Last Rites (1980)

User Rating:

3.0/10   

Director:

Domonic Paris

Writers:

Ben Donnelly (writer)
Domonic Paris (writer)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Terror Begins at the Edge of the Grave!

Plot:

Low budget horror film has a conspiracy of vampires in a small town(made up of the local sheriff, mortician...

Plot Keywords:

Vampire | Blood | Accident | Small Town | Coven

Cast

Patricia Hammond	...	Marie (as Patricia Lee Hammond)
Gerald Fielding	...	Lucard
Mimi Weddell	...	Mrs. Bradley
Victor Jorge	...	Dr. Cummins
Michael Lally	...	Ted
Alfred Steinel	...	Sheriff Ordell
Eric Trules	...	Potter
Gordito	...	Gasher
John Juback	...	Hearse driver
Joe Perce	...	Bobby
Rain Worthington	...	Suzy
Dan Freedman	...	Aide
Suzy Brabeau	...	Young girl
Michael Valentine	...	Young man
Mark Bennett	...	Drowning victim

Also Known As:

Dracula's Last Rites

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:M | Norway:15 (video premiere) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Vineland, New Jersey, USA

Company:

New Empire Features

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: During all scenes in the funeral home we can see over the top of the sets. Scaffolding, bracing beams, and the studio walls and ceiling are clearly visible. We can also see over the sets of the farm house living room as the body crashes through the window.

Bloody hell!

Low budget horrors about a small-town undertaker who, in league with the town's doctor and sheriff, are secretly vampires feeding off accident victims and other faked fatalities. After vampirising their victims this thirsty threesome stakes the victim to prevent them becoming a vampire too.

Their shady dealings arouse the suspicions of Ted Fonda, the son-in-law of a recently deceased old lady. Then when the woman in question is not staked she escapes to becomes a bizarre comedy vampire creeping around the town scaring people.

The makers of this derivative, badly shot, badly acted and badly scripted film apparently were trying to be somewhat artistic as evidenced by the unusual camera angles employed in certain scenes. Unfortunately these unusual angles also pick up overhead microphones and miscellaneous filming equipment (left lying on the stairs in one scene), and in all the scenes that take place within the funeral home we can clearly see over the top of the sets with scaffolding, bracing planks and the studio walls and ceiling in full display.

The film also seems to be under-shot: certain scenes that one would expect to see are missing entirely. To cover this up, at several times the film slowly fades out to black... and then suddenly the action has moved forward several hours. And on two occasions the dialogue from a missing scene is played over the top of another piece of footage entirely, so when the screen shows the undertaker A. Lucard (get it?) driving to meet Ted Fonda, the soundtrack plays their conversation that is yet to occur. The film is also endlessly padded-out with unnecessary establishing shots. Throughout the film we are treated to LONG stretches of footage showing the funeral home, various street scenes, the farmhouse, the fields surrounding the house, the cows, the horses. And whenever anyone goes anywhere we see them starting their car, driving down the road, turning the corner, pulling in to park, and so on.

Credit must go to the ridiculous performance from the actor portraying the old lady who becomes the eye-rolling, frizzy-haired, mugging comedy vampire. She is a bit like Grandmama Addams except even funnier. I guess the repeated establishing shots of the old shed she is hiding in successfully padded-out the running time, as did the hilarious scenes of her ambling around the town. However after all the screen time devoted to this vampire she never does vampirise anyone.

So with its combination of laughable acting, ridiculous plotting, Halloween-style music, various on-screen goofs, pacing that is all out, wordy scenes that go nowhere and make no contribution to the plot at all, total disregard for accepted vampire lore, scenes switching from day to night to day to night (which ties in with the previous point), and a few bloody slasher-film type murders along with a several more traditional style fangings this film is a delightful must for any bad movie buff.