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Mortuary
USA 1983
produced by Howard Avedis, Marlene Schmidt, Edward L. Montoro (executive) for Hickmar Productions
directed by Howard Avedis
starring Mary Beth McDonough, David Wallace (= David Wysocki), Bill Paxton, Lynda Day George, Christopher George, Curt Ayers, Bill Conklin, Donna Garrett, Greg Kaye, Denis Mandel, Violet Manes, Alvy Moore, Danny Rogers, Beth Scheffell, Marlene Schmidt, Marilyn Corwin, Lisa Durazo, Anita Morales, Denise Polk, Kimberly Polk, Pam Wren
written by Howard Avedis, Marlene Schmidt, music by John Cacavas
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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Josh (Denis Mandel) and Greg (David Williams) break into the local
mortuary where Josh has worked until recently because Josh figures the
owner, Mr. Andrews (Christopher George) still owes him some money, and now
wants to steal some tires as recompensation. Once there, they witness Mr.
Andrews and some ladies in robes holding a séance - and then suddenly
Josh is gone, and somebody takes off in Greg's car. Greg's car is found
again eventually by the police, but once there he has to face Mr. Andrews,
who's not very amused about the incidence. In the meantime, Greg's
girlfriend Christie (Mary Beth McDonough) has a weird feeling about the
death of her father (Danny Rogers), so much so that she suspects her
mother (Lynda Day George), who insists it was just an accident), to have
killed him together with Mr. Parson. Christie also has picked up to go
sleepwalking while carrying a lethal weapon since the death of her father,
plus she thinks she's followed by a masked and robed man - but due to her
sleepwalking, her mother thinks this is just her imagination in overdrive.
Eventually, Greg and Christie start investigating into her dad's death,
and all leads do indeed lead to the mortuary, yet at the same time they
collect more and more circumstantial evidence for the innocence of
Christie's mother and Mr. Andrews. However, Mr. Andrews has a son (Bill
Paxton), who has once been a patient of Christie's dad, a psychiatrist by
trade, and who simply adores Christie, in sometimes troubling ways ... Now
watching the movie, one can't shake the feeling that the plot is somewhat
inconsequential and seems to jump between unrelated narrative threads
rather at will - but that's part of the fun of the movie, really, as it
might by no means be a genre classic, but it embodies everything that made
early 1980s low budget horrors so cool as they weren't bogged down yet by
strict genre formulas, let alone the need to make post-modern statements
on the genre as such, but were supposed to shock and surprise, and were
really good at it, even if that meant that not everything made sense. That
said, I'd be hard-pressed to call this must-see horror, but it's a great
and entertaining trip down memory lane all the same.
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