House of the Damned (1996)

User Rating:

4.3/10   

Director:

Scott P. Levy

Writers:

Victoria Muspratt (story)
Brendan Broderick (screenplay)

Release Date:

13 July 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Plot:

Will and Maura, despite their marital problems, decide to come to Ireland and live on Maura's ancestral estate...

Plot Keywords:

Priest | Ireland | Parent Child Relationship | Doll | Supernatural

Cast

Alexandra Paul	...	Maura South
Greg Evigan	...	Will South
Briana Evigan	...	Aubrey South
Eamon Draper	...	Father Seamus
Dick Donaghue	...	Dr. Edward Shea
Mary Kate Ryan	...	Amy Wolfe
Columba Heneghan	...	Plumber
Triona Ui Chonsdale	...	Charwoman 2 (as Triona Ui Chongaile)
Helena Walsh	...	Charwoman 1
Marie Stafford	...	Marion
Adife O'Grady	...	Colleen
Elizabeth Costello	...	Woman in Bed
Celine Curtin	...	Bus Driver

Also Known As:

Escape to Nowhere (UK)
Spectre

MPAA:

Rated R for scenes of strong terror, violence and sexuality.

Runtime:

83 min | Argentina:93 min | Australia:92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | USA:R (certificate #34554)

Filming Locations:

Ireland

Company:

New Concorde

Movie Connections:

References Poltergeist (1982)

For masochists or the mindless only!

Given that Roger Corman attached his name to this production, I had high hopes for this film. Corman directed many memorable low budget horror flicks in the 1960's. I particularly enjoyed his adaptations of Poe's stories such as `The House Of Usher,' and `The Pit And Pendulum' and `The Raven' which starred the late great Vincent Price. These films had solid acting, atmosphere, suspense, strong characterization, intriguing plot development and delivered some chilling moments. Sadly, `House Of The Damned,' for the most part, sacrifices these qualities in lieu of cheesy low budget special effects, gratuitous nudity and mindless gore topped with cliche fast edits and camera angles.

`House Of The Damned' starts off interestingly with some beautiful location shots in Ireland, but it's straight downhill from here. Unfortunately, instead of spending some time building atmosphere, creating characters we might care about, or building suspense - the director opts to begin running up the body count. After a brief introduction to the lead characters, a young couple and their daughter, the audience spends the balance of the film being bounced from one `spooky' event to another which, in this film, substitutes for coherent plot development. The lead characters are so ill conceived and are so badly acted - the audience doesn't care what happens to them. To make matters worse, the `spooky' events are either utterly cliché or unconvincing due to low tech - low budget special effects. The soundtrack has been lifted from `The Omen.' The plot, what little there is, borrows heavily from `Poltergeist' and `The Legend Of Hell House,' but lacks any of the qualities which made these films convincing.

If you interested in seeing well done haunted house flicks, I recommend you check out classics like `The Haunting (1963),' `The Innocents (1961) or look into Corman's early American International films and pass on `House Of The Damned' unless you're masochistic or mindless.

3 ½ out of 10.

Rob Rheubottom

Wpg, MB. Canada