DreadXP and Epic Pictures Group have announced that a live-action feature film adaptation of DreadXP and DarkStone Digital’s first-person horror video game The Mortuary Assistant is in the works under writer-director Jeremiah Kipp (Slapface).
Released in August, The Mortuary Assistant puts players in the role of a mortician who routine tasks soon turn into a series of increasingly horrifying encounters with demonic entities. The synopsis for the game reads:
Mortician Rebecca Owens thinks her first night on the job will be embalming a surplus of corpses, but 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 the demons (including the figurative demons of her past) and survive the night.
“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,” said the film’s writer and director, Jeremiah Kipp. “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,” Kipp continued. “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.”
“It’s such a rare and exciting opportunity to have your work adapted into film. It’s certainly something I never imagined would happen to me when I started developing the game two years ago,” added The Mortuary Assistant creator Brian Clarke. “Movies have always been the main inspiration for the style of my games. I’m always trying to create story, dialogue, and moments that feel filmic, so an opportunity to bring this project full circle is making a dream of mine a reality… I want the adaptation to be a great movie before anything else and I know it’s in great hands. I’m thrilled to be working with such passionate people.”
