WALTONS star Mary McDonough discovers that the nightmares plaguing her can be traced to a local mortician in MORTUARY.
needlessly aging sepia tinting of the previous issue and refreshes the clarity of the images with straightforward monochrome, tipping over to a luxuriant blue during night exteriors and those interiors with windows. This BR presentation is the first time I’ve seen the freckles on some actors’ faces and, once or twice, a wob- bling struck wall that exposes it as stretched canvas. The two- disc set, augmented only by a Kino trailer for Feuillade’s FANTOMAS, is also available on DVD for $30.99, but we strongly recommend going for the added detail.
MORTUARY
1981, Scorpion Releasing, $19.95, 92m 49s, DVD By Shane M. Dallmann
Christie Parson (Mary McDon-
ough of THE WALTONS) has been haunted by nightmares ever since the allegedly accidental drowning death of her father and believes
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that the black-robed figure no- body else ever sees stalking her in real life has ties to the incident. Christie’s boyfriend Greg (David Wallace) thinks the stalkings— not to mention a fresh series of disappearances and murders— can be traced to local mortician Hank Andrews (Christopher George), whom he spots leading weird coven rituals attended by Christie’s mother Eve (Lynda Day George); and whose son/ap- prentice Paul (an early lead role for Bill Paxton) has an awkward, unrequited crush on Christie. The pattern of terror and vio- lence continues until the culprit is revealed to be exactly whom the viewer suspects at first sight—and, if one declines to guess, he obligingly exposes him- self to the camera early on, sport- ing the least effective disguise seen on film since Jack Taylor donned a pair of dark glasses in THE ICEBOX MURDERS. This Film Ventures Interna- tional affair (released in 1983)
was co-written and directed by Howard Avedis, who, as Hikmet Avedis, previously supplied Crown International with THE STEPMOTHER, SCORCHY and THE TEACHER. The story itself is a “dead” loss, padded out as it is with herrings too red to seri- ously consider, but the unflinch- ing look at the intricacies of mortuary science and the old cli- mactic standby of the pre-em- balmed “family” gathered for a party still generate the desired queasiness, and the undeniably talented cast is graced with brief character appearances by Alvy Moore and Paul L. Smith, keeping the film consistently watchable. Scorpion brings MORTUARY to DVD with a fresh negative transfer (1.78:1 anamorphic wide- screen) as part of its “Katarina’s Nightmare Theater” lineup with optional framing segments by hostess Katarina Leigh Waters (aka professional wrestling per- sonality “Winter”). Waters, cred- ited with writing her own material,
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