The Hearse Movie Review 357

The Hearse is a 1980 horror movie directed by George Bowers and starring Trish Van DeVere, Joseph Cotten,David Gautreaux and Perry Lang.

The story begins with a woman called Jane Hardy(Van DeVere) who is left her aunt's house in her will. It is located in the small town of Blackford and she travels there to stay for a while after the death of her mother and her divorce. She comes into town and the locals are far from friendly. The man who has the key is the local realtor Prichard(Cotten) and he has had his eye on the house for a while. He is not best pleased that she is moving into it. She tells him that she might stay for the summer. She meets a local teen called Paul(Perry Lang) and he offers to do some handy-work for her at the house. He is the only one who is friendly to her. She sees strange things at the house and she is being followed by some creepy hearse.

It almost crashes into her and she is left stranded when he car gets stuck. A man called Tom(Gautreaux) stops to help her and she likes him. She finds her aunt's diary and discovers that her aunt met a mysterious man called Robert and that she jilted her fiance for him. He had a strange power over her. She discovered that he wanted her to worship Satan with him. Jane finds that someone has broken in and she scares them off.Tom and Jane see each other and she tells him about herself.He doesn't give away much about himself. Jane tells him that she thinks someone is following her. She has strange dreams about her own funeral. To cut a long story short, Jane and Tom begin seeing each other. She finds herself drawn to him and she decides to stay in town for another while. Prichard is not pleased and goes over to her house to throw rocks through her window. He gets knocked down by the hearse.

The local reverend has been talking to Jane about what has been happening and he thinks that it is all in her head. Before his demise, Prichard has told Jane that the hearse carrying her aunt's body crashed and the driver and her aunt's body were never seen again.Robert also disappeared. He tells her the reason that the townsfolk don't like her and her aunt is that the aunt was a devil worshipper before she died. Jane is attacked again and in the end, she realises that the hearse belongs to Tom. She finds his grave and she cannot believe that he is dead. Is he the Devil?
He wants her to come with him.Her aunt's story is beginning to happen again and Jane resists him and runs off when the reverend shows up. Plot hole here as we don't find out what happened to the rev. We can only assume that he is killed by Tom who he meets at the house. Paul is also killed when he arrives at the house looking for Jane who has escaped. Tom follows her in the hearse and chases her. She is determined not to let him get her and she rams his hearse off a cliff and it crashes and burns, but before he crashes, Tom smiles so we guess that he is the Devil and cannot be killed. Back at the house, the aunt's ghost looks out of the window. Is she waiting for Jane?

This was an entertaining if tame horror movie. If you are looking for blood and guts, then go somewhere else. I liked it though. I thought that it had a good story and it was very enjoyable. I will give it a 6/10.