Mausoleum (1983)

Following her mother's untimely death, 10 year old Susan runs off to find solace within a glowing, green-fogged mausoleum (Quick, somebody build this kid a treehouse.). Twenty years later, Susan is married and trying to go about her life though she continues to see the same therapist she has since childhood for what he characterizes as her "schizophrenic delusions." Unfortunately, her problems dig a bit deeper than that as her body is now routinely taken over by the demon within her and used to seduce unsuspecting servicemen before violently murdering them. This takes place mostly within the home that Susan shares with her husband which I think begs the question; who is cleaning up the aftermath? Not that I needed a scene of a demon mopping the floor, but it does get pretty grisly and Susan doesn't remember a thing so she's no help.

Her husband Oliver does begin to notice that Susan is acting strangely and consults her therapist who is able to draw the demon out with hypnosis. He in turn consults a demonologist who just happens to have a diary regarding Susan's ancestry and the curse that befalls the first born daughter of each generation. This seems to me to be a perfectly good excuse to have cut the bloodline by this point (seeing as it apparently goes back to the 1600s), but to no avail. Luckily for everyone involved, the diary also gives a step by step procedure for exorcising the demon which involves a crown of thorns that is kept at the mausoleum in which the demon usually resides. Does Superman store kryptonite in his apartment? Yeah, there's a reason for that.

Possession-themed horror films have never greatly appealed to me, if only because I am not really afraid of little girls or the elderly, at least on their own. Ever walked a passage of a retirement home with all the dying strewn about the hallway in their wheelchairs? Unsettling. Nevertheless, Mausoleum switches it up a bit by focusing on a young and sexually appealing woman who is able to use her feminine instincts to draw in her prey. Prepare yourself as this does take up a significant about of the running time as Oliver is constantly gone to work, leaving Susan's demon little to occupy itself with other than that.

I will leave it up to you to determine how offended one should be by the fact that our protagonists employ both a Hispanic gardener (and say things referring to him like, "You know how they are.") and an old black maid who has a "comical" scene where she bolts from the house upon learning of Susan's possession that only Walt Disney could have appreciated. On the plus side, upon full transformation, Susan's demon has angry beast heads where her tits used to be, so I guess that about evens us out.

Bouts of ultraviolence and mostly nonsensical. I begrudgingly approve.



(This has nothing to do with the movie. It just came up when I searched for "Mausoleum" in Google Images to add the poster art. Enjoy.)