Funeral Home (1980 Film)

''Cries in the Night'', more popularly released as ''Funeral Home'', is a 1980 Canadian slasher film directed by William Fruet and starring Lesleh Donaldson, Kay Hawtrey, Jack Van Evera, Alf Humphreys, and Harvey Atkin. The plot follows a teenager spending the summer at her grandmother's inn—formerly a funeral home—where guests begin to disappear.

Briefly released in eastern Canada in 1980, the film premiered in the United States and was re-released in its native Canada under the alternative title ''Funeral Home'' in the summer of 1982. It received mixed reviews from critics, with several noting it as starkly redolent of Alfred Hitchcock's '' Psycho'' (1960).

Plot

At the beginning of the summer, Heather arrives in a small unnamed town to stay with her eccentric and religious grandmother, Maude Chalmers, whose house—a former funeral home—has recently been converted into an inn. Maude's husband, James, an undertaker, has been missing for several years, and she has been forced to make a living selling artificial flower arrangements; she hopes to supplant her income by opening the home to traveling guests. Billy Hibbs, a mentally-challenged man, lives with Maude as the property handyman.

Nearby, a farmer named Sam reports an abandoned vehicle discovered on his property, which is traced to a missing real estate developer who had been surveying the area. At the inn on the evening of Heather's arrival, guests Harry Browning and his mistress Florie check in. When Maude realizes the couple are unmarried, she asks them to leave, but they refuse. That evening after having drinks, they drive to a local quarry recommended by Heather; while there, Maude's truck arrives, smashing the back of their car and pushing them into the water below, where they both drown. The same night, Heather goes on a date with Rick, a local teenager, and returns home to hear her Maude speaking to an unseen man in the basement. When she inquires, Maude denies it.

The next day, while Maude is in town, Rick stops by the house. He tells Heather that her grandfather, James, was a known alcoholic, and recounts a story from his childhood in which Mr. Chalmers had locked him and a friend in the funeral home's basement to scare them. The two explore the property while Maude is gone; in the garage, they discover Mr. Chalmer's Cadillac hearse, and Heather finds a necklace with the initials "H.D." engraved on it. That evening, Heather again hears Maude speaking to someone in the basement, this time arguing with a male voice about a woman named "Helena Davis." Heather discovers Helena has been missing for some time, and was rumored to have eloped with her grandfather. Mr. Davis, Helena's husband, arrives at the house to ask Maude about the alleged affair, which she denies ever occurred. Later that evening, Mr. Davis is murdered with a pickaxe.

The following day while Heather and Rick are swimming in the quarry, Florie and Harry's bodies are discovered. Heather confides in Rick that she believes her grandmother is hiding someone in the basement. That evening, they return to the house. Upon finding that Maude is not home, the two decide to explore the basement. There they discover Billy's corpse, and are attacked by Maude, who, imitating her husband's voice, scolds Heather for coming into the basement. Maude attempts to kill Heather with an axe and she flees through the basement, discovering a hidden room where James's corpse rests in a bed of Maude's artificial flowers. Just as Maude is about to strike Heather with the axe, she lapses out of her dissociative identity. The police arrive at the scene in the basement, and Joe, a local police officer, asks Maude if they can talk about what has occurred. She agrees, so long as she can prepare a cup of tea.

Later, Joe explains to a news reporter that Maude had murdered James and Helena, his mistress, after discovering their affair. After, she preserved James's corpse, and buried both Helena and Mr. Davis in the local graveyard.

Cast

Production

Filming

The budget for the film was roughly CAD$1,431,780 and the production was filmed from July 23, 1979 to September 12, 1979. It as shot on location in several cities in Ontario, including Elora, Guelph, Markham, and Toronto. The building that stood in for the Chalmers Funeral Home was in actuality not a funeral home; it was a spacious mansion with gables located on Reesor Road in Markham, Ontario, and this house was later used again in an episode of the 1990s Canadian-American horror anthology series ''Goosebumps'' (as the O'Dell House in the 2-part episode "Night of the Living Dummy III"), which Fruet co-produced. The scenes at the quarry were filmed at the Elora Quarry in Elora, Ontario; this quarry has been a conservation park and public beach since the 1970s, and unlike the Reesor mansion, can be visited by tourists. Both locations were sought out and booked for filming in advance by Fruet.

According to actress Lesleh Donaldson, actress Kay Hawtrey and director William Fruet did not get along well, stating that "She couldn’t stand him. She hated him. Just hated him." She also recalled Hawtrey "...being a nervous wreck nearly every morning. And then she claimed Bill was making her do stuff at the end that was too much for her. In the scene where she's down in the cellar, there were a lot of crew guys doubling for her, with the axe and swinging stuff around. It wasn’t her doing that."

On director Fruet, Donaldson stated that she "knew that he would do things off-the-cuff at the last minute, like changing a scene. might not have been called in that day and suddenly I’d get a call telling me "Get to the set now!", and I’d have to do a scene I hadn’t memorized yet. It was tense that way."

Release

Box office

The film was first released in eastern Canada through Frontier Amusements, opening in Kitchener, Ontario on October 3, 1980. It later opened in Brantford, Ontario on April 24, 1981. The following summer, Motion Picture Marketing re-released it under the alternative title ''Funeral Home'' in various cities in the United States, including Salt Lake City, Philadelphia, and Kansas City, Missouri. It was also re-released in its native Canada under this revised title: It screened as ''Funeral Home'' in Calgary in July 1982, and in Vancouver in August 1982. The film premiered in Los Angeles on January 28, 1983.

Between its releases in Canada and the United States, the film grossed $1,301,700 at the box office.

Critical response

Michael Walsh of ''The Province'' praised the film for its moody cinematography but felt the screenplay was too derivative of Alfred Hitchcock's '' Psycho'' (1960), summarizing: "Burdened with a bland, obvious script and unwilling to indulge itself in truly explicit violence, tis neither mysterious nor particularly shocking. It ends up being a mild-mannered ''Psycho'' clone." Robert C. Trussell of ''The Kansas City Star'' gave the film an unfavorable review, remarking that it contained uninspired dialogue and poor character development, ultimately deeming it "so boring it could be recommended for heart patients." Allan Ulrich of the ''San Francisco Examiner'' also described the film as lacking in suspense and excitement, writing that the plotting was "predictable, the denouement tiresome, the violence perfunctory."

Alternately, Kevin Thomas of the ''Los Angeles Times'' praised the film for its empathetic character portrayals and " realistic Canadian style," as well as for Hawtrey's performance and the "capable supporting cast."

The film has received mixed to positive reception in recent years, with AllMovie, in their summary of the film, stating that "...''Funeral Home'' serves up a generous supply of shudders even for non-fans of the horror genre." In a retrospective analysis, critic and film historian John Kenneth Muir said the film is "slow as molasses and lacking in both surprises and punch," and negatively compared it to imitating Hitchcock's ''Psycho'' (1960).

Thomas Ellison of ''Retro Slashers.net'' gave the film a positive review, stating that "''Funeral Home'' is the type of slasher that relies on story and actor performances... Fruet takes a much more atmospheric route." However that the ending "...borrows too heavily from another slasher film."

Accolades

''Cries in the Night'' was nominated for three Genie Awards:

*Best Actress: Lesleh Donaldson
*Best Editing: Ralph Brunjes
*Best Sound Editing: Andy Herman, Dave Appleby, Joe Grimaldi, Gary Bourgeois, Austin Grimaldi, and Ian Hendry

Home media

The film was released on VHS by Vouge Video in Canada in 1982 and Paragon Video in 1983 and again in 1986 as a big box reissue. It was officially released on DVD by Mill Creek Entertainment in 2005; however, this release was sourced from a low-quality VHS transfer.

On February 6, 2024, Scream Factory released the film for the first time in high-definition on Blu-ray.

Soundtrack

A soundtrack to the film was released on October 25, 2011 by Intrada Records as part of their Intrada Special Collection Series.

All tracks were composed by Jerry Fielding. The film was his second-to last score.

See also

* Hotel Infierno - A 2015 Argentine film with a similar plot

References

Sources

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External links

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* at AllMovie

{{William Fruet

1980 horror films
1980 films
1980s psychological thriller films
1980s slasher films
Canadian independent films
Canadian slasher films
Films about dissociative identity disorder
English-language Canadian films
Films directed by William Fruet
Films set in hotels
Films shot in Toronto
Films set in funeral homes
1980s psychological horror films
Canadian religious horror films
Films scored by Jerry Fielding
1980s English-language films
1980s Canadian films
English-language horror films
English-language thriller films