Boardinghouse (1982)

Director:

John Wintergate

Writer:

John Wintergate (screenplay)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Where the rent won't kill you, but somthing else will!

Plot:

A boarding house is reopened years after gruesome murders were committed there. Suddenly, the body count begins once more!

Plot Keywords:

Blood | Murder | Mask | Nudity | Slasher Flick

Cast

John Wintergate	...	Jim Royce / Gardner (as Hawk Adly)
Kalassu	...	Victoria (also as Kalassu Kay)
Alexandra Day	...	Debbie Hoffman
Joel Riordan	...	Joel Weintraub (as Joel McGinnis Riordan)
Brian Bruderlin	...	Richard
Selma Kora	...	Sandy (as Belma Kora)
Tracy O'Brian	...	Suzie
Mary McKinley	...	Cindy
Rosane Woods	...	Gloria
Cindy Williamson	...	Pam
Christopher Conlan	...	Christopher
Elizabeth Hall	...	Terri
Tom Mones	...	The Agent
Dean Disico	...	Harris
Elliot Van Koghbe	...	Officer Weston

Also Known As:

Boarding House (USA) (alternative spelling)
Housegeist (video title)

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Italy:T (DVD re-rating) | Italy:VM14 (original rating) | USA:R | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Blustarr

Oh...god... what have I stumbled upon?

Holy Crapola-fest Batman! Dear God I haven't seen something so utterly bad, so awful, so mindnumbingly ATROCIOUS in all my years! This is pitiful. Just plain pitiful. I've seen dozens and dozens of schlocky, snooze-inducing, inconceivable messes of film but man does BOARDINGHOUSE take the friggin' cake! NEVER have I seen a film where it ACTUALLY hurt me to sit there and watch it! Ok, now that I'm done with my unnecessary banter...let me explain to you the award winning "plot" (LOL!). A man (who is really awkward looking) rents a house for sale and places an ad in the paper for "women 18-25 not attached and beautiful". Naturally, a bunch of fun lovin' 20 somethings show up. Throughout the movie they whine, moan, and complain...occasionally showing up in various states of undress (isn't that a MUST in 80s exploitation??). All fun aside (yeah, right) a poltergeist moves into the house to brutally butcher, chop, mutilate, and murder our adorable girls. These murder sequences are indeed quite gory, but I'll be damned if they were done by anyone who is, at the very least, a competent (and that's saying a lot) fx artist. Take one scene in the beginning of the movie for instance: This poltergeist creature (or whatever you wanna call it) uses some kind of mind control to force a guy to literally disembowel himself. It is night at first, but when the camera goes in for the close-up to show the guy graphically pulling out his intestines it is in broad DAYLIGHT! It's SO noticeable. I won't even mention the fact that the "guts" are simply just sitting at the bottom of his tucked-in shirt for him to grab out...the fx get worse. I can't remember how the movie ends since it's been awhile (or maybe I suffered brain damage), but much of the film we're lead to believe the main protagonist is the one responsible for the ghastly murders. Did I mention how awkward looking he is? Oh yeah, guess I did haha. Up and coming fx artists might want to take notice on how to do really cheap, amateurish make-up and blood. That's the ONLY good I might see coming from this film. Had it not been SOV, the script revised a bit (ok, a lot), cut out the boring/annoying stuff...it would've STILL only been just tolerable! At best!

Oh yeah, I failed to mention this is all filmed in "Horror-Vision". Gory images follow an annoying UFO-like sound, or a poorly done, computer effect full of bright colors with a black-gloved hand on the screen (??) to warn viewers with a weaker stomach. Cool concept...none of which is done right. Don't let gutter trash like this take up 80 some mins. of your life. I regret it.