La casa delle anime erranti

This made for cable horror film tells the story of a handful of young geologists, who are unlucky enough to be forced to stay at a hotel in the middle of nowhere. What they don't know is that the hotel has been abandoned for twenty years, because the owner of the hotel had killed his family and all the guests two decades ago. Strange things begin to happen, and suddenly murders are committed...

Umberto Lenzi has done a decent film here, although his other made for cable feature that year, "La Casa dei Sortilegi", is superior (both films were made for a four-part-TV-series called Houses of Doom. The other two were Lucio Fulci's "La Casa nel Tempo" and "La Dolce Casa degli Orrori" - all films were made in 1989 by the way). There is one bizarre murder scene where a kid gets decapitated by a washing machine (sic!). All in all standard fare, but quite entertaining stuff.

Can it get any worser to understand it all? i mean, just look at the release of Ghosthouse (1988). It had an good script but was also called La Casa 3 clocking in on Evil Dead's success. Then came Ghosthouse 2 but that's a title used for a few different flicks and wasn't directed by Lenzi and had nothing to do with the original one. Here I just watched what they call in Germany Ghosthouse 3. But it has again nothing to do with Ghosthouse, in fact it should be called La Casa 5 but it doesn't. It's just one of the fourth part of the series "Le case maledette" (Doomed Houses) also including La dolce casa degli orrori, La casa nel tempo and La casa del sortilegio.

Again, as so many Italian flicks this is pure trash and just look at how it was made, it looked much older, it even looks as a seventies release. The effects were again dull and laughable. But this time a few killings did happen all as decapitations. The most notorious one the one with the laundry machine. Nevertheless it's again low on every part. It's so strange that a man like Lenzi could make such supernatural trash. The ghosts are just real people that are standing there with wooden performances and thats' what most of the acting is. Some did make it into the Italian scene.

Okay, it was a television release but still from someone who made Cannibal Ferox this is trash.

Gore 1/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 1/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

It's the old dark house plot again with added gore. Foolish young people take shelter in in old house or in this case, hotel and all hell then breaks loose. Not one of the most original stories in the field of horror films and sadly there is nothing really new in this made for TV movie. Other than the only known case of death by washing machine that is!

Made in 1989 but looks even more dated than that, the jocks and bimbos in the American splatter films were pretty air-headed but they were always far worse and incredibly stupid in the European ones. Anyone with an ounce of sense would see what a 'con-damned' building this house was and run for the hills. These just wait around aimlessly to be picked off by the forces of evil.

The sound dubbing isn't very good either and somewhat annoying as none of the voices seem to be in tune with the actors. And the small child while I guess, is supposed to be cute is just a major pain in the backside. But then again, none of the cast are sympathetic and you don't really care what happens to them.

Thus it rattles onto a dull finale and disappointment. Like a lot of Spanish and Italian films in this genre, the horror effects happen for no rhyme or reason, just to try to elicit a scare. There has to be some bounds of credibility and logic in even the most dopey plots.

Only for really die hard fans of the director.

Basically, you can judge your prospective enjoyment of this film by how you receive this line: "It's okay, the Doctors gave you a rational explanation. You've got psychic powers".

Although this is part of the House of Doom series, this film would be better off being called Ghosthouse 2: Ghosthotel, because both films have a lot in common. We start off with a group of geologists getting stuck trying to get to a certain destination, including Carla, who has visions, her boyfriend Kevin (Joseph Johnson, somehow ending up here via Slumber Party Massacre and Bezerker), Massimo (no doubt a tribute to Massimo Vanni), two other folks, and atypical annoying kid Gianluca. These folk, as you would imagine, end up stuck at some haunted hotel where the manager went insane and killed all the guests.

Carla's first to start seeing things, what with the television in the basement broadcast murders from twenty years ago, and Gianluca's seeing blood dripping from the ceiling and fake spiders everywhere. Travelling companion Mary gets pushed into a freezer by the maggoty hand from Ghosthouse and ends up sharing that space with two hanged corpses. By the end of all this our victims realise that things are a bit wrong at this particular hotel.

At this point things get even more Ghosthouse, when two of our characters head out into the world to investigate what the problem is while the rest of our characters stay behind to be murdered by the vengeful ghosts that reside in the hotel, so expect decapitation by washing machine (extra point for that), decapitation by knife, and decapitation by some other blade.

Meanwhile, Joe Johnson and the guy who's dubbed by the guy who appears in more Italian films that anyone else that exists run around town, graveyard etc trying to find out what's going on. Before you know it, they're back at the hotel with the only survivor, the ghosts have somehow used concrete to wall everyone in, and Joe Johnson's using a metal detector to find some severed heads!

If you are the most rational person in the world, I wouldn't be seeking this one out. However, if you like Umberto Lenzi films then this one is a fairly safe bet. There ain't much in the way of gore but if you like Ghosthouse then this is more of the same - haunted house stuff, people freaking out and getting killed, and a better soundtrack than normal. I've watched this one about five times and never get sick of it. It's the best of the House of Doom films for me and further proof that Lenzi is a fine director who managed to sully his name directing crappy cannibal films.

I came upon this one by pure accident and wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. Like the other films in the Ghosthouse universe, the plot isn't the best and the characters are crudely drawn at best, but the horror set pieces are memorable enough to keep one's interest throughout and it doesn't even crack the 90 minute runtime mark, so it's not a big commitment. People walking around with minimal horror makeup shouldn't be as creepy as they are in this movie. A lot of the horror scenes are made creepier by how unremarkable and mundane they are and then the film hits you with something insane like someone being decapitated by a washing machine.