More
- Preamp, Processor or Receiver
- Yamaha TRS-7850 Atmos Receiver
- Other Amp
- Peavy IPR 3000 for subs
- Universal / Blu-ray / CD Player
- Panasonic UB820 4K UHD Player
- Front Speakers
- Cheap Thrills Mains
- Center Channel Speaker
- Cheap Thrills Center
- Surround Speakers
- Volt 10 Surrounds
- Surround Back Speakers
- Volt 10 Rear Surrounds
- Rear Height Speakers
- Volt 6 Overheads
- Subwoofers
- 2x Marty subs (full size with SI 18's)
- Video Display Device
- Sony 85 inch X950H FALD TV
Funeral Home
Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:
AV NIRVANA is member and reader-supported. When you purchase an item using our links, we might earn an affiliate commission.
Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:
AV NIRVANA is member and reader-supported. When you purchase an item using our links, we might earn an affiliate commission.
I know a person can’t see every single movie on the planet, even in a specific decade, but I found it shocking that I had not ever seen Funeral Home before. Being a 1980s horror buff this was an affront to my reputation, so when I saw that Scream Factory was releasing a collector’s edition of the film I dove on it quickly so that I might remedy this particular error in my ways. Unfortunately, lets just say that there’s a reason that I’ve never seen the film. Funeral Home (originally titled Cries in the Night) came and went right around the turn of the 1970s turning into 1980, and was generally seen as a flop from what I could pull up in records. The Canadian production is a straight forward horror thriller, taking cues from Psycho and various other classic films to craft a flick that barely manages to raise the interest level of the viewer past the 1st notch of “I give a care”. There’s some fun performances by Kay Hawtrey (who will always be the library attendant in 1998’s Urban Legend to me) and Jack Van Evera (through flashbacks), but overall this is a pretty forgettable low budget thriller.
Heather (Lesleh Donaldson) arrives to work on grandmother’s Funeral Home that has been recently converted to a bed and breakfast after her grandfather vanished. Her grandmother Maude (Kay Hawtrey) is a god fearing, fire and brimstone preaching, prim and proper woman who wants to make due after Mr. Chalmers vanished some time back. Heather herself is your typical teenager who wants to date cute boys and have fun, so there’s some natural friction between the two generation of women. However, the two form a sort of “understanding” as the film progresses that seems to run only skin deep.
Simultaneously Maude is running her little bed and breakfast as best she can, but the clientele that she’s attracting is raising her moral ire just a bit. There’s the sleazy salesman shacking up with his floozy girlfriend for a weekend away from his “real” family, the mysterious old man who has a secret that he’s not telling, and even worse, random visitors from around town are vanishing mysteriously. It all starts with a real estate developer who was poking his nose into buying Maude’s old Funeral Home, but soon starts to spread to other guests in the creaking old home. Heather’s curiosity gets the best of her, and despite all of Maude’s protestations of everything being find, begins to slowly suspect that her grandmother is keeping a terrible secret locked up in the cellar of their old home. A secret which may explain all of the terrible deaths and missing person’s that has been plaguing the town the last few months.
I can’t fault EVERYTHING on the writers, as there was a lot of budgetary constraints on the film. The movie is supposed to be set in Northampton New England, but the film can’t blur out or deflect all of the Ontario and Toronto license plates on the cars. Nor can the slight Canadian “how aboot that” accent be completely eliminated as well. The thing was made on a shoe string budget and slapped out there during the change over from the 1970s ghost/psychological thrillers just as the 1980s gore fests was about to dominate. As such, it sort of slipped through the cracks and really didn’t make much of an impression on cinematic history.
Rating:
Rated R by the MPAA
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
• NEW Isolated Score Selections & Audio Interview With Music Historian Douglass Fake
• NEW Audio Interviews With Actor Lesleh Donaldson, First Assistant Director Ray Sager, And Production Assistant Shelley Allen
• NEW "Secrets & Shadows" - Interview With Director Of Photography Mark Irwin
• NEW "Dead & Breakfast" Interviews With Art Director Susan Longmire And Set Assistant Elinor Galbraith
• NEW "Family Owned & Operated" Interview With Brian Allen, President Of Premier Drive-In Theatres
• NEW Original Filming Location Footage
• Theatrical Trailer
• Video Trailer
• TV Spots
• Radio Spots
• Still Gallery
Final Score:
Funeral Home is a slice of ancient 1980s (yes, my joints snap like rice crispies and I have lower back pain so I can say that as I grew up in the 80s) history that is fun to re-watch, and I’m glad that Scream Factory actually rescued this one from the DVD hell that it was relegated to decades ago. The Blu-ray is loaded to the gills with special features, but suffers from having a poor video and audio source, despite going back for a new remaster. Couple that with the very niche audience that this will appeal to and It’s basically one of those movies that I can really only recommend for fans of the film. Most others will want to catch this streaming or rent it first before considering a buy.
Technical Specifications:
Starring: Kay Hawtrey, Lesleh Donaldson, Barry Morse, Dean Garbett, Alf Humphreys, Jack Van Evera
Directed by: William Fruet
Written by: Ida Nelson
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Scream Factory
Rated: R
Runtime: 92 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: February 6th, 2024
Recommendation: Skip It/For the Fans