The Undertaker (1988 film)

The Undertaker
The Undertaker
	Film poster
Directed by	Franco Steffanino
Written by	William James Kennedy
Produced by	Frank Avianc; Steve Bono
Starring	Joe Spinell; Rebeca Yaron; ; Susan Bachli
Cinematography	Richard E. Brooks
Edited by	Larry Marinelli; David Szulkin
Music by	J. Eric Johnson
Production; company	Double Helix Films
Distributed by	Double Helix Films; Code Red
Release date	October 2010;
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The Undertaker (also released as Death Merchant)^{[citation needed]} is a 1988 American slasher film directed by Franco Steffanino and starring Joe Spinell. 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 and a Blu-ray release by Vinegar Syndrome in 2016. 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.

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

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
Tommy LoRusso as Coroner Driver

Production

The film was made on location in Port Chester, New York 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,^[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 public domain films to increase running time, was titled Death Merchant in the opening titles, and scenes were both cut and rearranged from the bootleg version.^[3]

In 2016, Vinegar Syndrome restored and released The Undertaker in a Blu-ray/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.