The plot concerns a young woman named Heather (played by Lesleh Donaldson) who arrives at her grandmother's house, which used to be a funeral home, to help her turn the place into a bed-and-breakfast inn. After they open, however, guests begin disappearing or turning up dead.
Carries a lot of similarities to Friday the 13th (1980) and Psycho. Especially the latter.
This film contains examples of the following tropes:
- Asshole Victim: Mr. Browning and his mistress who are drunken, rude and meet their deserved end thanks to the killer.
- Ax-Crazy: Mrs. Chalmers who caught her husband with another woman and killed them both. Unable to handle the fact that her husband is no more, she preserved her husband and developed a murderous personality to boot.
- Creepy Basement: Very creepy. Apt considering the bed-and-breakfast inn was previously a funeral parlor.
- Dead All Along: Mr. Chalmers much like Mother.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: The cat in this instance who is constantly bothering poor Heather but actually is going after
what's in the basement. - Gorn: Averted. There are a couple of brutal kills but it's so poorly lit you couldn't see the red stuff at all.
- Pinball Protagonist: Heather who is utterly useless and spends her time moping and screaming. Even for a Final Girl, she doesn't have any bearing on the story.
- Police Are Useless: Averted with Joe Yates. He constantly has a good indication when things are going wrong. However, his superior and fellow deputy keep shooting down his valid suspicions. He even handles Mrs. Chalmers very well while she has returned to the non-homicidal state taking her calmly upstairs from the cellar.
- Red Herring: Billy Hibbs who acts suspicious but is harmless.
