Remembering Jeremiah Kipp, Director of ‘Slapface’ and ‘The Mortuary Assistant’

Jeremiah Kipp, the New York indie horror director behind Slapface and The Mortuary Assistant, died on Tuesday, October 13. The news arrived by way of the Long Island International Film Expo, which shared word from Lindsay Katt, his life partner of seven years: Kipp passed at approximately 3 a.m. No cause has been released, and this is not really the place to go looking for one. What we know, and what is worth saying tonight, is simpler. Independent horror lost one of its craftsmen — and by every account the festival world has offered so far, one of its kindest men.

He was not coasting. Kipp died in pre-production on his next feature, The Housewife, which was set to star Devon Sawa, and with a brand-new film, Faceless, already in the can. This was a director in the middle of the strongest run of his career — a twenty-year overnight success built the slow way, short by short, set by set, favor by favor.

Quick Specs

• Died: October 13, 2026
• Based in: New York
• Known for: Slapface, The Mortuary Assistant
• Selected films: The Pod (2006) · The Sadist (2015) · Slapface (2021) · Don’t Pick Up (2024) · The Mortuary Assistant (2026) · Faceless (completed)

Kipp came up the way indie directors are supposed to and rarely get to anymore: by working. His early feature The Pod (2006) put Larry Fessenden in front of his camera. The Sadist (2015), the film Dread Central calls his feature horror debut, starred Tom Savini. His short Pickup took home the Best Television Award from the HollyShorts Film Festival. Look at those names for a second. Fessenden and Savini are not actors who need to say yes to a low-budget indie director. They said yes to Kipp — and that tells you something about the sets he ran and the man he was on them.

Everything converged in Slapface. Kipp expanded his own 2017 short into a feature about Lucas, a grieving, bullied boy who befriends the thing in the woods — the Virago Witch — and discovers that a monster who protects you can destroy you just as surely as one who hunts you. It premiered at the Cinequest Film Festival in March 2021 and walked out with the Audience Award for horror, thriller and sci-fi. Shudder released it in February 2022. August Maturo carries the film as Lucas, Mike Manning plays his brother Tom, Dan Hedaya wears the sheriff’s badge, and Lukas Hassel is the creature under the branches. It is a monster movie about grief and abuse that never once talks down to its kid — or to you. For a lot of us, it was the moment Kipp stopped being a name on festival programs and became a director you followed.

Then came the biggest stage of his life. The Mortuary Assistant, adapted from Brian Clarke’s hit horror game, put Willa Holland in the embalming room as mortician Rebecca Owens and Paul Sparks across from her as the mentor with secrets. Epic Pictures and Dread opened it in theaters nationwide on February 13 of this year, and it landed on Shudder in March. A filmmaker whose work grew out of a childhood love of monster movies, directing an adaptation of a beloved game, with real actors, in real theaters: that is the indie dream, and Kipp got to live it while he was still hungry.

He kept moving. In 2024 he directed Keith David and Kathryn Erbe in the short Don’t Pick Up — more legends saying yes. Then he went to Cambodia and shot Faceless, a supernatural feature about YouTube ghost hunters in the jungle, the first English-language production from Sastra Film International. It wrapped, was taken to the Cannes market, and is still looking for its home. It will be a strange and sad thing when it finds one. It is his last completed film.

The Long Island International Film Expo, which gave Kipp its Creative Achievement Award in 2020, said it plainly in announcing his death: “Jeremiah was a gentle soul who was always generous with advice and sharing his knowledge of cinema.” That is the reputation that follows him out — not just a filmmaker, but a teacher hiding inside one. The best tribute we can offer is the obvious one. Slapface and The Mortuary Assistant are both sitting on Shudder right now. Put one on tonight. Rest easy, Jeremiah. The woods remember.