The Undertaker (1988 film)

The Undertaker (also released as Death Merchant) is a 1988 slasher film starring Joe Spinell and directed by Franco Steffanino. The film was completed in November 1988,^[1] but was never released for the public and existed only in an incomplete form. The Undertaker was later reedited for a DVD release by Code Red in 2010. The film is considered 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.

Plot

A mortician named 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, but little do they know that the undertaker has now taken a special interest in them.

Cast

• Joe Spinell 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

Production

The film was made on location in New York, New York 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,^[2] who died not long afterward. The film circulated as a bootleg for years, before Code Red released an edited version of the film on DVD in October 2010. The release was padded with other public domain films to increase running time, was titled Death Merchant in the opening titles, and scene were both cut and rearranged from the bootleg version.^[3]

References

External links

• The Undertaker at the Internet Movie Database