The Mortuary Assistant: Jeremiah Kipp to direct video game adaptation

Jeremiah Kipp, who recently wrote and directed a very cool horror movie called Slapface (available to watch on the Shudder streaming service), has signed on to helm a live-action feature adaptation of the video game The Mortuary Assistant! As Deadline notes, the game just launched at the start of August and “has taken off as an internet phenomenon – achieving a top 10 streamed games spot on Twitch, becoming a Top Seller on Steam, and garnering additional attention on TikTok. It has been played by such top gaming YouTubers as Markiplier and Jacksepticeye, with all YouTube videos surrounding the game having garnered tens of millions of views.”

If you’re not familiar with the game (and honestly, I hadn’t heard of it until this movie announcement), The Mortuary Assistant is a supernatural first-person horror game that

brings players into the world of Mortician Rebecca Owens, who thinks her first night on the job will be embalming a surplus of corpses, though she soon learns a sinister presence resides at River Fields Mortuary. As the dead awaken and malevolent spirits bind themselves to her, Rebecca has to learn how to combat demons (including the figurative demons of her past), in order to survive the night.

The Mortuary Assistant was developed by DarkStone Digital’s Brian Clarke and is available for purchase for Windows PC on Steam. The film adaptation is coming to us from DreadXP and Epic Pictures Group. Patrick Ewald is the producer, with Clarke and Ted Hentschke serving as executive producers, and Abbey Smith co-producing.

Kipp had this to say about the project:

There’s a quiet, unnerving intensity to The Mortuary Assistant that creeps into the player, creating a sense that something terrible could happen at any moment. Writing the adaptation, I wanted to celebrate all of the game that terrified me as well as create a companion piece to it – honoring the dense creepy world developer Brian Clarke (DarkStone Digital) made and translating it into the visual storytelling and character driven horror of narrative filmmaking. I want to retain the minimalist setting in and around the mortuary, the fascination with the process of embalming, and the nerve shredding terror of the gameplay. Rebecca Owens is a fascinating character, vulnerable because of a traumatic past and committed in her self-reliance. It has been a truly crazy ride living in Brian’s twisted world, and that’s the experience we want to give the viewer.”

Have you played The Mortuary Assistant, and are you looking forward to watching a movie based on the game? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.