Mortuary (1983) / Shudder

This was basically an I'm off work and scanning Shudder for something from the 80s choice Tuesday afternoon. I was sort of contemplating a recent addition to Shudder, The Stepfather (1987) but settled on Mortuary (1983) because of a lunatic, fresh-faced Bill Paxton, who always seemed unable to quite ditch that Texas accent (which wasn't a problem with me personally), with a trocar, embalming a naked gal on a slab while also undressing a comatose nude model substituting for The Waltons' McDonough on same slab while promising to wed her after "preserving her". Christopher George conducting a seance trying to summon the spirit of Lynda Day's dead husband is a bizarre standout...George was far removed from westerns here. Paxton with face paint, under a hood, in a robe, with that trocar, driving the needle into Lynda Day over and over...I had forgotten about how many times Paxton does that. Paxton getting all stab-happy on Lynda Day then subduing McDonough, later plotting to add her to his dead "family", not expecting an ax to the back with some blood are some effective kills, I will say. And turning on his father when Christopher George plans to take him to a hospital does express just how lost in his psychosis Paxton is. It just sucks that this was it for Christopher George. He was so young, and I assume he had plenty of low budget horror films left in him. It just seems like that heart attack cut a career short far too soon. I think I would give this a ***/*****

My daughter watching it with me gave me the chance to talk to her about how vans (like the one David Wysocki was driving) were a popular ride at this time (and in the 70s) and how disco was still very much the music choice when teenagers were still very much roller skating the night away (the teens have some scenes at a joint in the film) at the hangout after college and school. It was also fun discussing the keyboard score, a distinctive to the 80s soundtrack we both would imitate during scenes together.