La casa del terror

I'm a sucker for John Ritter due to my longstanding love of "Three's Company," so when I stumbled across this flick while browsing through On Demand horror movies, I was quick to download it.

I wasn't expecting much, but I found myself laughing right from the opening credits, and I was thoroughly engaged during these "Tales from the Darkside"-type stories. I think my favorite was the second--I don't think I've ever seen a monkey as a horror villain!

The film satisfied both my love for Ritter and my love for cheezy horror, so I have no complaints. If you like Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Darkside, the Twilight Zone, or any of the other myriad sci-fi/horror anthologies, you might just enjoy this little unknown gem. Worth a watch, especially around Halloween when all the other horror flicks are rented.

The suburban real estate agent Bob Carter (John Ritter) is driving the newlywed Allen Doyle (David DeLuise) and his wife Mary Ann Doyle (Allison Smith) through a suburban area expecting to sell a house to them. While showing the houses, his clients asks for full disclosure about each house and Carter is forced to tell the frightful truth about each house. In the end, Mary Ann knows the neighborhood.

"Terror Tract" is an excellent horror film with a lead storyline and three segments. "Nightmare", "Bobo" and come to Granny" are highly entertaining and the lead segment "Make Me an Offer" has a surprising and hilarious conclusion. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Casa do Terror Tract" ("The House of the Terror Tract")

(the house on)Terror Tract is a recent and rather good horror film that should have deserved a bit more praise and credit than it actually got at the time of its release. It certainly isn't a highlight, but it is good enough to take the test with similar movies like "Creepshow" and "Tales from the Darkside". The late John Ritter portrays a real-estate manager who's showing some fancy and luxurious houses to a young couple. Due to a newly introduced ethical law, he's obliged to tell the potential buyers every little detail about the past of these houses. That's how we come to the separate stories. Actually, the whole wraparound story starring John Ritter is the best part of the entire movie...it contains a terrific opening on the "eat or be eaten" theme and the finale is just great. Terror Tract constantly flirts with the genre of parody (life in the upper-class neighborhood) but it manages to keep up the horror atmosphere during the entire movie. The quality level of the actual stories of Terror Tract is varying directly as their order. The first story is lame and far from original and handles about the "getting rid of the husband's corpse"-theme. The second story contains a few more interesting aspects but it still isn't quite satisfying. However, the third and final story was really good. It has a fascinating plot and the suspense is built up real well.

The House on Terror Tract certainly isn't a must-see, but you won't regret it if you spend your time watching it. The most important positive point of this film are that it has a fresh and light-headed tone and a pretty funny surrounding. It could have used a bit more bloody sequences, though...

Ah, Terror Tract. I had seen this movie about a year ago and enjoyed it a lot. It's three horror stories, each about 35-40 minutes each, compiled into one movie. They tie it all together with a story about a real estate officer who desperately, DESPERATELY needs to sell homes to a newlywed couple, and ends up telling them the stories behind each house. The first story, "Nightmare", is a love triangle story that involves a murdered husband coming back from the dead to kill his wife. The second story, "Bobo", is about a pet monkey that has some sinister tricks up it's sleeve. The third story 'Come to Granny' is the real gold nugget in this piece, the shining work of the film. And the ending is a good exercise in chaotic insanity that will leave a bewildered smile on your face as the credits roll in.

"Nightmare" is a solid little story, but not overly memorable, and could've been omitted for a better one, or just to elongate the duration of "Come to Granny." This story felt way too long and was rather boring in some parts, although the ending was nice and the murder scene at the beginning was well executed (heh...pun...). Bad acting all around though. "Bobo" has good acting by Bryan Cranston as Ron, the father, and is rather humorous and ridiculous. It was a step up from the bland "Nightmare", but still not world class and could not stand on it's own as a real movie.

Then we reach the high point of our little anthology, "Come to Granny." It's the story of a troubled, dark young man who comes into the office of a psychiatrist late in the evening, and begins to tell the tale of how he sees the murders of 'The Granny Killer', a brutal psychopath who wears a mask resembling an old woman, and how his life was ruined because of it. This one packs very good hack-n-slash kills and an excellent and creepy ending. We have a good acting performance by Will Estes as Sean, and if I can say, Shonda Farr looks very nice as Jasmine, too. This one would be very good as a B slasher/horror flick, and I'd definitely pick it up on it's own. Worth the rental of the entire anthology by itself.

The ending of the film itself, like I stated above, is a good little burst of chaos and blood and gore, and pretty funny. John Ritter's performance was adequate and he did a great job. Overall, worth a rental for even casual horror fans, if you're looking for something interesting. This also comes with Cherry Falls in some sort of double feature type thing, and that movie is my personal favorite of the two.

Real estate man John Ritter shows three houses to a young couple (David Deluise, Allison Smith). Each one has a horrible story attached to it which Ritter tells the couple.

"Nightmare" is a predictable story about a love triangle and murder. There are too many false scares but it's fairly well-done. "Bobo" is a real stupid tale of a killer monkey. Dumb, illogical, silly but Bryan Cranston gives a good performance despite the script. "Come to Granny" is a winner. A teenage boy (Will Estes) sees killings before they're about to happen at the hands of the Granny Killer--a killer who wears a disgusting old womans mask while killing women. The mask itself is scary and the murder scenes are violent, bloody and extremely well-done. Also Estes makes for a very sympathetic protagonist (and has a surprising shower scene). The final wrap up of the framing story is also bloody, funny and really good.

All in all, it's much better than I expected. It's worth seeing for the bits involving Ritter (who's very good) and the final story.