Green eyed devil

Centuries of evil erupt from the tomb!

Mausoleum was released in 1983 and was lost among the hundreds of other
horror movies released during the early 1980's making it somewhat of a obscure film. Directed by Michael Dugan and starring former Playboy bunny Bobby Bresse (Ghoulies, Surf Nazis must die) as Susan Walker Farrell who is slowly becoming possessed by an evil spirit that once haunted her mother who died when Susan was 10 years old. Susan now in her thirties has inherited the family fortune and also the ancient family curse. Susan is a beautiful young woman who suddenly becomes possessed and kills those and all in her way. Whenever she is under the spell her eyes light up florescent green and she speaks with a demon like tone. On the commentary for the DVD Bobby reveals that she had voice training by none other than Mercedes McCambridge who did the voice for Reagan in the Exorcist, and it shows because when she is possessed her speech is very unsettling and scary. Also the contacts she wore to achieve the green glowing eyes effect ended up damaging her eyes resulting in some of the scenes shot with out her eyesight. Those around her begin to feel that things are not all right with Susan, especially her husband played by Marjoe Gortner. Susan begins seeing a psychologist who hypnotizes her and contacts the ancient demon within her. One by one people are killed off by the demon for no reason but pure sport and one man has the power to stop the demon and release Susan from its grip and to stop the Nomed family which becomes a race to the very end in this terrifying film.

I really liked Mausoleum for the terrifying scenes of possession and frightening levitation scenes that were like nothing I have ever seen before, the story stays interesting and the horrifying elements are highly entertaining, most notable the telekinesis. Mausoleum has a lot of elements I look for in a good possession film including atmosphere, good acting and scary demonic voices, and Bobby hits high on the demonic voice bar, she may be one of the most convincing if not the best case of possession acting, she really gets under your skin with her facial expressions and inhuman like noises. The kill scenes are done really well and there is a fair amount of gore throughout the film, but it's not overdone. There are a few levitation scenes by telekinesis where one guy is levitated over a railing at a mall and dropped onto a large spike, also Susan's maid meets her demise when she is dropped from the second story. When Susan becomes possessed her face transforms into a hideous demon face that looks ok for the early 80's but nothing groundbreaking. Mausoleum feels more like a 70's film due to the subject matter and the film quality which gives it a nice grindhouse feel.

BCI was going to release Mausoleum on a single disc but while trying to hunt down the original prints were nowhere to be found which means there were no original elements to fix up so we could get a nice transfer of the film. So what we get is a damaged print that does have a lot of scratches, cigarette burns ect. throughout the movie. Since BCI could not provide us with a nice new transfer of the film they put it on a double feature with Blood Song. I personally did not have a huge problem with the damaged print, it almost gave it a more authentic feel. By far the best thing about the DVD is Bobby Bresses' commentary.

Mausoleum may not be a great film but it is a fun possession film with some truely scary moments and a lot can be said for Bobbie Bresses' acting, although a bit over the top at times I thought it worked well. This is no Exorcist but it does have it's own charm, just don't go in to this one expecting the greatest horror movie ever.

Review by Jason

Rating: C