Villian(s)  Phantom car

Actor(s):  Trish Van Devere, Joseph Cotten, David Gautreaux, Donald Hotton

Brief Description  The Hearse (1980) is an American supernatural horror-thriller film directed by George Bowers. The story centers on a schoolteacher who encounters a series of terrifying paranormal events and local hostility after moving into her late aunt's rural home. The movie is recognized as a deliberate, slow-burn psychological horror that heavily channels the atmosphere of 1960s European gothic cinema. Rather than relying on heavy blood or gore, it builds tension through dreamlike imagery, a eerie soundtrack, and classic haunted house tropes like self-playing music boxes and shattering windows.

Plot:
Following a painful divorce and the death of her mother, San Francisco schoolteacher Jane Hardy (Trish Van Devere) suffers a nervous breakdown. Seeking a quiet place to recover, she decides to spend the summer in the small, rural town of Blackford, moving into a large home left to her by her deceased aunt, Rebecca. Upon arriving, Jane receives an icy, passive-aggressive welcome from the local townspeople. She quickly discovers that her aunt was deeply despised because she practiced witchcraft and devil worship while alive. The supernatural occurrences escalate when Jane is repeatedly menaced by a mysterious, phantom black hearse and its creepy driver, who try to run her off the road and appear unexpectedly in her driveway. Inside the house, she experiences terrifying visions of her aunt's spirit and unravels dark family secrets through an old diary. Jane finds solace in a charming local man named Tom Sullivan (David Gautreaux), but she eventually learns that he has a sinister, ghostly connection to her aunt’s occult past.