When Susan Walker (Julie Christy Murray) was ten, her mother died. While at the funeral with her now guardian, Aunt Cora Nomed (Laura Hippe), Susan runs away in a panic. She ends up at the family mausoleum. Inside she is possessed by a demon that has haunted her family for centuries. According to the family legend, a demon possesses the first born of every woman of the Nomed family.
Twenty years later Susan (Bobbie Bresee) is grown and is married to Oliver Farrell (Marjoe Gortner). On the anniversary of her mother’s death, Susan visits her grave and is drawn to the mausoleum. The demon that laid dormant in her is now taking over. When Susan is harassed by a drunk (Gene Edwards) at a nightclub the demon causes him to die by setting his car on fire. When the gardener, Ben (Maurice Sherbanee), leers at her in a menacing way she seduces and murders him. Susan’s Aunt Cora arrives with the paperwork that turns the family estate over to Susan. The demon kills her.
Oliver begins to suspect that there is something wrong with Susan. He calls Dr. Simon Andrews (Norman Burton). Andrews is a psychiatrist who has been treating Susan since the death of her mother. He has her come in to see him. During their visit he places her under hypnosis and the demon comes out. At a loss what to do Dr. Andrews calls a colleague, Dr. Roni Logan (Sheri Mann) for help.
Roni deals in the paranormal and possession. After reading the diary of the family patriarch and listening to the tape of Susan’s session with Dr. Andrews, Roni tells Andrews that he needs to follow the dictates of the diary in order to save Susan from the demon. Andrews must go to the family mausoleum, retrieve a crown of thorns that is there and place the crown on Susan’s head.
“Mausoleum” was released in 1983 and was directed by Michael Dugan. It is an American horror film.
LaWanda Page plays the family housekeeper, Elsie. She is the only bit of comic relief in the film and amazingly, as the only black in the film, ends up being just about the only smart one to come out alive.
The copy I have must be a television version because all the naked bits are fuzzed out. The only time you see Bobbie Bresee’s breasts is when she is in demon form. At that time, they look like demon mouths with sharp teeth. Not exactly sexy. The special effects in general are pretty decent, especially since it is the early 80’s and CGI was not the big thing yet. The special effects makeup was done by John Carl Buechler. That’s good since the acting, except for LaWanda Page, isn’t all that great. In addition, the story is a little thin, but it has a decent camp factor and having a former Playboy Bunny as a sex demon adds to the camp.
The executive producer on the film was Michael Franzese. Franzese was the son of the underboss of the Colombo crime family. Rumor has it his involvement was to launder money.
The family name, Nomed, is demon spelled backwards.