House of Ghosts

It takes a few minutes before you realise you are watching a great filmmaker pretending to be a really bad filmmaker, but stick with it and you will find yourself sucked in. The acting starts out over the top exposition heavy and hammy, but gradually shifts until without your having consciously realising it until the really good solid cast have drawn you in and are acting well enough to get jump scares out of almost unbearable tension upon their audience, before dropping back in to complete ham salad for the ending. Utilising actual techniques and camera tricks from the fifties and showing just how effective they and good make up can sell a movie you start to wonder why films today cost hundreds of millions when this director can turn out comparable stuff on a nothing budget of only $3000. I am going to seek out the rest of the films in the Mihmiverse ASAP.

I enjoy bad movies. I will not deny it. Especially old B horror movies. A friend of mine picked up House of Ghosts out of a dollar bin at a used bookstore in Minnesota. We thought it looked like a fun, schlocky, good time. What it ends up being is a movie that is desperately trying to recapture the magic of genre movies past. It falls flat on its face and instead we get a cheap imitation that completely misses the mark in all categories. Brutal film making. Embarrassing. I'm not a critic but I know what I like... and this, I do not like. Not worth your time. You can pick up a more entertaining movie out of a pack of 50 Horror Greats for $5.

I have watched all of this groups movies I have come acrossed and this one is my favorite. When I first watched this my first thought was give this guy a bigger budget and let's see what he could do but I now believe the shoe string budget makes it work. The acting is uneven but some of the cast if regulars are quite good. But I think it's inexcusable to not list one of the stars of this movie the impact and lasting impression will stick with me and I'm sure anyone who's see's the movie will not forget that hairpiece. It is so bad it had to be by design which makes me like the movie even more. If you can put the movie snob in your head to sleep and you like the craptacular 50s b movies this will be a treat.

This spoof to the genre is brilliantly bad. My brain was constantly asking me 'why am I watching this?' Yet I could not turn it off. You will laugh at the absence of anything you like about movies and in the end feel a bit confused how it could hold your attention.

Look, I appreciate what the filmmaker was trying to do. I'm a huge fan of the classic Castle films. But if you're going to make a movie that's an homage to that style of movie, then at least make it entertaining. It shouldn't be worse - or more boring - than the original. Sure, the Castle films were low budget, but they still had creepy scenes, likable characters, and an actual story. House of Ghosts has none of those. Either write an enjoyable scary script in the vein of Castle or other classic '50s movies, or go full spoof and make it funny like the hilarious Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2012) did. That way the audience has a reason to watch and recommend it. Otherwise, you're wasting your time and the audience's, because we're not interested in your pet project.