I only had seen this film once before as a child so I hardly remembered anything about this flick. I saw it in a collection of Drive in Cult Classics with 31 other films, and I have to admit it...I bought the collection mainly for this film. I simply wanted to see what this film was about again as my recollection of it was spotty at best. As it turns out, it was a bit more interesting than I remembered, I seem to have gotten this film mixed with others as I remember a more vague ending than the one here. One film, I know for sure I got this one mixed up with is Burnt Offerings, mainly the scene involving the chauffeur in that one. This film is a bit reminiscent of that one, add in some of The Car and a dash of any film from the 70's involving Satan. This has all that and more! It also has a couple of bland and pointless plot points and tries to make you think all of the crap happening may not be happening! The story has a woman who has recently lost her mother and gone through a divorce going to live in her aunt's house out in a more country environment. She has had a nervous breakdown and feels that a bit of time out in the country will do her good. Well, things start off on a bad note as one guy seems to think he should be the rightful owner of the house, the townspeople seem to think poorly of the lady and the house she is staying at and a strange hearse seems to be stalking the lady. Still, a strange man comes into her life that she begins to fall for. However, as she reads her late aunt's diary, things become clearer as to the town's disdain for the house and strange nightmares begins to occur as she is stalked by a strange scarred hearse driver.
The film has some things going for it, but it also has a bunch of things going against it. It is a bit slow paced at times thanks to a very pointless subplot of a young man trying to woo the older lady. Sure it made for an interesting scene later, but one could of still had a scene like that sans the scenes of the boy and his friends talking about what he did or didn't do. I also thought it was a bit too obvious that there was something not quite right with the Thomas character. However, I really liked the Reverend character as I could never get a read on him until near the end.
So, this film had some interesting moments...I was never quite sure how the film would end. I kept trying to remember the thing, but as I said, I had only seen this film one other time when I was a kid so I only remembered a few tidbits here and there and a bit of the imagery. It is not a great horror film by any means, but it was a bit more entertaining than a few other horror movies that were similarly themed and made during this time frame. A lot of those were even rated R, but were even slower paced than this one was! So, interesting flick, just nothing all that great.
The film has some things going for it, but it also has a bunch of things going against it. It is a bit slow paced at times thanks to a very pointless subplot of a young man trying to woo the older lady. Sure it made for an interesting scene later, but one could of still had a scene like that sans the scenes of the boy and his friends talking about what he did or didn't do. I also thought it was a bit too obvious that there was something not quite right with the Thomas character. However, I really liked the Reverend character as I could never get a read on him until near the end.
So, this film had some interesting moments...I was never quite sure how the film would end. I kept trying to remember the thing, but as I said, I had only seen this film one other time when I was a kid so I only remembered a few tidbits here and there and a bit of the imagery. It is not a great horror film by any means, but it was a bit more entertaining than a few other horror movies that were similarly themed and made during this time frame. A lot of those were even rated R, but were even slower paced than this one was! So, interesting flick, just nothing all that great.