Late Fees: Mausoleum (1982) — Talk Film Society

Rockie Juarez, a video store junkie, has a lot of cinematic blind spots and it’s nearly impossible to dive into all the world of movies has to offer. Thankfully, he has the incredible Stephanie Crawford to point him in dangerous directions he has overlooked, or has been too damn lazy to dive into. Will these recommendations elevate his love for cinema or will these films completely melt his brain, causing it to leak profusely out of his nose? Read along as these two cinephiles break down and dissect each recommendation, hopefully without going for one another's throat.

Stephanie’s recommendation to Rockie this week is Mausoleum, the 1982 horror movie directed by Michael Dugan.

Rockie Juarez: Demon possession in Mausoleum is a neon-lit, smoke machine affair with super green glowing eyes for emphasis. Kinda reminds me of Vamp, a film you also recommended to me a few months back, in the way it is shot and lit. Mausoleum opens with a funeral: A young girl named Susan is burying her mother, and she runs off throughout the cemetery very upset. She is summoned by an ominous voice into a—wait for it—mausoleum. Once within, she is taken over by a demon, the same demon that killed her mother, it turns out, and we are off to the races!

We flash forward to adult Susan, played spectacularly by Bobbie Bresee, who seems normal at first, but every now and then her eyes glow green and she destroys shit. I love how her inner demon powers only seem to surface when guys are rude and misogynistic trash. The two who made me laugh hard were the Disco Guy and the Gardener. At the discotheque (endless gif material in there, by the way), some guy is dumped by his lady and he thinks he can walk in, caveman-style, and take Susan away from her man. Well, here is where we are treated to the glowing green eyes motif, where Susan destroys minds and melts brains, I guess. As for the gardener, he thinks he can bust the classic move: hit on Susan once the husband is away on business. She rejects his advances at first, but once possessed, she invites him to the bedroom with a balcony strip show. Demon Susan wins again as this idiot walks into a trap, losing his face in the process.

I had a ball with this film. It reminded me in some ways of the supreme horror film JD's Revenge. There is a hypnosis angle in the film where Susan’s husband and a doctor are trying to figure out what is actually wrong with her. The hypnosis awakens the demon and makes them realize she is truly not herself. The other aspect of the film I got true joy from was the casting of Lawanda Page, playing Susan’s housekeeper Elsie. She can dominate in any film with barely any screen time (see Bobcat Goldthwait’s Shakes the Clown for proof of this) and she is so silly in this. Lawanda is the audience that yells at the screen. You know, the classics like: “Don’t go in that room!” or “Fuck this, I’m out.” She chugs booze after seeing demonic shit spill out of Susan’s room and I related to her. Mausoleum is a perfect midnighter, trashy and flashy at every turn with a wonderful snarling performance from Bobbie Bresee, whose face is so intense that they just needed to add a green effect to her eyes in post with zero makeup on. She totally sells it and I was impressed with her evil delivery in what may be looked at as a trash film, but we know this to be high art, right Steph? A decked out Halloween house on your block that goes all out every year is what this feels like.

Stephanie Crawford: One of the many, many things I adore about Mausoleum is the choices it makes when it comes to reconciling a family demon curse with the real world. Sure, we get the standard “demon voice coming out of an attractive young woman” trope, but from a flash-forward of the worried aunt talking to a doctor friend immediately after we just got a green-drenched shot of a demon hand (“Look, this book details how much demons freakin’ love my family and I’m worried about my niece.” “You know, you complain to me about Susan acting like a weirdo every time she visits her mother’s grave, but I’m sure it’s fine as I’m a man of science.”) to giving the pervo gardener his own montage of his relaxing day before a full nude shot of Bobbie Bresee leads into one of the most protracted sex-to-murder scenes since the bath in I Spit On Your Grave; the decisions made here are as baffling as they are fun. The way Susan’s growing (very, VERY horny) demonic behavior becomes apparent to her husband is handled almost like a vintage TV movie about alcoholism in the family: gentle accusations, furtive calls in the middle of the night, and, of course, the hypnotherapist session. The ebb and flow of their dialogue and emotional reactions are an OSHA-disapproved rickety roller coaster unto themselves.

I’m glad you mentioned Lawanda Page because the cast is, in a compound word, swoon-worthy. My obvious favorite is child evangelist sensation-turned-B-movie superstar Marjoe Gortner as the understanding husband who’s in over his head and then some with his foxy, possessed wife. To add icing to the cast cake, even the smaller roles are gems. That drunk in the bar that blowed up real good? He’s an actor named Gene Edwards, who’s a dead ringer for Dan Haggerty, and Edwards even played Grizzly Adams in a 1990 TV movie, so you know this is a legit, SCIENCE-BASED comparison.

Everything here delivers, and Mausoleum is one of the few 1980s horror movies that actually lived up to its poster/VHS box art. The practical gore effects from the late, great John Buechler are plentiful and effectively visceral and gooey; there are demons; flying stunts; an otherworldly bloodbath in a mall (in front of God, Le SportSac and everyone!); a goofy and nonsensical ending, and plenty of nudity. If I was a young dude renting this from the video store back in the day? Jackpot.

I’m so glad you loved this, Rockie, and that you’re a cool enough cat to appreciate this as much (but differently!) as you did The Bad and the Beautiful. So, if I’m thirsty for more, what would you recommend to me? Personally, I’d immediately hand over Mortuary. Not only do I love that movie, but I also constantly get the two titles confused with each other, and I hate suffering alone. (They both came out in 1983 even, fer chrissakes!) When it comes to possession pictures, however, let’s throw in The Entity to class up the joint. Er, maybe I meant “stress” more than “class,” actually… Heck, I’ll throw in the very confusing samurai spirit possession Christmas movie Blood Beat for the Vinegar Syndrome completists.

RJ: I would probably recommend Lady in White for its incredible atmosphere or even The Haunting for the exact same reasons. It’s not that it is hard to pair something with Mausoleum, it is just that Mausoleum is singing a different kind of song. It is another demon possession film for sure, but it is always going to stand out amongst the pack for the reasons we both listed. Maybe if you are feeling silly and found this to lean more into the comedy realm, I’d also recommend Repossessed, a full tilt lampooning of The Exorcist that even stars Linda Blair to drive the joke home. Thanks for Mausoleum, Steph. It was truly bananas in all the right ways.