Not to be confused with the 2005 movie of the same name, this early 80's
slasher film revolves around the goings on of a small town funeral parlour, that's harbouring a dark secret. When two young high school students
break into a warehouse belonging to the Funeral Parlour's owner, Mr Andrews (Christopher George), they are surprised to see him and some of the
locals engaged in a bizarre satanic ritual down in the building's basement.
Believing they haven't been spotted, one of them, Greg (David Wallace) decides to stay and watch from a safe distance, whilst his partner Josh (Denis Mandel) goes to rip off some of the equipment stored there. Unfortunately, as he attempts to make off with some loot, he winds up being skewered with a morticians embalming lance by some guy in a dark cloak.
When Greg attempts to find his friend and discovers he's vanished, along with his van, he realises something's definitely amiss. Believing Andrews to be behind his disappearance and with the police not being too helpful, Greg and his girlfriend Christie (played by a post "Waltons" Mary Beth McDonough) start prying into the goings on at his funeral parlour.
But when they discover that Christie's mother is herself part of Andrews bizarre cult, they suspect that he may also have had something to do her father's recent mysterious death. Things get even more sinister when Christie finds herself being stalked by the same shadowy figure we saw despatching Josh earlier in the film. It starts looking like one of the occultists is trying to silence her, but if its not, who could it be and what is their connection to Andrews and his Funeral Parlour?
Whilst the film is not overly gory, it does feature some neat plot twists and red herrings. Most notably the killer in the cloak, Christies nightmares and her sleepwalking antics, and the introduction of Andrews socially inept son Paul who works in the mortuary at the funeral parlour, who is played by none other than a young Bill Paxton of "Aliens" fame. This is a good old fashioned slice of 80's horror fare, which should appeal to fans of that era. Worth seeing if only for Bill Paxton's oddball antics, or Christopher George trying to imitate Charles Gray from "The Devil Rides Out".
