Recently I spoke with Director Jeremiah Kipp about his film “The Mortuary Assistant” which is based on the game of the same name.
How did you get into Directing and what was your big break?
As a child, I loved watching horror movies, so when my grandparents got a camera I immediately started gathering my friends together to make zombie movies in the backyard and ghost stories in abandoned barns. After graduating film school at New York University, I worked for years making short subjects and assistant directing on other people’s movies, learning my trade by doing. My first feature was back in 2010, a killer in the woods movie called “The Sadist” starring genre legend Tom Savini. Several features later, I wrote and directed a monster movie called “Slapface” that in many ways was about where I grew up, in the rural backwoods of Rhode Island where I started making movies so many years before. That felt like personal filmmaking, and so did “The Mortuary Assistant”. If you approach every endeavor with passion, temerity and humility, each movie is its own reward.
As a child, I loved watching horror movies, so when my grandparents got a camera I immediately started gathering my friends together to make zombie movies in the backyard and ghost stories in abandoned barns. After graduating film school at New York University, I worked for years making short subjects and assistant directing on other people’s movies, learning my trade by doing. My first feature was back in 2010, a killer in the woods movie called “The Sadist” starring genre legend Tom Savini. Several features later, I wrote and directed a monster movie called “Slapface” that in many ways was about where I grew up, in the rural backwoods of Rhode Island where I started making movies so many years before. That felt like personal filmmaking, and so did “The Mortuary Assistant”. If you approach every endeavor with passion, temerity and humility, each movie is its own reward.
What advice would you give to those starting out?
Filmmakers should seek out like minded people who share your interests and create projects with them for very little money, then put them on YouTube or TikTok. After film school, I hung out with a gang of miscreants called The Sunday Club where the motto was we’d get together on Sunday, make a movie, then eat brunch. The objective was to just be creative, and to finish your weird little projects and move on to the next one. Submit your films to festivals, go to the parties and meet new friends. Community is everything, and those are the people who will be your comrades at arms as you navigate show business.
Do you think formal schooling or hands on such as Directing shorts on social media is the best way to refine skills?
Everyone navigates their own path. As I said I went to film school, but most places have filmmaking communities now, and you mostly learn by making stuff. As Sam Beckett once said, fail again and fail better.
What attracted you to the project?
Playing the game immediately drew me into the world of “The Mortuary Assistant” – Brian Clarke created such an oppressive, tense atmosphere with such compelling characters. I loved the way he unfolded the backstory of Rebecca Owens and the demonic lore. Since the process of embalming is such a key component of the game, I began to consider that Rebecca enjoys living in her work more than in her life, and in doing so is pushing down some of her deepest and darkest secrets that are waiting to explode in her face like a jack in the box. I found this highly relatable content, since when I was Rebecca’s age I preferred being on film sets to dealing with life’s discomforts. And the demons in Brian’s game sounded a lot like the gnawing, intrusive voices of addiction, depression, suicidal ideation, which made them deadly.
What were some of the biggest challenges and the greatest successes for the film?
The entire mortuary was a built set from the ground up, replicating the environments Brian created in the game. It was astonishing to watch an empty warehouse space gradually transform into River Fields Mortuary. Our brilliant production designer Chelsea Turner not only captured the vibe of the game, but the soul of this oppressive haunted space. I was also especially proud of the collaboration with special effects artist Norman Cabrera and director of photography Kevin Duggin, particularly in the mortuary science sequences where we used a medical lens to get very close to the incisions Rebecca makes on the dead bodies. Every time we selected an actor to play a dead body, Norman would study their photographs so that in the close-ups his effects would match their skin tone, pigmentation and body type, and Kevin’s beautiful lighting brought out the detail in Norman’s work. Without proper lighting, even the greatest effects will look like rubber and paint, but the two of them made the magic tricks feel seamless and invisible.
If you had carte blanche to do any type of film or show, what would it be?
If we could retain the unforgettable ending of the book, I’d love to adapt Stephen King’s deeply disturbing “Revival” – but I’d check in with Mike Flanagan first, since I know he was passionately trying to get this made for years. It’s my favorite King novel of the past few decades.
If we could retain the unforgettable ending of the book, I’d love to adapt Stephen King’s deeply disturbing “Revival” – but I’d check in with Mike Flanagan first, since I know he was passionately trying to get this made for years. It’s my favorite King novel of the past few decades.
Have sequels been considered?
Brian and I have discussed where we might want to go with possible sequels or prequels, and if we’re so fortunate would want to do something that isn’t a repeat of the previous film. Ultimately, the audience will tell us if they want more.
What are some of your favorite films in the genre?
Recent genre films I have loved include “The Dark and the Wicked’ directed by Bryan Bertino, “Saint Maud” directed by Rose Glass, “Censor” directed by Prano Bailey-Bond, and “Late Night With the Devil” starring David Dastmalchian. And there’s a brilliant nuclear war film from the mid-1980s called “Threads” made on a very low budget by the BBC that absolutely terrified me to the point where I haven’t been able to re-watch it without being too scared to finish. I still have bad dreams from that movie, and I was unsurprised to hear the director Mick Jackson gave himself a serious case of PTSD making it – there’s no surprise why when he went to Hollywood he made comedies with Steve Martin, anything to get out of that bleak headspace where you’re dwelling on the end of the world.
What do you have lined up after this one?
Last fall I made a feature in the jungles of Southeast Asia, and it immediately made me sympathetic to any filmmaker who has ever made a movie in the jungle. My heart goes out to Francis Ford Coppola, Oliver Stone, Ruggero Deodato, John McTiernan, Werner Herzog. The jungle is a nightmare zone of humidity, typhoons, snakes, unforgiving terrain, insects, mud and insanity. I wouldn’t wish it upon any artist.
Do you see the rise of streaming as a good or bad thing for movies and does it make it harder or easier for Indie Filmmakers to find an audience?
The horror streaming service Shudder has been a vital way for me to share my work with horror audiences, and their curation has been very meaningful to me as a viewer. I mentioned Mike Flanagan earlier and his long form adaptations on Netflix were spectacular, as was Alex Garland’s brilliant “Devs” on Hulu. Even though I love the theatrical experience and value the collection of physical media, streaming has been an essential part of my life as a viewer and as a creator. I’m curious to see where our medium takes us from here, so let the future come.
What would you say is the biggest change in your Directing style today compared to the past?
One should always strive to have a beginner’s mind. Several years ago, we were in pre-production on a feature with James Earl Jones, and sadly the plug got pulled mere weeks before principal photography. But I had the remarkable experience of rehearsing with James Earl, and I learned a hell of a lot from him. The most essential lesson was, at 85 years old, he was still asking the most basic beginner’s questions when finding his way into a character. His choices were informed by years of experience, but there was a sincere belief that we should go back to the basics every time, ask simple questions, then mine down deep into them. I’m sad we never got to make that film together, but I’ll always treasure my time with him. James Earl understood the ego-centric danger of “knowing what you’re doing,” and the more you put yourself in situations where you’re the curious student, the young beginner’s mind, the more opportunities you’ll have for discovery. If we were both a little scared and taking a trust fall together, it felt like we were on the right track. I bring that one with me wherever I go.
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