Horror Movie Review: Mausoleum (1983)

Idiotic, silly but so entertaining, Mausoleum is cheesy 80’s horror at its finest or its worst depending on your point of view. Its plot is utter nonsense but it embraces the absurd in a tale of demonic possession that is the opposite scale to likes of The Exorcist.

Directed by Michael Dugan, the movie stars Bobbie Bresee, Marjoe Gortner and Norman Burton.

Susan has had a tough childhood as her mother dies when she is ten years old. Racked with grief, she runs away from her Aunt in the cemetery and comes across a mysterious mausoleum. One that should have massive warning signs about going in. It turns out that the crypt holds a demonic force, one that haunts her family but lies dormant until she is an adult.

Which is where the film then jumps too. Susan (Bobbie Bresee) is now a grown woman who is married and very rich. Life is good until the demon inside her awakens and she is unable to control its evil urges. Will the demon take over Susan completely and take her life or will she be able to free herself and her family from its wicked grasp?

A perfect horror movie for a drunken night in with friends, Mausoleum is schlocky horror at its finest and what it lacks in story, it makes up for with its effects. Sure, it’s low budget but the sight of a chest being ripped open by a demonic pair of boobs with teeth is simply fantastic.

That’s the highlight of the gore but it’s not found lacking elsewhere. This is a very violent movie. It is also very sexual as the possessed Susan has no problem with offering her body out. Bobbie Bresee nails this part of her role coming across both sensual and devious. It’s a pity that we don’t get a bit more conflict between her normal self and the demonic self though.

Mausoleum comes to a climax in the most absurd way possible but it is far more fun then you could hope it to be. Is it a good finale? No but this isn’t a good film, it is an entertaining one though and that’s a positive.

Interestingly enough the film was confiscated in the UK as part of the ‘Video Nasty’ panic but was not prosecuted for obscenity.

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