
            Farmer Vincent Smith (Rory Calhoun) and his younger overweight sister Ida (Nancy Parsons) live on a farm with a motel attached to it in an unnamed Deep South state. It's called 'Motel Hello', but the O on the sign constantly flicks on and off (hence the opening title of 'Motel Hell'). Vincent makes smoked meats said to be the most delicious in the surrounding area. Vincent's secret is human flesh, and Vincent has the areas around his isolated motel strewn with various booby traps to catch victims. The victims are placed in a 'secret garden' where they are buried up to their necks and have their vocal cords cut so they cannot scream; Vincent keeps them in the ground, feeding them special food, until they are ready and then kills them. Ida helps, and seems to enjoy it, whereas Vincent seems rather calm and certain in his belief he's not doing anything wrong. Vincent even refers to the people he's captured as "animals."The movie opens with Vincent going out one night and shooting out the tires of a motorcycle a couple is riding on: The male (Bo) is placed in the garden, but Vincent takes a shine to the young female (Terry) and brings her to the motel to help her recover from her injuries, much to Ida's displeasure. The next morning, Vincent's naïve and mild-mannered younger brother Sheriff Bruce (Paul Linke), who, unlike Ida, is not aware of his brother's secret, arrives, and Vincent tells Terry that her boyfriend died in the accident and that he buried him: a trip to the graveyard shows a crude grave marker placed there by Vincent. Terry, having nowhere else to go, decides to stay at the motel.Most of the film consists of Vincent (with Ida's help) capturing more victims for his garden. One of the first on-screen victims is a local health inspector for Vincent's pigs who spies the hidden garden by chance, goes to investigate, and then becomes part of it. The next evening, a van full of drugged-up band members are driving past the area of the motel in which Vincent blows their tires out by laying out spikes in the road and captures them. At the same time, Vincent uses his folksy charm to woo Terry, much to Bruce's dislike, who tries to woo her himself without much success.Another night later, Vincent captures more victims by placing a pack of cardboard cows on the road. When a car containing two women pass by, one gets out and when she goes to move the cows, Vincent gases her. The other woman gets in the driver's seat and plows through the cardboard cows and attempts to flee. Vincent chases after her in his pickup truck in which a long car chase ensues. The woman in the car apparently faints from the stress of her terror in which her car goes off the road and into a nearby pond where she drowns. Meanwhile, Bruce attemps again to woo Terry by taking her to a spot overlooking a local drive-in theater where they attempt to watch a movie on the big screen only when Bruce overhears the other woman over his police car's CB radio attemping to call for help for she is being chased. Bruce tries to start up the car, but it gets stuck in the mud. Bruce ends up falling into a mud puddle attemping to push his car free.That same night, the mud-covered Bruce drops Terry off back at the motel where he questions Vincent and Ida about the mysterious chatter over the CB's and Vincent suggests that it was just teenage kids playing a prank. After Bruce leaves, a pair of swingers show up at the motel with a false ad that the motel is a swinger's paradise which is titled 'Vincent's Motel'. After putting Terry to bed, Vincent and Ida enter the couple's motel room where they gas both of them and add them to their back garden.The next day Vincent suggests he may teach Terry how to smoke meat. Terry is willing to tour Vincent's smokehouse in the back and adds: "Don't worry. I have a cast-iron stomach". Ida finds out about this and, jealous of Terry's hold over Vincent, attempts to drown her in the nearby pond (by luring her out there to play on inner tubes), but Vincent comes in time and saves her. This proves to be a catalyst for Terry, who tries to seduce Vincent (he stops her, claiming it would not be proper until they were married) and she then agrees to marry him.A few days later, Bruce, while 'walking the beat' in the nearby town, learns from the local preacher Reverend Billy (Wolfman Jack) about Vincent's upcoming marriage to Terry. Unhappy that he's "lost" Terry, Bruce drives down to the motel once he hears the news and bursts into Terry's bathroom to protest Terry's choice (and during his rant to slander his brother claims his brother has 'syphilis of the brain', which might explain Vincent's calmness towards murder and cannibalism), but Vincent appears and chases his brother off with a shotgun. Having decided to have the wedding tomorrow, Vincent, Terry, and Ida share a glass of champagne, but Ida drugs the champagne to knock Terry out so she and Vincent can prepare some of the garden victims (presumably for the wedding feast tomorrow).Meanwhile, Bruce, still angry over losing Terry, starts doing some detective work on a few strange things he's noticed and starts to feel that something is not quite right at his brother's farm. After looking around, Bruce finds a pond near the motel which is filled with dozens of abandoned cars from the various passerbys that Vincent has captured.Vincent and Ida kill three of the band members (by hypnotising them, then tying nooses around their necks, attaching the rope to a tractor, and driving the tractor to break their necks) and pull them out of the ground to take to Vincent's meat processing plant. However, doing so seems to loosen the dirt around Bo, as he begins to try to escape. Bruce sneaks back to the motel to try to rescue Terry, but Ida returns to the motel for a snack and overhears Bruce trying to get Terry to leave. Ida ambushes Bruce when he leaves the room and knocks him out, and then takes Terry at gunpoint to the meat processing plant. Meanwhile, Bo escapes and frees the other victims in the garden.Vincent, upset that his 'love' found out his secret the way she did, sends Ida back to the motel to fetch his brother, but the victims, having escaped (and in a nod to zombie films, have staggered around groaning and hissing due to their cut vocal cords), ambush her and knock her out.Terry tries to escape the meat processing plant, but the door is locked and Vincent sadly knocks Terry out with gas, and then ties her to a conveyor belt, apparently planning to kill her too. He is interrupted by Bo, who crashes into the meat plant via an overhead window and brawls with Vincent, but he is weak from being trapped in the garden for so long and Vincent strangles him.Bruce awakens, finds one of his brother's shotguns, and goes to the meat packing building/smokehouse himself, but finds that his brother has armed himself with a giant chainsaw (and placed a pig's head over his own as a gruesome mask). Vincent manages to disarm his brother, but Bruce grabs his own chainsaw and proceeds to have a violent duel with Vincent (later parodied in 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2'), in the process turning on the conveyor belt Terry is tied to, sending her slowly towards a meat cutting blade. Despite suffering several wounds, Bruce drives the chainsaw into his Vincent's side for a mortal wound. Bruce frees Terry and then returns with her to his wounded brother, who gasps his final words, leaving the farm and 'secret garden' to Bruce, and then lamenting that his whole life was a lie and he was the biggest hypocrite of all ("My... meat... I... I... used... preservatives!") before he dies.Bruce and Terry go to the secret garden and find Ida buried in it as revenge... head first! (Of the victims there is no sign of them. They seem to have wandered off somewhere, presumably getting help.. but who knows?)In the final scene, Bruce and Terry then head past the motel, while Bruce comments on how he had no idea what was going on and was glad he'd run away when he was eleven. Terry suggests they just burn the motel, claiming it's evil. The sign saying MOTEL HELLO finally fully shorts out, permanently darkening the O and leaving the title: MOTEL HELL as the end credits role.
    

Motel Hell


            We open with a zoom in from outside our galaxy, the planet Saturn, a view of the earthrise over the surface of the moon, and the earth zooming in on Egypt. Credits roll with the pyramids in the background. A modern archeological team is working when an earthquake rattles their site. When the lights come back on we see King Tut's tomb and a section of wall collapsed. Holding a flashlight is Prof. Douglas McCadden (Ben Murphy). His assistant, Abdellah (Behrouz Vossoughi) is at his side; inside the chamber is another tomb, surrounded by skeletonized remains.A Boeing 727 lands at an airport in Southern California. We see a panning shot of the California Institute of the Sciences (the campus of CSU, Northridge). McCadden is supervising the removal of the sarcophagus of Ankh Venharis from a truck. Annoying the professor is the campus photographer, Linda Flores (Shari Belafonte-Harper). After the tomb is set up in the lab/classroom, his student aid, Susie Fuller (Nina Axelrod) assists with removal of the seals. They remove the outer lid revealing a decorative inner lid. They read the cartouche--Ankh Venharis, translated as "a noble traveler." Michael Goldstein (Gary Dubin) asks why they would bury a foreign dignitary with King Tut. They start to remove the inner lid when they are interrupted by Peter Sharpe (Kevin Brophy) and his assistant wheeling in an X-Ray machine. They carefully remove the inner lid revealing the mummified remains of a humanoid body covered with wrappings that are covered with a green powdery substance. McCadden tells Michael to get a sample, but in doing so he gets a little on his wrist, despite wearing protective gloves. Susie hands McCadden a jar; he places the scroll of dedication into same and seals the jar. Class is dismissed. Sharpe derisively dismisses Jack Parker (Robert Random), but McCadden overrules him, explaining he is the chief engineer and he wants him present. Sharpe X-Rays the mummy, but after the third shot, Parker notices the setting on the machine and immediately pulls the plug. Sharpe was using ten times the normal dose. Exasperated, McCadden dismisses Sharpe and tells him to deliver the developed X-Rays to his office. Sharpe develops the X-Rays, but while checking them he notices five spherical objects on the film. McCadden and Susie are cleaning the scroll. Sharpe returns to the lab and aligning the X-Rays to the sarcophagus finds a hidden compartment. He opens it and retrieves a leather pouch containing five crystals. He pockets them, examines the rest of the drawer's contents, and satisfied the rest is worthless, closes it back up. He X-Rays the mummy so he can substitute the new film for the old. He packages the films and delivers them to McCadden's office. He stashes the incriminating X-Ray in a transformer room, but can't retrieve it.The high dose of X-Ray radiation reactivates the mummy. McCadden talks to a colleague on the phone about the green substance; he suspects it is a dormant mold. He asks Susie to run the sample over to Dr. Ken Melrose in Pathology. The arms of the mummy move revealing a bright blue light in his chest. The mummy sits up. Susie jostles McCadden awake. He fell asleep at his desk and it is now morning. Examining the X-Rays, McCadden concludes, "this mummy wasn't prepared in the standard manner." In the lab, Susie and McCadden discover the hidden compartment and pull it open. Instead of a green powder, they find a green and yellow wet-paint like substance. As Susie reaches out, McCadden tells her not to touch it, but go tell Melrose that the mold has changed.Sharpe stops by Drucker's Jewelers to have the crystals appraised. The Jeweler (Alan Rachins) informs him, "they are worthless." Ken Melrose (Austin Stoker) pays a visit to the lab and takes a sample from the hidden drawer. He informs McCadden that it is the same fungus, but no longer dormant. He advises no one go near it. The press has been invited to the lab where the sarcophagus is displayed. As they take their seats, McCadden talks to the University President about cancelling the press conference. Michael is guarding the sarcophagus when he notices a splotch of the active green fungus and touches it. He screams and holds his hand up in pain. His index finger is partially covered with the mold. McCadden orders Susie to take him to the campus Hospital Emergency Room and to call Melrose. Amid the commotion, the campus President, Dr. Wendell J. Rossmore (James Karen) walks in. He is flanked by his assistant, Dr. Bruce Serrano (Sam Chew, Jr.) and campus police Captain Willoughby (Clint Young). In his lab, Melrose begins his examination of the fungus. Rossmore takes over the presentation to the press, but he has McCadden unveil the mummy. When his students remove the inner lid the sarcophagus is empty.In the President's office, Peter Sharpe is questioned about his possible involvement in stealing the mummy. Parker is also present. Rossmore demands the mummy be found and directs the campus police to find it. McCadden suggests the local police be notified, but Rossmore insists the recovery be handled internally and directs Willoughby to search the campus. The mummy has chosen the reactor room to hide and work. A janitor (Hugh Stanger) comes into clean, discovers it and is killed. McCadden and Melrose are in the Pathology lab. Melrose explains that the fungus is like nothing he's ever seen. The phone rings and they leave. Dr. Hayworth (Antoinette Bower) is treating Michael Goldstein, and explains that the fungus breaks down tissues and doubles its size every 65 minutes. They enter Michael's hospital room. He has his right hand in a tray. Dr. Hayworth removes the cloth to reveal the fungus has covered it and half of his forearm. Dr. Hayworth recommends amputation before it goes any further.Sharpe is peeping at Parker's girlfriend, Jennie (Melissa Prophet) through the window. She is putting on her bra when his girlfriend, Sherri (Greta Blackburn) catches him. Jennie and Sherri are roommates and share a house together. As a peace offering he gives Sherri one of the crystals on a gold necklace. Capt. Willoughby, while on rounds, discovers the Electrical Supply Room has been burglarized. The room is a shambles. He uses the telephone to report the break in to Dr. Serrano, President Rossmore's assistant.McCadden walks over to KCIS, the campus radio station, and meets with Linda Flores. She is the evening DJ in addition to her duties as campus photographer. He broadcasts a message to the Fraternity houses demanding the return of the mummy. He warns them of the danger of the fungus on the wrappings. In need of more cash to take his girlfriend out to dinner, Sharpe sells a crystal to Greg Hauser (Gerard Prendergast). Now flush with cash, he and Sherri go to dinner at a very expensive restaurant. While dining, a couple of fraternity brothers see them and accost Sharpe over some unpaid loan. Stanley (Warrington Gillette) and Bill Vogler (John Lavachielli) take his $50, but he works a deal for a couple more crystals. While dining Sherri notices the crystal getting warm and lighting up and pulsating. After he gets off work, Greg Hauser stops by to see his girlfriend, Ellen Winters (Greta Stapf). She is babysitting. He puts his coat over the baby's crib and the crystal necklace he intends to give her as a present falls out. They walk down the hallway to the bedroom to make out. The mummy is on the prowl to recover his stolen crystals. He enters the house. Greg puts the present around her neck. The baby begins to cry and Ellen goes in to check on him. The mummy reaches out, takes the crystal, and she screams and falls back against the wall with a baseball sized burn on her chest. In the hospital, Dr. Hayworth introduces Lt. Plummer (Darwin Jostin) to Drs. Melrose and McCadden. Plummer tries to question Greg Hauser about the circumstances surrounding Ellen's accident and burn. He's in shock and only says one word, "Mummy." The mummy places the first of five recovered crystals on the triangular transmitter/receiver. When he does so electrical appliances in the vacinity begin to malfunction.McCadden has translated the scroll he found with mummified remains of Ankh Venharis. It reads, "because of his unusual appearance, the Egyptians assumed him to be a god...King Tut reached out to touch the weary traveler and was sorely burned with a disease that consumed his flesh." Melrose returns to his lab to do an experiment on the fungus; he discovers X-Rays activate it. He concludes that an X-Ray to check for broken bones on Ellen will do the same to her. He calls to have the X-Ray cancelled, but his call his too late. The X-Ray causes the fungus to spread to her neck and head and kills her. Stanley runs into Susie on the campus. He's interested in her, but she does not reciprocate. He gives her a bracelet with a crystal.It's now Saturday and a Fraternity party with an ancient Egyptian theme is starting. The mummy is back on the prowl (or glide) for another crystal. Bill Vogler is looking for his would be girlfriend, Sarah (Michelle Avonne). She stands him up and he throws the crystal necklace on the ground in disgust. He has second thoughts, and retrieves it only to have the mummy pull it from him. He gives Bill a back hand that knocks him into a wall with tremendous force killing him instantly. The mummy adds the second crystal to his transmitter, which causes a wider spread electrical interference. Jack Parker, who stopped by to see his girlfriend, Jennie, excuses himself to check on the power outage. He discovers a power drain in the campus reactor building, investigates, but is satisfied there is no danger. As he exits he bumps into Dr. Serrano and Capt. Willoughby. The fraternity party moves outside. While Jack Parker walks back to see Jennie, he discovers the body of Bill Vogler just as the party walks by. Lt. Plummer arrives and questions McCadden, then questions Rossmore. After the police leave, Serrano tells Rossmore he believes McCadden stole his own mummy and is waiting to return it to be a hero.The next morning, McCadden and Susie discover the bracelet crystal has something inside. It looks like an electrical diagram. The same pattern was on a piece of material they found with the scroll in the sarcophagus. They ask Jack Parker to examine the crystal and the diagram and he agrees they do look like a wiring schematic. McCadden sends Susie to the Library to do some research. When she arrives, the floor is empty. The mummy is outside. He's attracted to the crystal Susie is wearing on her wrist. He follows her inside and chases her around various floors. She escapes into an elevator and manages to get outside on the roof. She notices it glowing and pulsating. She tries to remove it, but is unsuccessful. The mummy reaches out for the crystal while she is trying to descend a ladder. He gets the crystal, but she falls off the ledge of the library building and is seriously hurt. Fortunately he did not touch her while retrieving the crystal. When she wakes in the hospital, Lt. Plummer is there to question her. She states that the mummy is alive and responsible for the deaths on campus, but he does not believe her. The mummy now has three of the five crystals he needs. He steals a transformer from the Archaeology Building to complete his project. McCadden and Parker find mummy wrappings where the transformer was, and the X-Ray films that Sharpe hid. They confront Sharpe with the evidence. He initially denies any knowledge, then comes clean and tells his story. He still has one crystal left, but admits the remaining one he gave to Sherri. Parker realizes that his girlfriend, Jennie is Sherri's roommate and she is in danger. McCadden now has the fifth crystal. Sharpe tells Parker his girlfriend left it home in the bathroom. Parker rushes over to the house, as does the mummy. McCadden heads for the Reactor Building. The mummy retrieves his fourth crystal, but does not injure Jennie. McCadden notices the mummy's improvised transmitter and adds his crystal to the mechanism. Just then Rossmore, Serrano, and Capt. Willoughby walk in. The mummy arrives at the Reactor Building with crystal number four. He moves McCadden's crystal to the correct location and adds the fifth. The system fires up and the mummy transforms into an alien with large black eyes, and a small nose and mouth. Serrano orders Willoughby to shoot it, but McCadden steps in front of the alien to protect it and is hit by the bullet for his trouble. He is hit in the arm and collapses at the alien's feet. It is now glowing and reaches out with his hand to touch McCadden's hand. They grasp each other's hand and the two disappear, leaving only the glowing crystal that was in the mummy's chest. Serrano races over to retrieve the glowing crystal. He screams and holds up his charred hand. It is burned like all the others that were touched by the fungus or the mummy. The movie concludes with the phrase, "To be Continued."
    

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