When you watch films filled with hockey mask wearing psychopaths and mutant cellar dwelling creatures, your bound to expect a few deaths through out the run time of the film. More precisely, your surely be witness to a handful of funerals. For with every meaningful death, must come the time to say good bye. We look at some of the most rememberable funerals held with in the run time of our favourite films.

Pet Semetary (1983)

Pet Semetary has two notable funerals that take place, and we are not touching the second one. Even Stephen King, who wrote the chilling novel, thought that his subject matter was too dark too publish.  For that reason, we are skipping poor Gages funeral and looking instead at the death of oddball house keeper Missy Dandridge. Missy tragic suicide is shortly followed by a funeral held by a very recognisable face. That wide armed priest who is leading the funeral service is none other than Stephen King himself.

Bordello of Blood (1996)

The funeral home finds an interesting way of getting rid of the bodies produced by the vampire bordello in the basement. By doubling up bodies in coffins, mortician McCutcheon has a cunning way of smuggling the bodies out of building, without raising nay suspicions. By picking “big” clients, he can easily point the extra weight on their poor life choices.  McCutcheon sincere yet comical funeral directing, makes for a highly entertaining service, that’s slightly uncomfortable to watch.

Phantasm (1979)

A movie primarily set in a Cemetery is bound to filled with funerals, and Phantasm does not disappoint. Secretly observing the funeral of family friend Tommy, from the bushes of the Morningside Cemetery, Mike Pearson witness, a tall mortician in a suit lift Tommy’s 500-pound casket with superhuman strength and load it into his hearse rather than buring the recently deceased. This encounter starts the epic series off on it’s marathon five films over a period of 27 years.  

Predator 2 (1990)

The sweaty, gun filled, action horror Predator 2 has a body count that would put a Schwarzenegger movie to shame. And yet, there is a single funeral scene. When Danny Archuleta crosses the Predator on a bad day, the honest cop beats his last street. it’s after his funeral that long time partner Lieutenant Mike Harrigan has a near encounter with Danny’s Killer. The Predator follows Harrigan and leaves him a gift on a near by tree. But not before a young boy spots the invisible beats and mistakes it for a ghost. Want some candy?

The Evil Dead (1981)

Every single Evil dead film has a make shift funeral, with our jawed hero Ash as the funeral director. But our top pick goes to the first film, which see’s Ash burying his recently possessed girlfriend into a dirt grave. As a nod back to the films first act, the couple play “eye games” letting the audience in on a little secret, she’s’ not quite dead.

IT (1990)

The 1990 TV Mini-Series adaption of Stephen Kings IT starts with the death of Georgie Denbrough, as he plays with his paper boat, along the swollen, waterlogged streets. A chance encounter with a stranger in a drain end the poor boy’s life, fading quickly from razor sharp teeth into white floral reefs on top of Georgie’s small coffin. The film falls back on a classic movie trope, it always rains at funerals.

Brain Dead (1992)

I could mention the post funeral desecration (and resurrection), the ass-kicking ninja priest or the grotesque embalming mishap, but my pick from Peter Jacksons Brain Dead (Dead Alive) for funeral mishaps has to go to Vera Cosgrove’s funeral gate-crash. With his mother transformed into a zombie, Lionel attempts to pump tranquilizers into her body, but the rotting creatures throttles him, smashing through a  door straight into the service, with Lionel clinging onto his now “dead” mother.

Candyman (1992)

Candyman visit another film trope, that of the poignant funeral. Having died saving baby Anthony McCoy from a fire, Helen Lyle’s funeral is gate-crashed by a parade of residents from Cabrini-Green, with Anthony’s mother, Anne-Marie, leading the crowed. Anne-Marie drops Candyman’s hook down onto her coffin, a solid audio crash drawing the camera down into Helen’s casket, revealing her burnt corpse peaceful in her final resting place.  

The Omen (1976)

A film about the child of Satan is undoubtable going to have a high body count, and plenty of funerals, but it’s the third act funerals that really chills. When Robert Thorn, appointed U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and his wife are both killed. Young Damien is left an orphan. He attends the double funeral of his (secretly adopted) parents hand in hand with the President of the United states. It’s the chilling fourth wall break which draws our attention here.  As the camera pulls in on the young boy standing in front of the two flower draped coffins, Damien turns to stare down the lenses, with dark emotional eyes. The devil has surely won this day.

Salem’s Lot (1979)

There is only one funeral held in the little quite town of Jerusalem’s lot. For a town slowly dying under the dark shroud of a vampire invasion, it’s surprisingly only Danny Glick that gets a farewell. With two different versions too choose from, both have very different impacts.  The 2004 tv miniseries has a much sadder take, where an emotional Tony Glick, Danny’s father, falls to his knees asking his dead son to “stop this nonsense”, but our favourite scene is from the same funeral in the original 1979 series. With the funeral over, and the mourners gone, gravedigger Mike Ryerson is suddenly overwhelmed by some supernatural force, whilst filling Danny’s grave, and jumps into the open hole. With the sun setting quickly, the wind blowing heavily, Mike rips the coffins lid off only to discover that Danny is not resting in peace as he should be.

“Hi Horror Fans – The GRAVEst moment in any film, is a funeral sequence. This list just shows how many different uses there are for a funeral based scene. Did we miss something off the list? Let us know in the comments below.

Keep Rotten”

“Morti” The Mortician