Rating: 
Summary: The driver of this should have asked for directions.
Review: '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
Rating: 
Summary: Decent Haunted House Movie, But Not Great
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: This creepy vehicle a nifty, nostalgic sleeper.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Decent Haunted House Movie, But Not Great
Review: I had heard about this movie for a while but of course as with many of these classic horror movies, no rental stores carry it. So I ordered it for cheap and found that while it had faults, it was fairly entertaining. Trish Van Devere was in another haunted house movie also from 1980 called The Changeling with her then-husband George C. Scott. The Changeling is regarded by many (including myself) as one of the greatest haunted house movies of all time. Here she gets top billing and plays a woman who inherits a home in a small creepy town where all is not what it seems. Now this movie can't compare at all to The Changeling and I won't even try to do so, but there are a few suspenseful scenes that make this movie worth a look. Van Devere's acting and beauty is well portrayed here, but some of the other characters in this film are quite over the top and take away from the believability factor. You kind of get the feeling that the movie didn't take itself seriously at times. This is especially true during some of the chase scenes as they feel kind of haphazardly edited together thereby making them seem less scary. Then there's the music which is effective at times with its simple piano score, but then changes to typical Friday the 13th like piercing music that makes the movie feel annoying and cheap. As for the ending, it could have made more sense than it did, but overall The Hearse is well worth a look. They just don't make these type of old fashioned haunted house movies anymore. The DVD like I said is cheap, but has somewhat decent video quality. Some scenes look pretty bad while others look a bit sharper, but overall the color scheme to this one is pretty bland. The sound is mono, and really sounds as you would expect a low budget movie from 1980 to sound. The only extra is the trailer, which is probably best not to watch until AFTER you see the movie. Still not a bad value for what it costs.
Rating: 
Summary: It's okay
Review: Not that scary, but it's worth a look. Watch it alone in the dark.
Rating:
Summary: Great ghost story and PG rated at that
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The Hearse
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Great ghost story and PG rated at that
Review: This was always a favorite creepy movie of mine from the early 80's.....good story and very creepy and clean for the whole family to watch
Rating:
Summary: Good acting & mood, a bit anti-climactic
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Good acting & mood, a bit anti-climactic
Review: 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.
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