''The Undertaker'' (also released as ''Death Merchant'') is a 1988 American

slasher film A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools like knife, chainsaw, scalpel, etc. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as ...

directed by Franco Steffanino and starring

Joe Spinell Joe Spinell (born Joseph Spagnuolo; October 28, 1936 – January 13, 1989) was an American character actor who appeared in films in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as various stage productions on and off Broadway. He played supporting roles in ''The ...

. The film was completed in November 1988, but was never released for the public and existed only in an incomplete form. ''The Undertaker'' was later reedited for a

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

release by Code Red in 2010 and a Blu-ray release by Vinegar Syndrome in 2016. The film is considered 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. ...

, due in part to both Joe Spinell's involvement and its troubled production. This was Joe Spinell's last film before his premature death in 1989.

Premise

The mortician Uncle Roscoe (Joe Spinell) attends community college by day and murders women for his personal use. His nephew Nicky, his professor Pam (Rebeca Yaron) and her roommate Mandy (Susan Bachli) begin to suspect Roscoe, unaware that the undertaker has now taken a special interest in them.

Cast

as Roscoe * Rebeca Yaron as Pam Hayes * Susan Bachli as Mandy * Martha Somoeman as Hazel * Charles Kay-Hune as Police Chief * William James Kennedy as Inspector Barry * France Porta as Security Guard * Joe Magle as Kevin * Max Stone as Sergeant * Ginny Franco as Mary Lawrence * Lisa Vondal as Nancy Bowen * Rita Kling as Angela * Jan Harrison as Cashier * Mette Holt as Jean * Robert Kessler as Inspector Vance * Guillermo Gentile as State Coroner * Tommy LoRusso as Coroner Driver

Production

The film was made on location in

Port Chester, New York Port Chester is a village in the U.S. state of New York and the largest part of the town of Rye in Westchester County by population. At the 2010 U.S. census, the village of Port Chester had a population of 28,967 and was the fifth-most popu ...

at the former Colony Funeral Home on King Street and was produced by Double Helix Films. Filming for ''The Undertaker'' was completed in November 1988.

Release

The film was never released to theatres or to video, and the only known copy belonged to Joe Spinell, who died not long afterward. The film circulated as a bootleg for years, before Code Red released an edited version of the film on

in October 2010. The release was padded with

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

films to increase running time, was titled ''Death Merchant'' in the opening titles, and scenes were both cut and rearranged from the bootleg version. In 2016,

Vinegar Syndrome Cellulose acetate film, or safety film, is used in photography as a base material for photographic emulsions. It was introduced in the early 20th century by film manufacturers and intended as a safe film base replacement for unstable and highly ...

restored and released ''The Undertaker'' in a

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

/DVD combo pack limited to 3,000 copies. Unlike the Code Red release, the Vinegar Syndrome version does not include the public domain films edited in to pad the running time.

References

External links

* 1988 films American slasher films 1988 horror films 1980s slasher films Funeral homes in fiction Films shot in New York (state) 1980s English-language films 1980s American films {{1980s-horror-film-stub