The Hearse (1980)

Director:

George Bowers

Writers:

William Bleich (written by)
Mark Tenser (idea)

Release Date:

June 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

There is a door between life and death and now, that door is open!

Plot:

Jane Hardy decides to stay the summer in the house her aunt left her when she died, to try and recoup from a bad divorce...

Plot Keywords:

Hearse | Mansion | Religion | Car Accident | Possession

Cast

Trish Van Devere	...	Jane Hardy
Joseph Cotten	...	Walter Pritchard
David Gautreaux	...	Tom Sullivan
Donald Hotton	...	Reverend Winston
Med Flory	...	Sheriff Denton
Donald Petrie	...	Luke
Christopher McDonald	...	Pete
Perry Lang	...	Paul Gordon
Fred Franklyn	...	Mr. Gordon (as Frederic Franklyn)
Olive Dunbar	...	Mrs. Gordon
Al Hansen	...	Bo Rehnquist
Dominic Barto	...	The Driver
Nicholas Shields	...	Dr. Greenwalt
Chuck Mitchell	...	Counterman
Allison Balson	...	Alice

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Netherlands:16 (2007) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 (video premiere) | UK:15 | USA:PG | UK:12 (video re-rating) (2002)

Company:

Marimark Productions

Quotes:

Jane Hardy: [startled by someone at her back door] Oh!
Reverend Winston: Miss Hardy, please.
Jane Hardy: [laughing, relieved] Oh! You scared the hell out of me!
Reverend Winston: I should probably take that as a compliment. *Ha ha ha ha ha!*

A lot of b-movie fun.

Jane Hardy (Trish Van Devere) decides to vacation at her late aunt's country home after suffering a breakdown. She unearths and starts reading her aunt's diary, discovering that her aunt was into satanism! A handsome, mysterious stranger appears, and soon, her life begins to parallel what she's reading in the diary. Oh--and someone driving a hearse appears to be stalking her. Should she call her shrink in the city...or face the fact that events in her life have taken a supernatural turn? That's THE HEARSE--if you analyze it, it doesn't deliver big on story. It's more about the set-up than the payoff. It gives you just enough of a situation to make you nervous, and then, straight into the scares. Then it wraps up in a vague manner that doesn't answer your questions, but if you're on the film's wavelength, this really doesn't matter.

This was one of several movies I saw as a kid in the early 80's, and this particular one I came back to see a second time, dragging a friend along to share the popcorn fun. Seeing this in a theatre was amazing--imagine yourself going to see a PG-rated film in the early 80's, and watching the audience around you literally jumping out of their seats with fright, over and over again. This film actually generated one of the strongest audience reactions I've been witness to.

The film established a very unnerving vibe, and made the audience worried about the vague "evil forces" that were lurking out there in the darkness. And when the creepy hearse driver finally showed up and started doing his menacing thing, the audience was primed up and ready to scream. And scream they did.

There is also the strong feeling that the sleepy, secluded town the story takes place in is REALLY far away from everywhere else in the world, and that these strange supernatural-ish events could really happen here without too many people even noticing.

This is fun on home video, but if you ever have a chance to see it at a revival theatre (not likely but you never know!), go check it out. Maybe the days of really good popcorn budgeters are gone but this was very effective in its day. Nice musical score, too. Trish Van Devere and the whole rest of the cast are excellent. I thought Perry Lang was especially good as the local boy who takes a shine to Jane and experiences some misfortune because of it. An inexpensive, non-gory horror movie that does its job. It was worth the $2.50 and popcorn money.