Epitaph

This has to be the worst movie since movies came out. This movie doesnt even define cheese. There was one scene where the actor tripped over a power line, looked back at the camera, and kept on going. I even wonder if there was a director at all in this movie. I watched about 5 minutes of it, turned it off, took it back to the place I rented it from, and tore my membership card up.

MOMMY'S EPITAPH is a bizarre little indie horror flick from 1987, shot on video with the kind of amateur acting that you usually find on Youtube and nowhere else these days. The biggest surprise about it is that it was directed by Joseph Merhi, who later had a career of sorts as an action movie director. In a plot reminiscent of the John Waters classic SERIAL MOM, this one involves an ordinary suburban family hiding a dark secret: the mother is a serial killer who'll do her best to bump off anybody unlucky enough to cross her path. Sadly, it's rubbish throughout, with histrionic acting and barely any gore.

I've seen many, many horror movies, but this one beats it all and I don't mean in a good way. First of all the film was obviously very very cheap. The camera work is the worst I've ever seen. The story is so stupid and implausible, that you got the feeling they wrote the script it in one hour. The actors are all so bad, it's beyond belief. But the worst of it is, that there is no humor at all. There are just some mediocre tasteless gore effects for splatter fans. On the video cover is written, that this film is a psychological Thriller - far from it ! It's nothing but a bad, dumb little movie,that has no, really no qualities. 1 out of 10.

The main problem with this film - which isn't as amateurishly made as some I've seen - is the writing. The crazy mother's actions are just too implausibly tolerated by her family. Her husband says he loves her but you'd be hard pressed to understand why, as she's just an aggressive, screwed up bitch most of the time. Her family stay loyal even as she becomes a threat to them all, but at least this means she gets to go further and further over the top, which is what the film really wants to do. If you hate movies where people doggedly refuse to act in their own best interests then this one will drive you up the wall. But casting aside these criticisms there's a lurid, cheesy quality to the film, thanks to the shameless over-acting of the mother, and the 'Mommy Dearest' aspects of her relationship with her daughter. Fans of the TV show 'Absolutely Fabulous' should see this as it's like a trash-horror variation, even down to the doddering grandmother and dowdy sensible daughter, whilst the mad mother plays like a mixture of Edeena and Patsy from that show! And it deserves mention as a film whose set piece is a stab at that classic rat, bucket and blowtorch trick so beloved of torturers with a history degree...

Martha Fulton (Delores Nascar) and her family have just moved into their new home. It's the latest in a string of homes. In addition to a drinking problem, Martha also happens to be a homicidal maniac. Thus, the family keeps moving to stay ahead of the law.

Unfortunately, for everyone involved, Martha's inability to leave people alive, only gets worse.

EPITAPH is one of those direct-to-video schlock-taculars from the 1980's. Watching it instantly transports us back to those hazy days of VHS tapes, moldering in mom 'n' pop video emporiums.

Sadly, after a semi-interesting beginning, this movie falls into a terminal, downward trajectory. The best / worst example of this is the "psychiatrist torture" scene. Who would believe that death by rat and blowtorch could be as boring as watching one's granny doing crossword puzzles?

Though it tries to pull out of its nosedive toward the end, not even the "electric carving knife" sequence can salvage this fuster-cluck! Lovers of ultra-sludge cinema may rejoice, while others will probably pray for death...