''The Boneyard'' is a 1991 American

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

directed by James Cummins and starring

Ed Nelson Edwin Stafford Nelson (December 21, 1928 – August 9, 2014) was an American actor, best known for his role as Dr. Michael Rossi in the television series '' Peyton Place''. Nelson appeared in episodes of many TV programs, more than 50 mov ...

, Deborah Rose,

Norman Fell Norman Fell (born Norman Noah Feld; March 24, 1924 – December 14, 1998) was an American actor of film and television, most famous for his role as landlord Mr. Roper on the sitcom ''Three's Company'' and its spin-off, ''The Ropers'', and his fi ...

, James Eustermann, and

Phyllis Diller Phyllis Ada Diller (née Driver; July 17, 1917 – August 20, 2012) was an American stand-up comedian, actress, author, musician, and visual artist, best known for her eccentric stage persona, self-deprecating humor, wild hair and clothes, and e ...

Plot

The film plunges into the nightmarish experiences of a depressed

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, ...

named Alley Oates (Deborah Rose), whose involvement in a grisly child-murder case leads her and her detective partner, Jersey Callum (

), to an imposing, fortress-like mortuary. Chen (Robert Yun Ju Ahn), the owner of the funeral home and prime suspect in the case, claims the three

mummified A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay furt ...

corpses in question are not children but ancient

demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, ani ...

s known as "kyoshi". It seems the little monsters have been around for centuries as a result of an age-old curse and can only be placated with offerings of human flesh — with which the mortician has been supplying them his entire life. When Chen is jailed on murder charges, the under-fed ghouls awaken in search of dinner, trapping the staff inside the mortuary walls and devouring them. The survivors, including Oates and Callum, use every means at their disposal to combat the demons, which have

possessed Possessed may refer to: Possession * Possession (disambiguation), having some degree of control over something else ** Spirit possession, whereby gods, demons, animas, or other disincarnate entities may temporarily take control of a human body *** ...

the bodies of morgue attendant Mrs. Poopinplatz (

) and her poodle, mutating them into hideous monsters.

Cast

as Jersey Callum * Deborah Rose as Alley Oates *

as Shepard * James Eustermann as Gordon Mullin * Denise Young as Dana * Willie Stratford as Marty(as Willie Stratford Jr.) *

as Miss Poopinplatz * Robert Yun Ju Ahn as Chen * Richard F. Brophy as Mac(as Rick Brophy) * Sallie Middleton Kaltreider as Little

Ghoul A ghoul ( ar, غول, ') is a demon-like being or monstrous humanoid. The concept originated in pre-Islamic Arabian religion, associated with graveyards and the consumption of human flesh. Modern fiction often uses the term to label a cert ...

* Janice Dever as Medium Ghoul * Cindy Dollar-Smith as Big Ghoul *

Michael Haun Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...

as Floofsoms and Poopinplatz Ghouls *

Brian Ahn Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world. It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word m ...

as Dead Child #2 *

Jessica Lasher Jessica may refer to: Given name * Jessica (given name), includes a list of people and fictional characters with this name * Jessica Folcker, a Swedish singer known by the mononym Jessica * Jessica Jung, a Korean-American singer known by the m ...

as Dead Child #3 *

Bo Sook Ahn Bo or BO may refer to Arts and entertainment Film, television, and theatre * Box office, where tickets to an event are sold, and by extension, the amount of business a production receives *'' BA:BO'', 2008 South Korean film * ''Bo'' (film), a ...

as Oriental Mother(as Boo Sook Ahn) *

Edward Mau-Tung Sun Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...

as Oriental Father *

Christopher Finch Christopher Finch (born 23 June 1975) is a New Zealand former cricketer. He played 3 first-class and 24 List A matches for Otago between 1993 and 1996. Finch was born at Balclutha in 1975 and educated at Otago Boys' High School in Dunedin. ...

as Sorcerer

Production

Shooting took place in

Statesville, North Carolina Statesville is a city in and the county seat of Iredell County, North Carolina, United States, and it is part of the Charlotte metropolitan area. Statesville was established in 1789 by an act of the North Carolina Legislature. The population was r ...

, in 1989. In December 1989, a botched special effect caused a fire.

Reception

Patrick Naugle of

DVD Verdict DVD Verdict was a judicial-themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. The editor-in-chief was Michael Stailey, who owned the website between 2004 and 2016, and the site employed a large editorial staff of critics, whose reviews ...

called it "good, goofy fun." Steve Simels of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' rated the film B− and described it as a film destined to be a

cult classic A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

. In a negative review, Lawrence Cohn of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' stated that, instead of being funny, the film "comes off as merely silly". Adam Tyner of

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

rated it 2.5/5 stars and said that the film wastes too much time on setup rather than the campy monsters that have brought it a cult following. Writing in ''The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia'', academic

Peter Dendle Peter Dendle is a professor of English at Penn State Mont Alto, teaching classes on folklore, 20th and 21st century representations of the Middle Ages, Old and Middle English (language and literature), and the monstrous (in film, folklore, and s ...

called it an "energetic but directionless fiend-fest". Dendle praised the acting and serious nature of the first hour but said later scenes cause the tone to "just get silly".

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Boneyard 1991 direct-to-video films 1991 horror films 1991 films American direct-to-video films American zombie films Direct-to-video horror films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films English-language horror films