige, and Laurie Ann Carr as nurses. This film's main praiseworthy achievement is how it manages to treat the questionable subject matter in a surprisingly playful and good-natured manner; even the potentially tasteless subplot involving Trescott's infatuation with the fetching corpse of a deceased teenage cheerleader avoids being too gross or offensive and hence provides some of the picture's biggest laughs. A very funny and enjoyable flick.
Pepper Anne
Mary Woronov had (and probably not coincidentally) a habit of showing up in a number of strange b-grade (and sometimes lower) cult classics. Some good (Eating Raoul, Rock N' Roll High School), some so bad they're good (like Terror Vision), and some that were just out and out awful. Mortuary Academy is laden with obvious jokes and puns, mostly tasteless humor, and unfortunately was hard for me to wade through patiently until at least the last forty minutes or so. But understandably, this is the kind of material that makes a cult classic, appreciated by a few who find something pleasing enough about it to watch it ad nausea. I'm not quite sold on it as much, but I do like quirky films like these, and at least for this one, a horror comedy to some degree with emphasis on lame jokes and pure corniness (but certainly not in a family-movie kind of way).Mortuary Academy is the story of two brothers who are written as the next-of-kin to inherit their late uncle's mortuary, but only on the condition that they pass Mortuary Academy in order, at least as their lawyer explained it, develop an appreciation for the craft of a business which they may soon be running themselves. Of course, they are imbibed in an odd selection of classmates (naturally) and rebuffed by the two current heads of the mortuary (Mary and Paul, not coincidentally played by Mary Woronov and Paul Bartel), who initially plot to keep the brothers Grimm (for real) from successfully completing the conditions of the will, sure that if they did, Mary and Paul would be no longer be in charge.Regular fans of b-movie cult classics are advised to at least give this one a try. Besides b-movie cult regulars Mary Woronov and Paul Bartel look for Tracey Walter (of Repo Man fame) as Mortuary Academy's 80s variation on Dr. Frankenstien (which made for at least an more interesting ending to an otherwise relatively lukewarm movie overall).
