Inn of the Damned

It is getting a bit dated now and our view of films changes over time but the first time I ever saw this film I could NOT believe it had been made in Australia - I didn't think we were that good. I first saw it 30 years ago but still have a copy and am watching it again. There is more sex than I remembered - how odd - but there is some good acting and great scenery of paddocks shot around Camden. These are probably housing estates now.

I found the punch line quite moving and still do. The acting is good and quite professional. On the whole, it is still a scary movie without the use of cgi or special effects.

I enjoyed the movie itself.Good original but sad story. Touched a not very exposed taboo.That is Female molestation of younger teenage girls briefly. The sound quality and lighting is not the best.Time for a remake in the digital era.

Read anything about "Inn of the Damned" and you'll doubtlessly come across a description of the way the movie was intended as a one-hour long episode of a TV series that was to begin with the director's earlier "Night of Fear". The TV show idea was scrapped when the ABC failed to pick it up, and so Bourke expanded his concept into an almost two hour long movie.

Read any REVIEW of the movie, however, and you'll read about the movie's strange, unsuccessful melding of two genres: the western and the horror movie.

What you WON'T read is what a fantastic short horror movie was buried in "Inn of the Damned"'s almost two hour length. It features the fulfilment of the promise Bourke showed in "Night of Fear", with some genuinely shocking, disturbing, and nail-biting moments.

Alas, these all come too late for those of us with short attention spans. The movie doesn't really try to mix the two genres; it starts as a tepid horror movie, has about an hour long preamble as a middling western, and then goes into full-on horror mode. The horror story could've been told in any time period.

The movie jolts us back into its REAL story with a strange subplot about two young women who stay at the titular inn who hate each other, but the older has sapphic feelings for the younger. Some would say that this is just more bizarre preamble before the movie gets going again, but I see it as a fantastic beginning of the superior and worth the price of admission, final act. It supplies us with nudity and lesbianism, yes, but also a macabre subplot that comes to an even more macabre end. And so the end begins in earnest.

I scoffed when I saw the "Hitchcockian" quote on the video cover. I was wrong. The master would have been proud of the movie's suspenseful, shocking and disturbing final moments. It's just too bad you have to wait so late in the movie to get there.

I watched an old VHS copy of this film. The box suggested a Night of the Western Dead, but the film is actually an Australian Western. Turns out director Terry Bourke is pretty good at it. Its about a hotel run by Dame Judith Anderson and her husband(?) weirdo doing the Psycho hotel number. Alex Cord plays an American bounty hunter looking for a sex pervert that is on the run. His story is the most interesting. The film could have left out the hotel thingy-story. Made in 1974. I'm recommending the film as a time filler. Please try to get it on DVD, as the old Paragon VHS is hard to find and kind of hard to watch: the picture is very grainy.

At an isolated inn, the elderly owners, Caroline and Lazar Straulle, are killing off anyone who stays with them. Meanwhile, in the same area, a murderer is on the run from the law. At the vanguard of his pursuers is a bounty hunter, Kincaid, a highly resourceful man. It is inevitable that he and the Straulles will cross paths.

Better than expected, though still not great. On the surface this seems like a common-or-garden horror movie. However, it turns out it is better than that, being a crime-drama and an okay one at that.

Yes, the production values are quite low and the plot a bit haphazard but it is interesting enough. Performances are solid, which is the biggest surprise.

Not great though. As mentioned, the plot lacks solidity. Moreover, it is quite padded: the early and middle sections seem to go around in circles and there are several scenes and sub-plots that could easily be left out.

It does end in very thrilling fashion though, making up for the tedium of some of the earlier scenes.