The Undertaker (also released as Death Merchant) is an American slasher film directed by Frank Avianca and starring Joe Spinell. 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 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.
Contents
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
Joel Nagle 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. Frank Avianca directed the film under his pseudonym Franco Steffanino.
Release
The film was never released theatrically or on home video, and the only known copy was reportedly in the possession of the film's editor, Lorenzo Marinelli.. According to a post on Joe Spinell's Official Instagram account, Marinelli screened the film for Joe Spinell's friend Sal Sirchia in 1989 and permitted him to make a VHS copy. This copy subsequently circulated among tape traders for many years and served as the sole known means by which the film could be viewed, until October of 2010 when Code Red finally released an edited version of the film on DVD. 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.
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.