Summary
Mortuary Academy is a Comedy film released for DVD in the USA and it belongs to the Comedy category and within the Comedy genre so it can be located easily when searching for comedy titles. It is a campy offbeat picture that works as a substitute for the classic police academy training comedy because it places a group of young recruits in a school where they learn the skills of funeral directors and morticians. The story follows a collection of nerdy awkward characters who unexpectedly inherit or gain control of a mortuary academy that is supposed to prepare students for the solemn duties of death care. The academy is run by a corrupt closet necrophiliac who has a hidden unhealthy fixation on dead bodies and who uses the school as part of a larger scheme. The central plan is to accept only the most incompetent students possible so the academy will fail and the people involved can benefit from its collapse. The new trainees are therefore a group of clueless bumbling misfits who are completely unfit for the professional environment of a funeral school. Their education becomes a long series of physical comedy routines involving embalming lessons cadaver handling morgue procedures sanitation rules funeral home etiquette and the strange rituals that come with preparing a body for viewing. Every assignment is handled with the wrong kind of confidence and every lesson turns into messy awkward farce. The film uses the funeral industry as a source of jokes visual absurdity and broad slapstick because the students treat serious professional procedures with total carelessness. The humor comes from the constant gap between the dignity expected in a funeral academy and the chaotic behavior of the trainees. The corrupt administrator keeps pushing the plot toward strange and dangerous choices and the entire institution begins to look like a poorly managed disaster. The tone is low budget deliberately goofy and not concerned with subtle satire or serious horror. It is a comedy first and its main purpose is to generate laughter through absurd situations incompetent characters and a bizarre institutional premise. The movie plays like a misfired clone of the police academy formula but with a macabre workplace setting and a central villain whose private obsession adds an extra layer of offbeat humor.
Highlights
The strongest highlight is the direct connection to the Police Academy style of comedy because the film uses a school setting strict instructors trainee incompetence and a large group of mismatched students. The humor depends on the students being the wrong kind of people for a serious profession and the funeral world provides a constant supply of objects and situations that make their failure look ridiculous. Another highlight is the corrupt administrator who runs the academy with a secret necrophiliac streak because this character gives the film a darker undercurrent while still serving as a source of comedy. The plan to fill the school with hopeless students is clear and it gives the plot a simple engine that keeps pushing toward chaos. The nerdy student group is useful because their immaturity curiosity and social awkwardness make every practical lesson become a farce. The film also highlights the strange normal procedures of the funeral industry by turning embalming grief counseling sanitation and funeral presentation into comedy routines. The setting allows repeated visual gags involving cadavers cold rooms masks chemical trays and funeral home etiquette. The movie benefits from a camp spirit and it does not take itself seriously even when the plot includes sinister intentions and a funeral school about to collapse. It is a good fit for the Comedy category because the main appeal is laughter from absurd situations incompetent characters and a bizarre institutional plot rather than horror scares or character drama. The DVD release in the USA suggests a niche market audience that enjoys low budget comedy pictures offbeat genre hybrids and broad farce with a slightly morbid flavor.
The entry was added to iOctavio dot com on November 22 2007