The Embalmers (2021) Poster

(2021)

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1/10
A Passive Transgressive Attempt Was Made
loathsomethings20 January 2023
A spoiler-free review from Loathsome Things: A Horror Movie Podcast.

Your Indiana small town's steampunk cosplay community invited their friends to be in a movie. Think Doctor Sleep meets House of 1000 corpses, but with none of the fun of either. There's necrophilia, child abuse, and wedgy-picking by the actors who forgot the they were on camera. The movie mostly takes place in someone's carpeted living room, someone's old kitchen, or in someone's grass near someone's truck.

They look like they had a lot of fun making this movie and probably get a lot of enjoyment from inviting people over, making them watch it, and pointing out "See that room they're in? We watching the movie in that room right now! Isn't that neat-o?"

The transgressive elements would work wonders for this video if there was a modicum of acting or directing talent in the bunch, but without that you're just watching the horny population of a failing karaoke bar pretend to be in a movie while getting paid in gas station wine.

1 out of 10 IMDb stars. It's a strong do-not-watch.
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8/10
A generally enjoyable indie effort that doesn't have too much to dislike
kannibalcorpsegrinder20 October 2023
While working in a funeral home together, a family of embalmers blessed with supernatural powers tries to use them to fit in and right the wrongs of those who come into their sphere, and when a fellow practitioner of the dark arts threatens their existence gathers their friends to put a stop to them.

This was a pretty enjoyable genre effort. One of the better elements here is the fantastic build-up about the demented and deviant nature of the group which is quite a fun watch. The first half of this one dealing with the family at the facility, teasing each other for their foibles, the general sketchiness of how they operate the business, and the little bits that go on around all that provide the context necessary for what kind of family they are. That they're still fun to be around as we see the happy-go-lucky nature of everything despite what they're actually doing knocking people out, drugging, and torturing them all combined together to let us know their deranged state quite clearly to set up what's happening later on. This setup turns their interactions and confrontations later on into far more devious scenarios and adds a fine layer to everything. Introducing their use of black magic to discover dark secrets about their victims and bringing them back to a conscious state so they're aware of being tortured is a truly grim idea that has a lot to work with here. That allows for the sense of relief to come about here as they uncover a revelation about redemption and doing this gruesome activity for the purpose of good when they realize that they're needed to stop a fellow disciple like them who has let the power corrupt them, turning into a wild and over-the-top finale putting the storylines together quite nicely. Combined with the right amount of comedic undertones, there's a lot to like here. There isn't much to really dislike with this one. Among its only issues is the film's lack of dread or urgency when dealing with the final act of things where all of the storylines come to the forefront and the truth about them is revealed. Even though there'd been a sense of hero-worship before then, there would still be the idea of them going around killing people and almost getting caught which is thrown out the window for the final half as their hero status is confirmed. It also leads to too many figures surviving the film as the stakes are barely there and it's hard to feel any sense of dread for what's happening. In addition to this, there's also the ever-present and obvious indie budget here which might put some viewers off just as much as the other features here that bring it down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Violence, and children-in-jeopardy.
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7/10
Fun, campy, enjoyable
Deodra17 March 2023
This movie is a low-budget film, to be sure. Not everyone is able to secure millions to film an independent film. Some of the actors did better than others. It was evident that they all were there to have fun, act, and make a film. Nothing wrong with that. The plot was original, in my opinion. There were mistakes, but we're not talking about a blockbuster. If you're a fan of B-rate horror/fun, give it a watch. I gave it a 7 because it's a low-budget film, a debut for the lass at the helm, they clearly had fun, and and the plot was interesting.

I wish there was a separate star rating for non-blockbuster films. I expect to see more from these folks and each will likely be better than the previous.
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