The House Where Evil Dwells (1982)

A young American family moves to a House in Kyoto, Japan. It turns out to be haunted by the ghosts of a woman and her lover, who were killed by the woman's husband, as well as the ghost of the husband, who killed himself afterward.

Director:

Kevin Connor

Writers:

Robert Suhosky (screenplay), James Hardiman (novel)

Stars:

Edward Albert, Susan George, Doug McClure

4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Edward Albert	...	Ted Fletcher
Susan George	...	Laura Fletcher
Doug McClure	...	Alex Curtis
Amy Barrett	...	Amy Fletcher
Mako Hattori	...	Otami
Shunji Sasaki	...	Shugoro (as Toshiyuki Sasaki)
Toshiya Maruyama	...	Masanori
Tsuyako Okajima	...	Majyo Witch
Henry Mitowa	...	Zen Monk
Mayumi Umeda	...	Noriko, the babysitter
Hiroko Takano	...	Wakako
Shuren Sakurai	...	Noh Mask Maker
Shôji Ohara	...	Assistant Mask Maker (as Shoji Ohara)
Jirô Shirai	...	Tadashi (as Jiro Shirai)
Kazuo Yoshida	...	Editor

Storyline

In 1840, a samurai comes home to find his wife in bed with another man, so he kills them both and then himself. Flash-forward to the present day, and an American family of three moves into this since-abandoned house and starts to experience incidents of haunting and possession.

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Plot Keywords:

female nudity | topless female nudity | milf | sex scene | eye candy | 

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Taglines:

An ancient curse has turned their lives into a nightmare of lust and revenge.

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

The visual effects sequences featuring the Japanese ghosts were filmed utilizing an old German camera technique known as "Shauftausen". In a 2011 interview with John Kenneth Muir, director Kevin Connor said of this: "...basically you shoot the scene with one camera through a right-angled mirror. The ghost actors are on a black velvet background so you can control the density of their image as you shoot, ie you fade them in and fade them out and line them up easily with the 'live' actors. It worked very well, and of course you could see the composite dailies next day. Eventually we got this technique down to a fine art. It was important to show the ghosts in this fashion because basically it was an economical and effective process".

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Quotes

Amy Fletcher: [as she is watching a blue, ghostly face making faces at her] There's an awful face in my soup!

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Alternate Versions

The 1986 UK Warner video version was cut by 34 secs by the BBFC to edit the decapitation scenes and shots of a severed arm.

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Connections

Referenced in DashieXP: Ghetto Video Store! (2020)

User Reviews

Routine, Corny Ghost Story.

From reading all of the comments posted here on IMDb, this movie seems to get ragged on a lot, but I didn't think it was THAT bad. I've seen much worse, actually.

"The House Where Evil Dwells" is a ghost story about a husband and his wife, Ted and Laura Fletcher, and their daughter, Amy, who move into an old house in Japan. Little do they know, a Japanese ninja brutally murdered his wife and her lover, and then killed himself 100 years earlier with a samurai sword. As strange things happen in the house, the ghosts of the previous residents begin to possess the bodies of the living, and plan on re-enacting the bloody murder that took place 100 years back.

I saw this movie and decided to give it a chance, from the cover it looked like a decent ghost story. It was routine, and it was corny, but I've seen worse in my day. The ghost sequences were a little over-done, we get to see the translucent blue-tinted figures randomly pop up randomly around the family, and take over their bodies. To be honest, the ghosts in this movie kind of reminded me of the ghosts in the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland. I may be mistaken, but after watching this, it seemed to me that the Japanese horror film "Ju-On: The Grudge" and the American remake of that film ripped this off a little. The old Japanese home where a brutal murder took place, ghostly activity, curses put on the home, etc. But I may be wrong.

To sum it up, this is a pretty corny ghost story. Don't go out of your way to see it, but if you like this kind of thing and it happens to come on TV you can give it a shot. 4/10.

Details

Country:

Japan USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 May 1982 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Casa do Diabo

Filming Locations:

Tokyo, Japan

Box Office

Gross USA:

$667,863

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$667,863

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cohen, Commercial Credit Holdings, Toei Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1