Mausoleum

Well-shot, atmospheric chiller. Bobbie Bresee, in her first horror film, doffs her blouse at every available opportunity. Marjoe Gortner (FOOD OF THE GODS) is very effective as Bresee's hubby. The late John Buechleur does an outstanding job on makeup effects. His female demon has to be seen to be believed.

I haven't got the slightest idea what the hell the story of "Mausoleum" was all about, but it sure was fun to watch! This is another imbecile and over-the-top cheesy 80's horror flick about demonic possession with an awfully bad script and hilarious special effects. Around her 30th birthday, beautiful Susan starts to suffer from the ancient family curse that also caused her mother to die when Susan was ten. Now and whenever she feels demonic, Susan can light her eyes funky green and whatever poor soul she's focusing on dies a very unpleasant death. The script foresees absolutely no logic or suspense, and the only enjoyable sequences (apart from Bobbie Bresee's many nude-scenes) are the imaginative murders. Her elder sister, for example, is lift up over a balcony and her body is torn open while floating around! Quite gory, but not at all scary. The origin of the family curse remains vague and the whole climax is very, VERY lame. Not even an exorcism or a battle between demonic forces. There are about a million better films handling about demons and possession, but if you have a soft spot for low-budget 80's cheese, you might find "Mausoleum" mildly entertaining.

I first saw this in the late 80s on a vhs.

Revisited it recently.

Had enjoyed the movie as a kid those days, especially the nudity n some gory kills.

The movie is cheesy n non scary by today's standards.

The special effects n make-up by John Carl Buechler (Celler Dweller, Troll, Hatchet, etc) were pretty ok for those days.

The nudity from Bobbie Bresee is soothing and the gore is nice and splattery.

Watch out for the twin demonic heads.

This cud have happened only in the 80s.

Watch out for the gardener with his weird goatee, large belly due to which the buttons of his shirt gets open, his large eyeballs n cartoonish smile.

In the end he keeps on laughing. Maybe cos at least he gave off, before he gave off.

"Mausoleum" follows Susan, recently turned thirty, who is plagued by an ancestral demon she encountered after her mother's death in the family mausoleum. This pesky parasite causes her to transform into a grotesque monster and kill everyone around her.

This retro 1980s schlockfest is one of the better possession/"Exorcist" knockoffs, blending elements of slasher films with possession horror and the monster movie. The result is potent with campiness, but it's really all in good fun. Bobbie Bresee plays the lead Susan, who falls in and out of her possession with a complete lack of awareness; her eyes glow green when she's under the influence of the demon, and green smoke rolls out under the door of her bedroom. At her most extreme, she morphs into a revolting creature that predates Angela in "Night of the Demons." What's surprising here is that by and large, the special effects (helmed by the famed John Carl Buechler) are very good given the time period. There are some effective levitation sequences, and the monster effects are impressive and practical.

The film also boasts solid cinematography that is at times legitimately nightmarish and recalls Italian horror cinema of the '60s and '70s, and is tied together with a moody score that adds to the ambiance. Where the film falls flat is the writing and acting, which are both mixed bags. Bresee is alternately decent and awful as Susan, but her character is so vacant that it hardly matters. Norman Burton is serviceable as her psychologist, and LaWanda Burton provides short-lived comic relief as the maid who gets the heck out of dodge before becoming demon mincemeat. It seems to me that part of the pitfalls in the performance have to do with the dialogue, which feels stilted many times throughout. Then again, this is an early-'80s monster possession flick, so I'm not sure the bar is to be set quite so high.

Overall, I found "Mausoleum" an effective early-'80s supernatural horror film. Save some lazy writing, there is a lot of fun to be had here, and the movie is chock full with gruesome murder scenes and all sorts of other supernatural (and green-glowing) mayhem. Fans of other "Exorcist"-esque horror such as "Beyond the Door" will have a riot with it, and in some ways it's better. 7/10.

This was a strictly okay horror flick. I'll tell you how bad the quality of film this was: it looked old the first time I saw this,on a Saturday afternoon horror film fest on the USA Network in 1988! It had only been in the can for five years and it looked like it was at least ten years old!

Bobbie Bresee was(still is?)a fox whose acting prowess wasn't bad enough to merit her among the legendarily bad(think Pia Zadora,Denise Richards,Kim Bassinger),but was still just wooden enough that producers smartly decided to put her in films with more scream,cleavage and probably less dialogue. I cannot fault the poor bastards who were victimized by her demon-breast,glowing eyes seduction. I'm not sure I could resist that temptation,either!

Don't try to make sense of this film.Just enjoy the sex and silly special FX.

Four out of 10 Stars