MOVIE REVIEW: Mausoleum (1983)
It goes to say that the movie-going public in the early 1980s was a different animal; we all wanted cheap thrills NOW. Flush with the knowledge that the Skywalker saga had ended with Return of the Jedi, the Indiana Jones series just starting up, and mega-hits like E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial blowing up theaters in 1982, many moviegoers looked towards the next big summer blockbuster. Only some were able to deliver on the promise of the next big hit. Enter 1983’s Mausoleum, a movie destined for the home-video market because it was NOT as scary as it should have been.
Originally slated for release in 1981 and directed by Michael Dugan, this movie is about a girl called Susan who loses both parents as a pre-teen. She disturbs the family mausoleum (title drop!), with a trapped spirit inside under the family’s given name: NOMED. Suddenly, she is possessed by the demon, which hides inside her mind and only raises its head some 15 years later when Susan (now played by Playboy Bunny and scream queen Bobbie Bressee, Ghoulies, Surf Nazis Must Die) finds the mausoleum once again. Once she leaves the building the demon goes to work.
Through a few encounters with a handsy clubgoer (stuntman Gene Edwards, The Legend of Grizzly Adams [TV]), her aunt Cora (played by Laura Hippe), her husband Oliver (Marjoe Gortner, Starcrash, Earthquake), and domestic servants (played by actors Maurice Sherbanee, Chu Chu Malave, and a criminally underused LaWanda Page), we learn that the demon manifests through Susan through glowing green eyes. They are the most convincing special effect in the film, which owes a lot to Ms. Bressee’s facial expressions as opposed to any make-up or prosthetics. To learn the depths at which the demon wishes to stay inside Susan, several people die gruesome deaths — from being burned alive in a car to being ripped in half through telekinesis.
The only way to combat this demonic menace is with the help of…the family psychiatrist Dr. Simon Andrews (played by veteran actor Norman Burton, Bloodsport [1988], The Towering Inferno). He knew that Susan’s dad died trying to save her mother from the family Curse of Nomed — one that afflicts every firstborn daughters of the Nomed line. Though overwhelmed with the thought of fighting a demonic presence, not once does Simon call a priest or rabbi. He goes on a whole-ass quest to retrieve the artifact called the “Thorn Crown of Nomed” and trap the demon inside the Nomed family mausoleum AND succeeds in saving Susan. The ending twist is hit-or-miss.
Throughout the movie, there was a running theme of open sleaziness and exploitation in this movie about a demonic possession; they tempered the softcore sexual titillation with lots of blood and violence. The sad part is that it wasn’t enough to make this movie good. Ms. Bressee’s facial expressions may sell the possession but her acting is more cardboard than wooden, hence the physical flexibility. As the main character you’d think the director would get in there and fix the problem, but telling the buxom leading lady whom you wish to bone she sucks is a sure-fire way to NOT have sex with her. The movie suffers as a result and so did director Dugan’s credits, only directing four movies in three decades. The works of his wheelhouse never seemed to be in demand.
And so I say this belongs on the shelves of the long-lost video stores of the past: it probably performed best there than in theaters.
CHOICE CUTS (SPOILERS AHEAD):
- A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo by Ron Cannon and starlet Di Ann Monaco.
- The lighting is fantastic; as mentioned above it apes the lighting style found in Dario Argento’s Suspiria. At least they copied the best of their contemporaries.
- The makeup and special effects are BAD and the respective teams should feel bad for not even trying to make it work. There are camera tricks used in the film that make it all look WORSE than it actually is. Even with the demon-faced boobs dripping neon goo (interesting idea, but no), it’s still not industry standard or close to it.
- The naming convention for the family sounds like something found in a Dungeons & Dragons module; might’ve been better off calling the family name NILBOG.
- Ignore the warning signs of demonic possession at your peril; just ask Aunt Cora and Oliver.
- Dr. Andrews looked like he was going to darken his pants during the hypnosis session. Thank God he was recording, or nobody would have believed him!
- I was getting serious Abraham van Helsing vibes from Dr. Andrews as the movie went on. Small wins.
- A few words on LaWanda Page: Ms. Page was part of the Negro comedy club circuit, starting back in the 1940s. She barely wavered in her sarcastic or selectively profane delivery over the decades while appearing in several urban sitcoms like Sanford & Son, 227, and Martin. Continuing the trend, she showed up in many urban comedy films as a racy elderly woman (Don’t Be a Menace…, Friday, The Meteor Man). Her character rarely wavered from the grumpy or sardonic, but many people knew a woman like her and tapping into that universal character’s attitude is what made her amazing. Indeed, she is an African-American comedy icon.
- In her role as Elsie the maid, Ms. Page also keeps that same energy. She curses like a sailor the moment she learns something spiritual is afoot in the house. One peek at the glowing green fog coming from the second floor and Elsie is gone from the house, never to return. Though many watching might hear the loopy and comic musical cues tied to her flight and find them to be a racist jab at the superstition of Negroes— and it is, let’s be frank —remember: only a racist would fail to properly assess a supernatural threat based on their own lies and the color of their own skin.
