Delusion

Meredith moves to the Langrock estate to take care of Langrock himself, an ailing man whose legs no longer work. Langrock has a son who is disturbed in some way, as well as his orphaned teenage grandson Gabriel who returns from a desert commune (or something) to live with the family. Langrock's butler has been working his way through the wine cellar for years, and the cook is proud of her granola...mmm.

Gabriel is a strange young man who likes lurking in shadows, saying or reacting in peculiar ways and generally making people uneasy. Meredith is fascinated by him, but also fears he's behind the brutal death of the guard dog and the other deaths that follow.

A fair amount of the movie also has voice-over by Meredith.

The Embassy Home Entertainment VHS is not the best print; nighttime scenes or those in the cellar are dark and lack definition. The end credits are fairly unreadable.

It's very difficult to put into words just how poor & tedious this film is to watch. It was a chore to sit through such a dire, tiresome and insultingly substandard cinematic effort - I want to claim back the time it took to watch this, and the small amount of cash I bought it for. (Even though I think i picked it up for £1:99)

"Delusion" (also released as "The House Where Death Lives") follows a young nurse who goes to work at the Langrock estate to care for a dying millionaire. After the arrival of the elderly man's troubled nephew, anyone connected to the home begins to die at the hands of an unseen killer.

This pseudo-psychological slasher film has mostly been forgotten, and registers as one of the more obscure of its peers, though not entirely for good reason. It's not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but it is reasonably well-shot and captures a claustrophobic, isolated atmosphere. The film falls in familiar trappings and does little to distinguish itself, but it does drum up a bit of intrigue with a couple of its murder scenes (each of which are clobbering administered by a loose table leg, oddly enough) which are well-executed.

The acting is a mix of poor to decent, with Joseph Cotten playing the ailing patriarch, and Patricia Pearcy (of 1976's "Squirm"), who here seems to be overplaying catatonia a bit much, though she does a generally serviceable job. I actually found the letter voice-over narration an interesting way to frame the film, and certainly not one used often, especially in slasher films. The finale comes together a bit quickly and feels slapdash in nature, though it's mildly satisfying.

Overall, "Delusion" is a middling slasher film, part psychological thriller and part murder mystery. It's certainly not original, but it is relatively well-shot and has a few moments scattered throughout that drum up a bit of suspense. Its limited locations exhibit what I presume was a low budget, but there is a hazy air about the film that leaves it feeling a bit like a fever dream. Not great, not terrible—certainly unremarkable, but worth a watch from slasher completists. 6/10.

I'm glad some local and old video stores still own VHS titles such as "Delusion". I remember watching it on a cheap video store located on a horrible social security living area. That was in the early 90's. Now, years later, to my surprise, I found the VHS of this tape.

I regret I didn't watch it before. This is the typical slasher flick with the "whodunit?" premise. The plot is very simple and easy to follow. A young cute nurse arrives to a creepy mansion to take care of an invalid and creepy old man. But it's the family of the old man who gives really the creeps to our heroine; including the mysterious butler. Why? Because each of them has weird activities and personalities. Then, "strange" killings start to happen and it's only Meredith who can discover who is behind them.

Well this is a standard slasher with a few decent death scenes and some bizarre sequences including nightmares and suspense.

Watch it only if you are hungry of slasher flicks. I could've enjoyed it more back when the slasher craziness was at it's peek. To these days, it looks dated and cheap. Oh and the VHS copy I found was horrible in all the sense of the word.

My review was written in February 1984 after a screening at 42nd St. Times Square theater.

"The House Where Death Lives" is a painfully slow-paced and old-fashioned gothic horror film, made in 1980 and originally titled "Delusion". Once-planned for release by the since-defunct The International Picture Show Co., picture has had territorial release over the past two years via Gotham-based New American Films as well as pay-tv exposure, ahead of its current Manhattan debut.

Trite tale unfolds in flashback (bookended by the heroine writing this story to her dad), concerning a young man, introverted nurse Meredith (Patricia Pearcy) arriving at a mansion to take care of crippled Ivar Langrock (Joseph Cotten). Another newcomer to the Fairlawn estate is Gabriel (John Dukakis), Langrock's suspicious-looking 16-year-old grandson who has been living in a commune.

Overly expository opening reels introduce (with a straight face) many cliches of the gothic format: a face seen at an upstairs window of a room that is always kept locked, a heroine prone to wandering inquisitively about the house and grounds, etc. One b one, cast members are dispatched by a sudden bonk on the head from a blunt instrument (it turns out to be a leg from a table) until the final reel reveals who the crazy is. Wedged into the package for the umpteenth time is a case of incest as a long-ago incident and plot motivator.

Director Alan Beattie fails to generate suspense or atmosphere in a picture that remains low-key even during violent scenes. Acting is more than competent, with red-headed, fair-complexioned Patricia Pearcy making a distinctive impression in the rather limited central role and Cotten (in his most recent screen appearance) thoroughly professional in support. Despite its release title linking the film with the overworked "blame it on the house" horror genre, pic's locale is neutrally plain and there are no supernatural overtones.