Ryan Spindell was a prolific writer and director of short films prior to the release of his barnstorming feature debut, The Mortuary Collection. An old-school homage to classic anthology productions — rather than a collection of shorts from different filmmakers haphazardly strung together by an underwhelming framing device — the inspired, accomplished movie utilizes elements of fantasy, sci-fi and slasher films with the inclusion of Spindell’s own short, The Babysitter Murders. 

The inimitable Clancy Brown holds the fort as mortician Montgomery Dark, who plays the Cryptkeeper of sorts, but his inclusion belies The Mortuary Collection’s humble beginnings. Although there clearly wasn’t a lot of money to go around, the finished product is filled to the brim with heart and care. I caught up with the talented, enthusiastic writer-director to discuss inspiration, the failings of modern anthologies and casting an iconic character actor. 

Joey Keogh: There’s a slight delay on the line, so apologies if it seems like I’m cutting across you at any point. 

Ryan Spindell: That’s fine — just know that without the delay I’m very charismatic and quick to answer questions.

JK: Ha! Right, first and foremost, I have to know — why an anthology?

RS: The pretentious, high-brow answer is that I just love short-form horror. I’ve been obsessed with it since I was a little kid. Ray Bradbury is one of my favorite authors… Richard Matheson, Stephen King, of course. I just feel like there are so many stories within the horror space that are better told in short bites. A big problem with a lot of modern horror features is that they’re short story ideas that have been stretched to 90 minutes. They make great trailers and they’re certainly high concept, but they always kind of flail in the third act and they’re kind of unsatisfying in the end. I write short stories for fun, on the side, and I had a collection of these stories just sitting on my laptop that I didn’t know what to do with. At the time, I’d been watching a lot of Amicus films from the 70s, these great British anthology films, and I was thinking this is such a cool format that people at one time really did enjoy, but that had kind of fallen away from the mainstream — now, this is in 2012, so it’s had something of a resurgence since then — but the initial inspiration was how can I find a way to take these short stories that I really love and package them so I can kind of trick an audience into sitting down to watch them under the guise that they’re seeing what they’re used to seeing but then surprise them with something that’s different, unique and special. It’s a dangerous thing to do because, what I found is, a lot of people like their comfort food and they don’t like it when you pull the rug out from under them with the format of the film. But I think it’s important to bring these short stories back into the public eye, because there are so many creative people out there who are so great at doing them, and there just isn’t really a good venue for them. 

JK: You mentioned modern horror anthologies, and typically those bring together lots of different filmmakers or groups of filmmakers. Why did you decide to tackle this one just by yourself?

RS: Aside from me being an egomaniac at the time when I wrote it, all the anthologies that I knew and loved had been directed by one person. The V/H/S movies, which came later, popularized the modern anthology style that people associate with these kinds of movies now, but, at the time, that was not how it was done. But I do think, having done it, while I can say that it’s an incredibly daunting challenge for your first film to try to make five films at once, I wouldn’t recommend anybody else do that! It is one of the things I think makes our film unique in this space. And because it’s such a daunting task, not a lot of people tackle it, so it gives us something to celebrate, if that makes sense?

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JK: Totally. The Mortuary Collection is definitely more cohesive than a lot of these other modern horror anthologies. There’s more of a theme and a definitive vision to it, like the older anthologies. 

RS: Yeah. It depends on what you like. I know some people love that mixed bag vibe, and there’s definitely value in it. I love filmmaker collective anthologies that give newcomers a chance to create a story and then they put them on the stage in a larger way, I think that that’s really cool. I’m less enthusiastic about the ones that take a bunch of short films people have already made and cram ‘em together to make a quick buck. 

JK: The role of Montgomery Dark, your storyteller, is so important. Did you write that with the great Clancy Brown in mind or did you just get lucky?

RS: Short answer is I got lucky, definitely. It was interesting because the impetus for the project coming together was to pay homage to the anthology movies I really loved, and the archetypes that I was really drawn to, and then the fans of those movies. The creepy house in the hill and the looming mortician inside and weaving twisted tales for a mysterious visitor, that all came easily to me because that’s just what I know and what I love — it’s the foundation for this type of horror fantasy. But after we had that laid out, we were like, well, we don’t want to make an homage film, we love these things and we want to see if we can do something different and push the genre, or this type of film, into something more interesting. The next step was, you know, these characters like the Cryptkeeper, they’re always ready to tell a story when we step into the crypt, and he’s got all the puns ready to go, but what is his life like when he’s not in the crypt? Are these characters sad? Are they lonely? Are they trapped?  Why are they forced to tell these stories again and again and again? It was through that exploration that the role of Montgomery came to life. Then we were thinking who has the aesthetic archetype to embody the role but still has the nuance to do something special with it, to add some humanity to a character that wouldn’t often be given humanity. Clancy Brown was such an easy choice for me because I’ve just been such a massive fan of him for as long as I can remember. He’s a shapeshifter, he’s a character actor in the best way — and I mean that with the utmost respect. I think character actors bring movies to life, and they’re often relegated to playing second fiddle. Taking this amazing force of nature and putting him at the forefront felt like such an easy and obvious choice, and we’re just so lucky that he took a swing with such a little project and came on board. 

JK: Well, when I spoke to him for this, he had nothing but wonderful things to say about his experience making the movie. In fact, he said he wants to come back for a sequel. He told me he’s bugging you to play Montgomery’s brother in a follow-up, in fact. 

RS: Trust me, I am ready to go with this sequel idea if anybody gives us a chance. I have, like, 12 stories right here on my computer that I’m looking at and Clancy will absolutely be a part of it. 

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JK: I’m just imagining him in a different wig, being like “Hello, I’m a completely different character!”

RS: Yeah, or he’ll just play the lead in every story, like Karen Black. He’s the new Karen Black! 

JK: You mentioned it was a low-budget production, and he said the same, you know, that you guys had no money, no locations. What was the biggest challenge of bringing The Mortuary Collection to the screen in the way you wanted to bring it to the screen?

RS: This is always such a hard question to answer, ‘cause it feels like every step of the movie was nothing but a challenge. But I think maybe the production design, creating that elevated horror fantasy aesthetic, the timeless aesthetic. My background is in art design, so I’m pretty comfortable building sets and set dressing and finding really great locations and transforming them. For that kind of thing, we had an amazing team, but there were other aspects that I’d kind of taken for granted, like for instance if we have a crowd scene, that’s 25 people that need to be dressed in period clothes, with period hair and makeup, and if you slack on any of that stuff, it falls down like a house of cards. Luckily, I had such an incredible team of people that I carried over from the short that we made, The Babysitter Murders, who basically saved my ass time and time again with that kind of thing. It’s something you can’t do at this budget level without people that are just… beasts.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Catch The Mortuary Collection on VOD, Digital HD, DVD and Blu-ray starting April 20, 2021.

Joey Keogh (@JoeyLDG) is a writer from Dublin, Ireland with an unhealthy appetite for horror movies and Judge Judy. In stark contrast with every other Irish person ever, she’s straight edge. Hello to Jason Isaacs.