MAUSOLEUM

Mausoleum Movie Review

Ten-year-old Susan (Julie Christy Murray, in the only acting gig she has done to date) wanders into a mausoleum at her mother's funeral. Once there, she becomes possessed by a demon who has had it out for the girl's family for a long time. 

She ends up with some groovy eyes too

We catch up with Susan (now played by Bobbie Bresee, who would turn up in bit parts in classics such as Ghoulies and Surf Nazis Must Die) twenty years later--she's married to a guy who looks like a cross between Daniel Stern and Larry Bird, and the demon is beginning to take over again. 

She still has the eyes

As it begins, this film absolutely screams "made for television", but when we see the dude get half his head blown off, we know this isn't the case--this one actually began shooting in 1981 and received a theatrical release in May 1983.  If you can get past the ultra-cheesy opening, the movie gets...well, it stays cheesy really, but turns out to be very entertaining. We find the green eyes of doom indicate the presence of the demon, and that it can do cool things, such as manipulate inanimate objects and tear a person inside out. The demon voice is also done surprisingly well here. The acting is fine--while nobody was recognized for their outstanding performance, none of it is too bad either. Bresee is okay while in demon form, as she is able to contort her face in naturally creepy manners. When she not a demon, she's usually naked and seducing men to kill them when she does take the demonic form. The demon itself changes often, going from minor touches, such as the eyes, to being some grotesque makeup, to a complete mask, to a total transformation using multiple shots layered on top of each other, to having monster faces for boobs.

Because I know you think I made this up

As you can imagine, there is plenty of blood in this one; harder to believe is the practical effects are, for the most part, acceptable. We get more 1980's awesomeness when Susan makes her way to a mall, because nothing really quite says 1980's like a packed shopping mall. One scene here has a man being suspended over the railing of the third floor and falling to his death below--the shots switch from a wide shot of the falling body going straight down, to a point of view shot, where the camera is spinning wildly...think about that one. We also get many shots of a glowing green light that will remind you of both Raiders of the Lost Ark and Pulp Fiction. The final scene is baffling, and honestly, a rather sizable letdown, but it's lack of sense makes it fit in nicely with the rest of the movie. I have often made the argument a movie does not have to be good to be enjoyed--Mausoleum is certainly not a good movie, but wow, I sure did enjoy it! 

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 7

Mausoleum Movie Trailer