Death Nurse 1987

From their suburban home, Doctor Gordon Mortley [Albert Eskinazi] and his sister Edith Mortley [Priscilla Alden] run Shady Palms Clinic, a facility that takes in physically or mentally ill indigents sent to them by the county. In reality, the Mortleys are con artists who murder their patients (usually during “surgeries” performed by Gordon) and continue billing the state for their care afterward. The only permanent resident of the clinic is Louise Kagel [Irmgard Millard], an alcoholic.

One day, a social services worker, Faith Chandler [Frances Millard], drops off John Davis [Nick Millard], a man afflicted with tuberculosis. Edith smothers John, and Gordon buries his body, though he is later forced to dig it up and crudely puppeteer it to create the illusion that Davis is still alive when Faith asks to check in on him after bringing Charles Bedowski [Royal Farros], who has a heart condition, to Shady Palms.

After Faith’s visit, Edith and Gordon kill Bedowski while attempting to replace his heart with a dead dog’s. The procedure is interrupted by the Mortley family cat, who grabs the heart. Gordon and Edith chase the cat, and deem the transplant a failure. Bedowski’s remains are buried by Gordon, and Edith feeds pieces of him to the rats that live in the garage. The infestation of vermin does not go unnoticed by the authorities, and when Mr. Smith, an environmental health officer, threatens to shut the clinic down, Edith stabs him to death.

Faith herself checks into Shady Palms, and grows suspicious of the facility, which causes Edith to knife her, after feeding the woman rats she had cooked her for lunch. Louise Kagel [Irmgard Millard] witnesses Faith’s murder, so Edith kills her with a syringe, despite Gordon’s fondness for her. Edith has Gordon place the bodies of Smith, Faith, and Louise in the garage, from which their smell attracts the attention of a police lieutenant who had stopped by to visit Charles Bedowski. Observing from a window as the lieutenant opens the garage and discovers what is inside it, a dejected Edith sits on a sofa with Gordon, and the film ends.