Rest in Pieces (1987)

Rest in Pieces (1987) comes from the latter part of Jose Larraz's directorial career, which had descended into a welter of slasher movies and TV episodes.  On the one hand, it seemed a long way from the string of off-beat, yet fascinating horror films and psychological thrillers he had directed in the UK earlier in his career, which had culminated with probably his two most celebrated films: Symptoms (1974) and Vampyres (1974). On the other hand, his later films which, rather bewilderingly included Gothic dramas, sex comedies and a female Bond knock off, retain a distinctive style and feel that leave you in little doubt that they are Larraz films.  Even Rest in Pieces, a low budget supernatural thriller, has a typically 'art house' feel about it that distinguishes it from other contemporary cheap direct-to-video horror films.  There's nothing terribly original about Rest in Pieces.  Indeed, it mixes together ideas from a number of earlier horror films, including the zombie biker movie Psychomania (1972), (lifting the concept of suicide being some sort of gateway to living dead immortality), The Legacy (1979), with its conceit of diabolical inheritances and a gathering of acolytes of a deceased relative in order to secure their legacy, not to mention a whole slew of films, (not least those produced by Hammer), that involve plots to drive the heroine mad via macabre goings on in an old dark house.  But, despite low production values, the film deploys these borrowed elements with a certain degree of tatty panache.

Commendably, Larraz gets the film off to a brisk start, with the heroine and her boyfriend going to her family lawyer to find out about an inheritance left to her by her late aunt, which involves them watching a video will which culminates with the aunt committing suicide by drinking poison.  The inheritance turns out to be an estate in Connecticut which consists of several separate properties, most occupied by the aunt's mysterious tenants.  All manner of weird stuff starts happening to the heroine, including ghostly visions of her aunt and objects flying around the house, while the tenants hold secret meetings and murder a group of visiting musicians as a sacrifice - part of a ritual to ensure the return of the aunt.  The boyfriend, meanwhile, is distracted by stories that the aunt had hidden eight million dollars somewhere on the property.  After various twists and turns, it emerges that the tenants are former inmates of the same psychiatric hospital that the aunt had once been treated at and had all died by their own hands some years before.  They are not, however, ghosts, but rather the living dead, who believe that the aunt can follow them to resurrection if the heroine can be driven to suicide.  What elevates the film somewhat is that none of this is presented in the usual flat manner of too many direct-to-video productions, with Larraz employing all manner of interesting shots and inventive camera angles.  Moreover, the whole thing has a sense of dislocation - despite being set in the US, it is clearly filmed in Spain.  No attempt is made to disguise this fact - all the cars, for instance, are European  models with clearly visible Spanish plates, leaving the viewer feeling wrong footed from the outset.

The film's biggest weakness - apart from a budget that is low even by Larraz's standards - are its lead actors.  Lorin Jean Vail as the heroine is simply wooden, while Scott Thompson Baker as her boyfriend is merely bland.   The supporting cast, however, is quite impressive in a low budget way, headed up by Dorothy Malone as the aunt and including Euro-horror legend Jack Taylor as a very creepy blind man.  It also features several recognisable UK TV faces, notably Jeffrey Segal and, as a crackpot Irish priest, Robert Case, who will be familiar to anyone who watched British TV in the seventies for his sitcom appearances, (particularly Rentaghost).  Rest in Pieces is far from being Larraz's best work, but it is still an efficient low budget exploitation film.  Unlike many other films of its ilk, Larraz does deliver the goods - he doesn't stint on the blood, the shock sequences, the suspense or even the bared breasts.  It might be somewhat shabby looking, with some cheap and obvious effects work, not to mention those weak lead actors, but it is very watchable, never feeling too slow and never taking itself too seriously.  Larraz was too good a director to just take the pay cheque and go through the motions, delivering a complete turkey.  Rest in Pieces might not be great, but it is a cut above the average eighties direct-to-video shocker and provides a perfectly decent ninety minutes or so of entertainment in its own dog-eared way.