Customer Reviews

The Hearse

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Trish Van Devere does a terrific job as the lead, and the supporting cast is uniformly convincing. The hearse itself is somewhat creepy, and the story is entertaining. Unfortunately, the climax is abrupt and a bit of a let-down. The film also suffers a bit from the "tameness" of many movies from this period. Ironically, today it would doubtless be more graphic and technically superior, but the acting and mood would likely suck. I recommend this as a "suspense" movie, but it's not really scary, just a little creepy.

For a quite a long while (say twenty or so years) it looked like Crown International's The Hearse was the last of a dead breed, the low-key, character/mood oriented ghost story. Wrongly overlooked when first released in 1980, the movie suffered from having a PG rating when pushing the boundaries of special effects was all the rage. Audiences wanted flowing blood, not creepy chills. Well times have changed and now, thank goodness, creepy, subtle character oriented ghost stories are back in style, which makes The Hearse's return to commercial release all the more welcome.

A woman recovering from a near nervous breakdown chooses to do so in a dead relative's country home. However the townsfolk are far from friendly (save for the local minister, a young boy, and a handsome neighbor). Making things even more difficult are the strange dreams, spectres, and a hearse's scar faced driver that harrass the poor woman. Emphasizing character and mood, The Hearse is a near classic that is only hampered by a two swift climax (in fact, although the plot is nearly complete, it looks as if several scenes were shortened) and a too enigmatic ending. Still, fans of old-fashioned ghost stories will love having this movie in their collection. Recommended.

The Film: The Hearse
Year made: 1980

I bought this film a few weeks back because I collect horror films and I had not seen this what I now consider to be a "gem" of a film in horror. So picture this, it's about 3AM in the morning and it's raining outside my window. What better time then to pop in a movie like The Hearse. Yes I'm a nightowl and yes I love horror films. MAHAHAHAH :)

The Package: 2 stars. There is nothing extra in regards to liner notes on the film. A basic cardboard holder that opens up to hold one plain looking disc. I love to see something a bit more special to each film that I can feast my eyes on, but the graphics still look cool with the hearse on the cover even though it's very basic.

Spook Meter: 3 Stars. As a seasoned horror film buff it takes a lot to spook me however this film is very well done and in good taste with a lot of spook as well. The camera angles, lighting, and shadows really give it a creepy feel to the overall movie and on a rainy night ones imagination can run wild for sure. :) You will get a bit of a "chill" from this film and walk away at the end of it happy and wishing it did not end. Creapy sounds like the piano that plays throughout the film will raise the hairs on your neck a few times for sure.

Gore/Violence Meter: 1 Star This film this one star on the gore meter. I was amazed as I watched this gem of a film just how great a movie can be with almost no gore, blood what so ever in the whole movie. I kept wondering when some bloody thing was going to happen, but in the end it was great camera work, shadows, lighting, eerie sounds that carried the film through and made the total lack of gore not matter what so ever in this case.

Profanity Meter: 2 Strikes. Very little profanity throughout the whole film except of course like most films, film makers always have to toss Gods name in vain in a few times and this one has that twice toward the end of it. I always find this dissapointing, wither it's Gods name used or any other profanity I just don't see a need for it in films at all.

Final thoughts: There are many a great horror films out there and one may wonder why I would give 5 stars overall to a film like this compaired to many other greats. When I review a film I like to do so on a individual basis and I do not compair to other films but rather I look at this one and rate it based on just how much I enjoyed it. I hope you will enjoy this one too.

Micah.

I remember this movie from the 80's. The story was blurred in my mind, but I knew I had enjoyed it, as it had that atmosphere that keeps horror fans wide-eyed. I watched it now again and I tell you my impression hasn't changed. It still packs quite a punch, although I admit I was a bit at a loss in the end, but it doesn't matter. I noticed too, that there's a wide range of opinions about this one. Well, I still like it, and wish there were more of this kind around. Also, as a plus, I recognized the beatufiful piano song of the main title that I couldn't remember where I'd heard.Well worth the money.

What a great flick to pop in on a Friday night and let the storm winds and rain outside your window take you back to a time when that chill down your spine was brought on more by your spooked imagination and less by big budget blood,gore and computer run of the mill.

Popcorn,please.Large.Easy on the butter.Large Diet Coke.

"The Hearse" is a slow-paced, predictable and boring movie with some very bad acting. Joseph Cotton is pretty good, Trish Vandevere is fairly adequate although her character is stupid, but the actors who played Tom and the Hearse driver are nothing short of terrible...I mean they look like a couple of dorks! The ending makes no sense whatsoever and the movie ends with a thud. Quite frankly, I was bored out of my mind but decided to sit through the entire movie just to see how it ended. All things considered, this is a poor excuse for a horror movie.

'The Hearse' stars Trish Van Devere as Jane, who moves into her late aunt's old country home to gather herself after a divorce and a breakdown. The townspeople of her new locale are not particularly friendly, and even less so when they find out she lives in the old Martin house. Jane begins to be plagued by a mysterious black hearse driven by a driver with an inconsistently disfigured face. She is also seeing images of her late aunt in mirrors and through windows. As she is unnerverd by this and reading her aunt's diary, she meets a man named Tom who begins to put her at ease and makes her feel that she has someone she can trust and in which she can confide. 'The Hearse' as a movie follows in the footsteps of many movies about hauntings from the seventies; primary of which is its slow lingering pace. A slow pace may be fine if the story can support it, but the confusion in this story does not support it. The first noticable trait that brings this movie down is its directing. George Bowers' direction appears to have come straight out of Directing 101 class. The shots and plot devices are obvious and come off as staged which means you can already see the next plot device or scene coming before it gets there (Jane stands next to a window: the window will break; Jane passes a mirror or looks into a window: Jane will see something, usually her aunt; a convenient place for a tombstone is the front yard). Before this movie is halfway there, you will have already guessed the outcome. In an attempt to prevent you from guessing the ending, we have red herrings thrown at us, in particular is a dream sequence that only becomes an annoying distraction when it is discovered that it was a red herring. The driver of the hearse is much the same red herring. The performance of Trish Van Devere is fine if not better than what this movie deserves considering the indifferent if not amateurish peformances delivered by most of the rest of the cast. The performance of David Gautreaux as Tom is wooden, uninspired, and probably a good bit of what brought this movie down: a good performance in his role could have definitely helped this movie. The performance of Joseph Cotten as the cantankerous lawyer is entertaining as well helpful to this film. An interesting note is the appearance of a young Christopher MacDonald (CBS TV series, 'Family Law') in a bit part already showing he has talent. I have read some good reviews about this film, none stellar mind you, that had proclaimed this to be a suspenseful haunting film. I was quite dissappointed as 'The Hearse' is basically a story that would have been better as a half-hour TV episode but was annoyingly padded with red herrings and lingering direction that comes off as dull, at best mediocre, and lacks suspense and any fright value.--Bob

Did you LOVE "The Car" "Christine" "Maximum Overdrive and "Duel?" So did I ...But "The Hearse" was a lemon....

The hearse tries very hard to be a scary movie, but sometimes falls into the classic 1980's horror traps of camp and cheap scares. The story is somewhat formulaic, but still entertaining and not hard to follow. We see a young woman return to her ancestral home after a nervous breakdown and try to become part of the community. Everyone hates her and thinks she is a witch. Well, of course, lots of bad things happened in that house and it doesn't help any that she looks just like her great aunt who died about 30 years earlier. The acting is not bad with some glimpses of outright good acting. Not lots of special effects, mostly moodlighting and the like. Good for a semi-scary film.

"The Hearse" starring Trish Van Devere and Joseph Cotten is a moody horror film from 1980. The plot boils down to Jane (Van Devere), a newly divorced independent woman, moving into her late Aunt's rundown old house in the middle of nowhere. She is not exactly welcomed by the locals, and is haunted by a black hearse driven by a creepy lunatic.

It turns out the sultry divorcee has just inadvertently moved into a town full of devil worshippers. She shakes up the town and learns valuable life lessons along the way. Lessons that she missed, however, include learning not to hide in front of windows, not thinking to buy a dog or have a locksmith change the locks on the house, especially when cranky old Joseph Cotten keeps letting himself in to complain and make veiled threats, and not moving out of a haunted house surrounded by devil worshippers after the previous owner's body exploded mysteriously in a hearse.

The plot creaks and groans along, and while atmospherically creepy, all the plot devices are very transparent, and there isn't a great deal of surprise anywhere to be found. The film concludes with a priest-assisted resolution, which was more of a letdown than the rest of the film combined: it could have really used Richard Burton or even Donald Pleasance. This is definitely not the worst horror movie to come out of the 1980's, but it is slow and undistinguished.