Funeral Home (1980)

Director:

William Fruet

Writer:

Ida Nelson (writer)

Release Date:

12 August 1982 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery

Tagline:

It'll have you screaming for morning!

Plot:

A young woman arrives at her grandmother's house, which used to be a funeral home, to help her turn the place into a bed-and-breakfast inn. After they open, however, guests begin disappearing or turning up dead.

Plot Keywords:

Grandfather | Cellar | Dead Child | Murder | Undertaker

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Kay Hawtrey	...	Maude Chalmers (as Kay Hawtry)
Lesleh Donaldson	...	Heather
Barry Morse	...	Mr. Davis
Dean Garbett	...	Rick Yates
Stephen E. Miller	...	Billy Hibbs (as Stephen Miller)
Alf Humphreys	...	Joe Yates (as Alfred Humphreys)
Peggy Mahon	...	Florie
Harvey Atkin	...	Harry Browning
Robert Warner	...	Sheriff (as Bob Warner)
Jack Van Evera	...	James Chalmers
Les Rubie	...	Sam
Doris Petrie	...	Ruby
Bill Lake	...	Frank
Brett Matthew Davidson	...	Young Rick (as Brett Davidson)
Christopher Crabb	...	Teddy (as Chris Crabb)

Also Known As:

2 Cries in the Night
Cries in the Night

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Sweden:15 | USA:R | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Norway:16

Filming Locations:

Elora, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC)

Quotes:

Maude Chalmers: [On what happened to her mortician husband] Just vanished into thin air!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Video Violence 2 (1987)

A modest, but amusing little thriller.

An effectively spooky low-budget thriller that takes more inspiration from Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) rather than Carpenter's Halloween (1978), as so many horror films from this era did.

A girl goes to help her grandmother with her new boarding house, a former funeral parlor, and begins to uncover sinister things as the guests start vanishing.

Solid direction uplifts this tight thriller, whose storyline is ultimately not very surprising. A few well-drawn characters do help to keep the story interesting. The rustic filming locations help to add to a chilling summer atmosphere and an air of mystery that works well to the films advantage. The re-occurring images of the black cat are a nice touch. The film is fairly subtle in its horrors, and probably comes off more compelling (and classy) because of it. In short, it's simple but good.

The cast is a strong point. Kay Hawtry is a stand-out as the grandmother, Lesleh Donaldson is fetching as our young female, and Dean Garbett is good as Donaldson's summer love.

All around, Funeral Home is a film that serves well as a thriller. It's not especially brilliant, but it does make for good entertainment.

*** out of ****