Funeral Home (Cries in the Night) (1980)

Director: William Fruet

Starring: Kay Hawtrey, Lesleh Donaldson, Barry Morse

A young woman arrives at her grandmother’s house, which used to be a funeral home, to help her turn the place into a bed-and-breakfast inn. After they open, however, guests begin disappearing or turning up dead.

Maude Chambers’ husband disappeared a while ago, and circumstances left her with no option than to turn her home into a tourist home. Being a former funeral home, the basement is still filled with coffins and other creepy stuff.

Heather, Maude’s granddaughter, comes to visit to help her around the house as guests start arriving. Among the guests are Harry Browning and his mistress Florie. Being very religious, Maude does not approve of them. Mr Davis has been staying at the house for a while (and it is later revealed his wife had an affair with Maude’s husband before she, too, disappeared).

Rookie cop Joe is concerned about there not being any leads on the disappearances of several people in town over the past few years, and is determined to catch the culprit when more bodies are found. Meanwhile, his brother Rick starts seeing Heather.

Billy is a mentally-challenged man who works as a handyman for Maude. Ahh, and then there’s the black cat that keeps following Heather (not that the cat serves any purpose, apart from adding creepiness to the film). Speaking of which; Maude might look like an old-fashioned, religious lady, but it soon becomes clear she harbours a secret.

‘Funeral Home’ is more of a mystery thriller than a horror. It served as an interesting whodunit murder mystery until the final ‘what the hell’ few minutes ruined everything. Pity, it was going so well…

Would I watch it again? No.