Mausoleum (1983)

Undescribable Perfection

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Lovely and sweet young Susan Farrell (a respectable performance by deliciously voluptuous blonde bombshell Bobbie Bresee) suffers from an especially nasty family curse: she gets possessed by the spirit of an evil and lethal, yet enticing distaff demonic spirit that takes over the first born daughters of every line in her family. Pretty soon Susan just ain't acting like herself anymore; she starts seducing and murdering various guys. It's up to concerned psychiatrist Dr. Simon Andrews (nicely played by Norman Burton) to save Susan's soul before it's too late. Director Michael Dugan does a sound job of creating and maintaining a flesh-crawling ooga-booga atmosphere, pours on a handy helping of juicy gore (the definite splatter highlight occurs when Susan levitates a guy and sends the man falling to his death from a three story balcony onto a glass table), tosses in several moments of hilariously campy humor, and has the luscious Ms. Bresee bare her insanely hot body at pleasingly regular intervals. The game cast do their best with the rather silly material: the ever-cool Marjoe Gortner as Susan's loving, but busy husband Oliver, Laura Hippe as Susan's worried Aunt Cora Nomed, and Sheri Mann as helpful demonic possession expert Dr. Roni Logan. LaWanda Page (Aunt Esther on "Sanford and Son") provides gut-busting lowbrow comic relief as superstitious black maid Elsie. Maurice Sherbanee likewise amuses as creepy, lecherous Mexican gardener Ben. Robert Barich's polished cinematography makes occasional inspired use of a fluid gliding Steadicam. Jaime Mendoza-Nava's spooky'n'moody score does the shuddery trick. John Carl Buechler comes through with a marvelously grotesque make-up design for the hideously ugly female demon; the foul beast's drooling, fanged, snarling breasts are particularly funky and memorable. Granted, this flick certainly isn't a subtle and sophisticated work of cinematic art, but it does overall pass muster as a highly entertaining piece of cheerfully cheesy trash.

Shrouded in fog and subject to constant violent thunderstorms (despite being situated in an otherwise very sunny and pleasant looking cemetery), the Nomed (oooh, how clever is that?) family mausoleum would probably be the last place I would choose to enter if my lineage was cursed by demonic possession. However, after fleeing her mother's funeral, Young Susan Walker Farrell happily seeks solitude in the spooky burial chamber, and becomes a host for the creature that resides within.Years later, and the demon finally makes its presence known, turning the now married Susan (played by busty-but-otherwise-talentless starlet Bobbie Bresee) into a glowing-eyed, murderous nymphomaniac. After sleeping with and killing her gardener, bumping off a delivery boy, ripping her aunt apart, dropping a guy over a balcony in a shopping mall, scaring off the comic-relief home help (a crazy black housemaid who constantly jibber jabbers to herself), and partially devouring her husband with her slavering demonic breasts (I kid you not), Susan is saved by her shrink, who places a crown of thorns on her head, causing the monster within to crawl back to its crypt.Mausoleum, as you can probably tell from my description, is a rather crappy horror that lacks anything even remotely resembling a coherent and logical plot. It is laden with abysmal visual FX and make-up, loaded with genre clichés (fog, thunder and lightning, rats, cobwebs etc.), features tons of terrible acting, and, despite some very cheesy moments, is pretty dull viewing.Bresee gets her tits out quite a lot to try and compensate somewhat for her dreadful performance, but, even if she had done an explicit nude gymnastic routine in a hall of mirrors, it wouldn't have been enough to save the film from being a major waste of time. A dreadful twist/surprise ending (which also makes absolutely no sense) leaves viewers wondering just how such an obviously awful idea ever made it past the planning stage.

"Mausoleum" is a fairly entertaining and enjoyable supernatural horror.**SPOILERS**Following a traumatic childhood, Susan Farrell, (Bobbie Bresee) is having a perfectly normal life, according to her aunt Cora Nomed, (Laura Hippe) psychologist, Dr. Simon Andrews, (Norman Burton) and should be left alone. Despite her growing concerns that she's falling into a trap that the family is cursed to become involved in, her husband Oliver, (Marjoe Gortner) isn't too worried. When they start to notice that those around them are becoming involved in strange accidents, he finds something wrong with her cavalier attitude towards the mysterious events. Eventually realizing that it's something to do with her and their unique family history, he discovers that the mausoleum where her mother is buried led to her being possessed by a strange demon as a child, and is now out to destroy all those who anger her. Getting a handle on the situation, they try to put an end to her rampage before more people disappear.The Good News: This here isn't all that bad, and has some really great points about it. The film's at it's best when it goes for the cheesy 80s creature feature tactics. It's obvious that there's a rubber creature here for the possession, and while it's obvious, it still looks really great. With the glowing eyes, distorted features and much more in here that comes from the demonic facial features leave a great impression in viewers. There's also a lot of cheese to come from the film's deaths, which here are packed with several really cheesy sequences here which come from that sense of cheese. The makeup effects are good, with a scene involving the girl's breasts turning into snarling faces really standing out. During the early parts where the demonic happenings are confined to the different showings of that power. The attack on the house-guest, which comes complete with flowing fog, glowing lights and much more give it a really nice, cheesy feel. Aside from the cheese, it's also pretty creepy, as the beginning is one of the creepiest Gothic sequences around, and is backed up with a reprisal at the end which works wonders. The film also has a couple of really fun sequences, such as the aforementioned attack on the house-guest, as well as a couple of other attacks throughout the film which work incredibly well. The first one in the cemetery's mausoleum is pretty great, as is the set-up to the gardener one and the film's highlight, the showdown in the mall which is just superb. That one is fun, high action and much more in here which makes it seem really enjoyable. That also helps out the film's gore quotient, which here is pretty high. There's a lot more than expected for this kind of film, and there's some good stuff in this. There's a face scratched up with claws, an impaling through the chest with an umbrella, a garden trowel repeatedly stabbed in the head, being forced to scratch eyes out and having their chest bitten open and ribs separated, among other facets of gore. There's also the film's high amount of nudity, which is well-covered by those who are well-prepared to deliver it, and in some cases is fully utilized to it's best potential. These here are all apart of what makes the film work.The Bad News: There really isn't a whole lot to this one, and what little flaws there is aren't that bad. The biggest issue is the highly-unbelievable story that says that nearly all the family members are unable to understand the curse, and that it's persisted for so long without anything being done about it is a little hard to believe. That it's the subject of a diary entry that anyone in the family can access makes it all the more ridiculous, and with it being a fairly important part in the utterly ridiculous plot, that one stands up as the film's biggest issue. The cheese level could be something that won't sit well with some, and it's not entirely free of pretty lame scenes that aren't even in the slightest realistic, but picking apart the plot is what's going to be the biggest issue with this one.The Final Verdict: With a lot going for it and only a few problems, this is a pretty entertaining entry that is really enjoyable. Give it a chance if you enjoy these kinds of entries or find it interesting, while those who aren't really into these kinds of films should heed caution, as the flaws can be accentuated greatly in that case.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Full Nudity and a mild sex scene

Pay no mind to the many troll user comments listed herein. If you're the kind of person who might rent such a movie as Mausoleum based on its posterart (or, furthermore, its very title), comments made about acting, budget, and special effects limitations are completely misguided.Mausoleum is strictly for those of us who cut our canines on '80s direct-to-video horror shinola, and who wax nostalgic for clam shell video cases.Bobbie Breese is stunning in the film, and how could you NOT appreciate Marjoe Gortner having his intestines eaten away (nevermind the fact that he's simply IN the film in the first place!) by Breese's monstrous, double-breasted chompers.The gardener is a cinematic wonder/McGuffin to behold, and LaWanda Page doing an incredibly un-PC Steppin Fetchit routine has to be seen to be believed! The movie is a definite throwback to classic '70s horror films (moreso in the beginning), before really taking off in the film's third act. Dugan's direction is especially atmospheric and under-appreciated. It's a shame his film career output was so limited.If any of these comments sound appealing to you, and you know who you are, help keep the memory of this little cinematic footnote alive in the new millennium.