Unlocking the Mysteries of Embalming

I'm the lucky stiff who got to review this one. And I've got to say, it's a little like getting the chance to find out how the magician saws the woman in half. You're curious, so you think you want to see it. Until you do. Then you wish you hadn't. With the box sporting the tag line "Witness an actual embalming!" (the "!" is theirs, not mine), I assumed the cheese-factor was going to be high, a kind of Hard Copy-type gimmick piece--and I was correct--though, unfortunately, the embalming content seemed to be all too real. The program discusses the Egyptian's preoccupation with preserving the dead, the methods used today in tissue preservation and to some extent, mortuary science. Viewers are graphically shown the draining of blood, the arterial injection of formaldehyde and other preparations made during the embalming process. This is serious and scary stuff, and the uneven tone used in the video--trying to be entertaining and cute with such grim subject matter is, well, reprehensible (in one of numerous examples, we see the on screen-funeral home host--a Vincent Price wannabe--discussing "looking your best for your exit party" with an expression of smug glee). And I can't begin to fathom the filmmaker's reasoning for a framing device that begins with teenagers necking in a convertible as the narrator coos "reaching toward forbidden bodies, touching, kissing, exploring…" and concludes with teens frolicking and making out in a graveyard. Not recommended. (N. Plympton)