WORKING STIFFS

“Mortuary Academy,” a black comedy about the funeral trade that’s due next spring from Landmark Films, is director Michael Schroeder’s first feature. But he’s really over-qualified. His family owns a trio of mortuaries and a cemetery in Oregon and Idaho. “During the summer, I’d help out, digging graves and working around the mortuary,” said Schroeder, 34. “Sometimes my father would get a call in the middle of the night to pick up a body and I’d go along for the ride. But my brothers run the business now--I had too much of a weak stomach.”

The film co-stars Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov (of “Eating Raoul” fame) as heads of the school, with Christopher Atkins as an apprentice embalmer. Complications ensue when Bartel falls in love with a dead cheerleader, played by Cheryl Starbuck.

“It’s like ‘Eating Raoul’ meets ‘Police Academy,’ ” Schroder explained. “We do flirt with areas of bad taste, but we hope it’ll be funny for people who have good taste too. My family’s taking it pretty well.”