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
Tsuiyuki 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

Details

Country:

USA Japan

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 May 1982 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Casa do Diabo

Filming Locations:

Tokyo, Japan

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

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Kevin Connor has said of the film's major love scene in a 2011 interview with John Kenneth Muir: "The interesting story about this is that the producers wanted a more graphic sex scene, which wasn't in the script. So Edward Albert and Susan George agreed to do it on their terms which was that Susan would wear her panties because of an experience she had had on Straw Dogs (1971) where somebody at the lab [allegedly] had copied some of the revealing out-takes from her nude scenes - so she certainly wasn't going to let that happen again. You can imagine how difficult it was to shoot a nude scene with both your leads wearing underwear, but it worked out very well".

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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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Connections

Referenced in Vamp (1986)

User Reviews

THE HOUSE WHERE EVIL DWELLS (Kevin Connor, 1982) **

This could have been interesting – a Japan-set haunted house story from the viewpoint of a newly-installed American family – but falls flat due to an over-simplified treatment and the unsuitability of both cast and director.

The film suffers from the same problem I often encounter with the popular modern renaissance of such native fare, i.e. the fact that the spirits demonstrate themselves to be evil for no real reason other than that they're expected to! Besides, it doesn't deliver much in the scares department – a giant crab attack is merely silly – as, generally, the ghosts inhabit a specific character and cause him or her to act in a totally uncharacteristic way, such as Susan George seducing diplomat/friend-of-the-family Doug McClure and Edward Albert force-feeding his daughter a bowl of soup!

At one point, an old monk turns up at the house to warn Albert of the danger if they remain there – eventually, he's called upon to exorcise the premises. However, history is bound to repeat itself and tragedy is the only outcome of the tense situation duly created – leading to a violent yet unintentionally funny climax in which Albert and McClure, possessed by the spirits of their Japanese predecessors, engage in an impromptu karate duel to the death! At the end of the day, this emerges an innocuous time-waster – tolerable at just 88 minutes but, in no way, essential viewing.