Cries in the Night 1980

Heather Lesleh Donaldson arrives in a small unnamed town for the summer to stay with her eccentric and deeply religious grandmother, Maude Chalmers Kay Hawtrey. Maude’s house—a former funeral home converted into an inn—sits at the edge of town, and she has been trying to make ends meet since her husband James Chalmers Jack Van Evera vanished years ago. The place is also home to Billy Hibbs Stephen E. Miller, a mentally challenged handyman who keeps the property running and lends a steady, if odd, presence to Heather’s first days there.

Nearby, Sam Les Rubie reports an abandoned vehicle found on his land, traced to a missing real estate developer who had been surveying the area. That evening, guests Harry Browning Harvey Atkin and his mistress Florie Peggy Mahon check in. Maude deems them unmarried and asks them to leave, but they refuse and stay. The couple heads to a local quarry on Heather’s suggestion, and while they’re away, Maude’s truck collides with their car and drives it into the water, where both drown.

That same night, Heather goes on a date with Rick Yates Dean Garbett, a local teenager, and returns home to hear Maude speaking to an unseen man in the basement. Maude denies any such conversation, but the tension in the house deepens as strange sounds persist.

The next day, Rick visits again and reveals troubling fragments of Heather’s family history. He tells Heather that her grandfather, James, was a heavy drinker, and he recalls a childhood memory in which Mr. Chalmers restrained him and a friend in the funeral home’s basement to scare them. Heather and Rick explore the property while Maude is away; in the garage they discover James’s Cadillac hearse, and Heather finds a necklace engraved with the initials “H.D.”

That evening, Helena Davis Barbara Wheeldon—the missing wife of Mr. Davis Barry Morse—is brought up in conversation as rumors swirl about a possible affair. Maude denies any affair, but the tension mounts when Mr. Davis arrives to press the issue. Later, Mr. Davis is murdered with a pickaxe, shocking everyone in the inn and raising the stakes of Heather’s suspicions.

The following day, Florie and Harry’s bodies are found near the quarry, confirming the danger surrounding the inn. Heather confides in Rick that Maude may be hiding someone in the basement, a suspicion that now feels almost tangible. When Heather and Rick return to the house that evening, Maude is not there, and the two decide to search the basement regardless. They uncover Billy Hibbs’s corpse, and Maude appears, using her husband’s voice to scold Heather for venturing into the basement. She lunges with an axe, forcing Heather to flee into a hidden room where James’s corpse lies among a bed of Maude’s artificial flowers.

The police arrive at the scene in the basement, and a local officer speaks with Maude, who agrees to talk only if she can prepare a cup of tea. In the aftermath, the investigation reveals the grim truth: Maude murdered James and Helena after discovering their affair, preserved James’s body, and buried Helena and Mr. Davis in the local graveyard. The inn’s secrets, once whispered in the shadows of the basement, are finally laid bare as Heather and the town reckon with the legacy of Maude’s carefully cultivated life of religion, ritual, and grief turned deadly.