Now seems like as good a time as any to be a fan of all things scary, both in the AAA and indie scene. With horror games dominating Summer Game Fest earlier this year and the genre also being featured quite prominently at Gamescom recently, there is evidently a lot of room in the industry for digital spooks. On top of that, there's The Mortuary Assistant, a small title created by Brian Clarke of Darkstone Digital, which may not have hit the mainstream, but is now being turned into a movie.
According to a report from Bloody Disgusting, an adaptation of the game is currently in pre-production, with director Jeremiah Kipp attached. Darkstone's Brian Clarke and Ted Hentschke are down as executive producers. At this early stage, which actors will play the key characters is still in discussion. While film and TV adaptations of horror games don't always pan out, with season two of Netflix's Resident Evil being cancelled demonstrating this, it's quite something for an indie title to be optioned so quickly after release.
For those who have yet to play it, The Mortuary Assistant is a game about identifying demons. As the title suggests, players take on the role of someone working in a mortuary, embalming bodies and preparing them for the journey to the next realm. However, there is an evil presence afoot, and it's up to the player to decide which cadaver is currently housing one of Hell's fiends and perform the ritual to cleanse the body. Otherwise, they'll become possessed themselves of course.
What's interesting about the game is that The Mortuary Assistant has multiple endings that players are encouraged to discover. Despite the game being quite short, there is a surprising amount of lore and character backstory. It's not quite certain at this stage whether the film adaptation will closely follow the plot of the game or whether it will have its own story and characters placed in Clark'e sinister world. In any case, it sounds like it could be an interesting take on this indie success.
As mentioned earlier, there were a number of horror games at Gamescom 2022, including new gameplay footage from The Callisto Protocol and The Outlast Trials, as well as Dead Island 2 and a game adaptation of the cult 80s film Killer Klowns From Outer Space being revealed. In that regard, the genre is very much alive and well in this era. Hopefully the movie version of The Mortuary Assistant will go down well.
The Mortuary Assistant is available on PC.
Source: Bloody Disgusting