Some of your universe's critics are unkind to Mansion of Blood with Gary Busey. For example, reviewer keirondarbyshire writes, "The acting is terrible. Really really bad....Scenes just seem to happen without explanation." Reviewer vhsfordays writes, "There were way too many characters, way too many killers and this felt way too long." And reviewer Tengu440 writes, "It's bad by every measure I can think of....Pointless scenes, bad actors, random non sequitor dialogue, and horror movie tropes and scenes that were apparently thrown into a blender and randomly regurgitated with no context."
Read on for the truth about Mansion of Blood with Gary Busey...
Lightning flashes over a mansion (not necessarily a mansion of blood, at least at this point in time). The date October 17, 1925 is superimposed over a spooky dark hallway in the mansion as a middle-aged man carries a candelabra through the house. We hear a woman scream! The man calls out, “Maribelle, is it you? I know you’re up there. I can hear you. The only reason I built this house is for you. I didn’t do it for me, I did it for you. It was just all for you!”
Then the man starts bleeding, making the house truly a mansion of blood, and falls over in the hallway.
The film then cuts to a diner, and the date October 17, 2013 is superimposed over three young women drinking milkshakes. They discuss whether to go to a place called the Mayhew Mansion, which is having an eclipse viewing party tonight. The women are concerned about whether the place is safe or not. “Well, they’ve had construction crews up there for years,” says Samantha.
“Yeah,” replies Sally, “and hardly any deaths!”
The film cuts to three young men—Drake, Mark, and Tony—at a horse stable. The young men, perhaps not coincidentally, are also discussing whether to go to the Mayhew Mansion for the eclipse party. Drake mentions casually that his greatest fear is little people.
At the mansion (of blood?) itself, a comedic scene involves the current owner of the place, Mr. Murphy, arranging the details of tonight’s eclipse party with event planner Robert Picardo. Mr. Picardo helpfully tells the man who hired him, “You remember my beautiful wife, Trixie? Our caterer. Together we are the unbeatable team: caterer and event planner to die for.” Mr. Picardo then goes over the menu, which includes squid on wheat crisps, escargot with habanero peppers, and oysters on the half shell.
Alarmed, Mr. Murphy says, “No, no. No naked dames. My wife’s here tonight.” (Clearly, Mr. Murphy thought the caterers would serve naked women playing Venus on half shells.)
Trixie says, “The main course will be served at 9:40.”
Mr. Murphy quips, a bit bewilderingly, “As long as the main course is not my pocketbook.”
A little later, the three young women pull up, having driven from the milkshake diner to the mansion in a beautiful red convertible from the 1950s. Though the mansion looks clean, bright, and inviting, Samantha says, “We haven’t even reached the front door yet, and I’m already creeped out.”
Helpfully, the young women explain the backstory. Morgan Mayhew was a wealthy life insurance salesman who defrauded customers, and his daughter and son mysteriously died, while Morgan and his wife Maribelle disappeared. “And he was an occultist.”
They get out of the car and walk to the front steps of the house, where they are greeted by Gary Busey, who appears to be the butler. “Welcome to Mayhem Man…Sorry, Mayhew Mansion.” He adds, “We have a lovely game called Name That Smell. And you will feel it before you see it.” When the young ladies ask if the bar is open, Mr. Busey, clearly a master improviser, replies, “I love your attitudes. It’s very persnickerty. And it has a feeling of…tickling…you see.”
After the party begins, Mr. Busey has an intense conversation with Aaron, one of the hired waiters, who says, “I was just dead today, but now I’m fine.” He adds suspiciously, “I couldn’t seem to get out of bed till dusk.”
Angry, Mr. Busey tells him, “You keep this lifestyle going, you’re going to need a day pass.” He also says, “I can have you removed like a curse!”
As the party unfolds, we find out that Arthur Mayhew, a relative of the mansion’s original owner, is in attendance under a pseudonym to look for the will that is hidden on the property.
Soon, the eclipse occurs, which mysteriously involves the moon being enveloped by what appears to be a red fluid. Some guests freak out about such an unexpected occurrence, but it has no effect on the ongoing party.
Surprisingly, Samantha finds an empty room in the mansion, opens a book, and begins a spell to conjure her dead boyfriend Frank! His ghost, wearing a nice purple work shirt, appears immediately (and transparently). Unfortunately for Samantha, Frank has “moved on” and is having an affair with his invisible spirit guide. He fades away, leaving Samantha alone.
In another deserted room, Drake finds millions of dollars worth of bearer bonds in an old cabinet. Sally finds him but he hides the bonds from her. They plan to rendezvous romantically in 45 minutes in, of all places, the nearby staircase landing.
Moments later, Arthur Mayhew finds the will he is looking for in the same room and the same cabinet where Drake found the bonds.
In another shocking scene, this one set in the kitchen, some kitchen workers spill a pot of boiling water onto one of the guests, killing him. Of course, all the kitchen staff decide to roll the body into a rug and dispose of it — and by “dispose of it” I mean carrying it through the mingling party guests and standing it up against one wall next to another rug.
Later, another guest, the local mayor (played by John Blyth Barrymore) attempts to lead his mistress off the property when he is attacked by a ghost horse stampede in the corral outside.
As the mysterious events continue, the owner of the mansion’s wife, Mrs. Murphy, murders a private detective who is trying to blackmail her because her husband had affairs with other women. Shockingly, Gary Busey’s ghostly face appears nearby as she kills the man with a sculpture (as well as a pistol), indicating that Mr. Busey has something to do with the ghostly and murderous happenings.
Minutes later, the Murphys’ teenage son Elijah finds the detectives body so he calls his parents together. “Someone in this house is a murderer,” he says, concerned.
His mother replies, “Elijah, don’t be too upset. We didn’t even know him.”
Gary Busey happens by and sees the body. “There’s a maniac loose in here. This man has been shot, stabbed, and had his head kicked in.” He concludes with a toothy Gary Busey grin, “This is a party. This party’s gonna be good.” Elijah then locks himself in a nearby room to stay safe, but he is mysteriously murdered in the locked room.
Meanwhile, after her magic spell didn’t work, Samantha discusses the mansion with Sarah. “There are other forces here I wasn’t aware of,” Samantha tells Sarah. She adds, “It means anything could happen…your worst nightmares…your biggest fears…your most personal demons.”
Sarah just giggles and walks away.
More party attendees, under whatever mysterious spell is affecting people, commit murder. Robert Picardo’s wife attempts to poison Mr. Picardo, but she is murdered by an elderly woman who stabs her in the back. Outside, zombies attack one of the waitresses. Arthur Mayhew strangles a woman who tries to destroy the will he found. Drake, somewhat bizarrely, is strangled by little people, his body dragged across the patio until he is hanged from the ceiling. Also, someone turns into a werewolf. And Aaron, the waiter, is revealed to be a vampire, as he hinted earlier.
When two police offers arrive to investigate the neighbors’ complaints, Mr. Murphy ushers them to the pool, where he has a group of swimsuit models to occupy them.
Further hints about the mystery are given when Sally encounters a confederate ghost named Bruce William Campbell who tells her that some of the creatures roaming the grounds are his own personal demons. Also, the eclipse allows the ghosts and demons to enter land of the living. Of course, Bruce the ghost soon possesses the hanged body of Drake, but in mortal form he is vulnerable to his demons, who chase him and Sally. They escape inside the mansion, but then they have an argument about who won the Civil War. “Being dead broadens one’s perspective,” he says profoundly. Then, in order to bind the ghost to the land of the living, Bruce in Drake’s body has sex with Sally.
Things ramp up when more bodies are discovered, including, in a shocking shot, one of the swimsuit models, whose skeleton lies in a bed with her silicone breasts on her ribcage.
Mark, meanwhile, meets a woman named Olivia and they decide to run out of the mansion and up a hill to another mansion. There they meet two elderly sisters played by Terry Moore (who appeared in both the 1949 and 1998 versions of Mighty Joe Young) and Cissy Wellman (who appeared in The Outlaw Josey Wales from 1976). The sisters let Mark and Olivia into their house, so the young people use an ancient telephone to call 911. Unfortunately for them, the police reply that the Mayhew Mansion is abandoned so even if there has been a murder they won’t send any policemen. In a funny sequence, Olivia and Mark tell the dispatcher various murders that have occurred (it is not explained how they know everything) while the elderly sisters look on, gasping in horror.
Then the sisters kill Olivia with a poisoned cookie and attack Mark with a hatchet and then a handgun, but he manages to escape. When one of the sisters is shot in the thigh, the other sister “cures” her by squeezing a lemon onto the wound.
Back at the mansion, the young people gather outside under the still-red moon. “We’re all going to die trapped here under the dark moon,” Tony says.
“Well, we all have to die sometime,” Sarah says sensibly. “You say it like you think we’re going to die now.”
“Because we are going to die now,” he replies. “People are dropping like flies, and one by one they’re being murdered. Till the last one alive kills himself. Just like Morgan Mayhew.”
“Well, I’m not dying tonight,” Sarah says defiantly. But, ironically, a hatchet flies through the air and slams into her head. She falls and, for unexplained reasons, turns to dust, which blows away.
Everyone runs back into the mansion, but Tony is immediately killed by zombies that come out of the floor.
Helpfully, Samantha explains that everyone is trapped outside reality, doomed to remain in the mansion until the next “cycle of years” is over. “Anything is possible. Anything.” Then she tries to break the spell by reading some Spanish words from a book, but she is apparently killed and absorbed into a rock on a pedestal.
In another comedic moment, Robert Picardo is outside and sees a zombie walk by. “Are you enjoying the party?” he asks.
“Kill me! Kill me! Burn by body!”
“I know how you feel,” Mr. Picardo says nonchalantly. “Oh, I’ve had a night, too.”
Arthur Mayhew then finds the corpse of Morgan Mayhew rolled into the rug next to the rug holding the recently deceased kitchen staff member (he recognizes his deceased great uncle by the ring on the corpse’s finger, but there is no explanation why the body was rolled into a rug). As they examine the corpse, a limousine drives to the front of the mansion and an elderly woman gets out, assisted into the house by her chauffeur. The woman is Maribelle Mayhew, the late Morgan Mayhew’s wife, and she is played by Carla Laemmle, niece of Universal Pictures founder Carl Laemmle (and an extra in the 1931 Universal Dracula), who was 105 years old when she appeared in Mansion of Blood, and who died the year this film was made.
Ms. Laemmle looks at a picture on the wall of her in a dancer’s costume from the 1920s. “I was a ballerina, you know. I loved to dance.” Then she looks at the mummified corpse. “You look good, Morgan. The years have been good to you.” She adds, “I lived because I knew I was needed on this night.” She takes a knife she has been concealing and stabs the corpse, saying, “Happy anniversary, Darling!”
All the zombies fall down and the moon returns to normal. Arthur Mayhew then begins bleeding — possibly, he has been Morgan’s ghost the whole time.
Gary Busey kisses Ms. Laemmle’s hand. Robert Picardo, looking on, says, “That was weird.”
When the sun comes up, the mansion’s current owner finds Robert Picardo on the front steps. “I can’t find Trixie’s body,” Mr. Picardo says bitterly.
The owner says, “Oh well. It was a hell of a party, and I ended up a richer man for it, so I’m not going to dock her fee for dying on the job. I’m in a generous, generous mood.”
Mr. Picardo picks up a shovel and slams it into the owner’s head. Then Mr. Picardo says, “It’s a beautiful day.”
The film’s coda occurs in the diner from the opening, where Sally and Bruce the ghost (in Drake’s body) sit with Ms. Laemmle. Bruce finds bearer bonds in his pocket, and then Ms. Laemmle provides the final, somewhat bewildering, line in the film: “What am I supposed to do now?”
The End
Mansion of Blood with Gary Busey is clearly a love letter to Hollywood and not by any means a cynical attempt to cheaply film an attempt at comedy in the nearest available mansion. One need only look at the cast list to see a variety of familiar names, many of them Hollywood royalty: in addition to Carla Laemmle, the film features John Blyth Barrymore, Calista Carradine, Katherin Kovin-Pacino, Tyrone Power, Jr., Evelyn Vaccaro, Paul Sizemore, Pamela Bach Hasselhoff, and even Tobey Maguire's mother Wendy Maguire. And of course Gary Busey, who steals the show in his approximately three minutes of screen time spread throughout the film. Mr. Busey, mysteriously playing either a butler, a realtor, or a ghost, pops into a seemingly random assortment of scenes to make a quip, grin a sarcastic grin, or even to imitate the Captain Howdy face from The Exorcist (1973), though his ghostly face is never explained.
In fact, Mansion of Blood with Gary Busey is one of the finest examples of a genre of horror film that includes classics like Spookies (1986), The Demons of Ludlow (1983), Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), and House/Hausu (1977) -- films where the narrative is simply a framework for outrageous supernatural occurrences to supernaturally occur. Mansion of Blood with Gary Busey is particularly outrageous with its appearances by zombies, vampires, a werewolf, demons, slashers, and other monsters. As such, it should be heralded as an unsung classic of the subgenre.