La maison du cauchemar

Ghosthouse is a chilling haunted house tale with twists and turns that eventually lead up to confusion and unanswered questions. However, the film when it is not incoherent, is actually very enjoyable. It has many effective scare scenes and a twisted musical hymn, that will send chills down your spine for sure. So, in short, a relatively above average haunted house tale, rather good compared to late 80's horror, but an amateurish cast and a plot that tends to jump around emphatically, almost sinks the film. Almost. Worth a look.

Recently I picked up this title as an absolute bargain on eBay for just 99p & to be honest I wasn't expecting much as I'm a huge horror movie buff but haven't heard much about this title.

The director is credited as Humphrey Humbert - but to my surprise this was a pseudonym for the legendary Umberto Lenzi (better known for the notorious Cannibal Ferox). But those of you expecting a cannibal gut-crunching movie will be disappointed. In fact the film doesn't really have much gore in it but for what it lacks in human entrails it certainly makes up for in creepy atmosphere & an unforgettable spooky soundtrack.

Now I don't know about you but clowns have always been sinister to me & Ghosthouse is basically about the spirit of a young girl who carries around this clown doll & when she appears in front of unsuspecting victims they are soon dispensed of. Its at these moments that the creepy 'nursery-rhyme-esque' theme tune kicks in & it'll play in your mind for days on end!

Don't get me wrong this aint no Exorcist or Dawn Of The Dead but its a little known movie which if you get the chance is definitely worth watching.

Maybe if the director had used his real name & billed it as 'From The Director Of Cannibal Ferox' then it would've done much better financially.

From director Umberto Lenzi (using the riotous Americanized pseudonym of Humphrey Humbert) comes this dopey, low grade, but engagingly dumb haunted house flick.

Things begin with a prologue of young Henrietta (Kristen Fougerousse) being chastised by her father for butchering the family cat, and then being locked in the cellar. Soon after the parents are brutally murdered. Flash forward 21 years, and HAM radio operator Paul (Greg Scott) picks up radio signals of what sounds like people being terrorized. He traces the signals to an isolated manor, meeting up with other young adults. Soon these unfortunate souls are set upon by the demonic forces residing within the walls.

A banal script (by Cinthia McGavin), truly silly dialogue (by Sheila Goldberg), lame attempts at horror, and some delicious moments of gory violence combine in this enjoyably bad movie. The acting is likewise lousy from most everybody concerned, although it's nice, as it always is, to see the great character actor Donald O'Brien (a.k.a. Dr. Butcher, M.D.) as a hilariously unsubtle, menacing axe-wielding caretaker.

The young actors *are* attractive, in any event. Lara Wendel of Dario Argento's "Tenebre" is top billed as she plays Paul's girlfriend Martha. The adult performers don't fare much better, but there are some great character faces among them: William J. Devany as a detective, Alain Smith as Henrietta's father, Robert Champagne as a mortician.

The music, by Piero Montanari, is very bad, but amusingly so, while cinematographer Franco Delli Colli works to give the movie a decent look. At least "La Casa 3" ("La Casa 1" and "La Casa 2" being the Italian titles for the first two "Evil Dead" movies) gets much mileage out of a creepy clown doll, much like "Poltergeist" did six years previous.

Filmed in the same house as Lucio Fulci's "The House by the Cemetery".

Six out of 10.

A radio recording prompts a couple to investigate an old house, they join up with a group of teens and make the silly decision to explore the house where the spirit of a little girl reside.

Directed by Umberto Lenzi under the pseudonym of Humphry Hubert and released as La casa 3 (to cash in on The Evil Dead) it's arguably one of Lenzi's most conventional films. Unfortunately it's hampered by a clunky script, some disjointed scenes and gobbledygook elements synonymous with Italian horror exploitation films.

In the golden age of practical effects Lenzi offers a stabbing with shears, a little hammer carnage and a character being cut in half. As the group are killed off one by one there's also maggot infested knife wielding (a pre Wes Craven Scream-like cloaked) skeleton, taps spurting blood, severed heads, exploding light bulbs and jars, a Clown Doll (reminiscent of the one in Poltergeist) and also an obligatory 80s shock ending. With a possessed camper van there's all the ingredients you'd expect as the mystery unfolds and they track down the origin of the evil.

Plodding pacing aside there's some good nostalgia value in Ghost House right down to the CB radios. The house and its location are creepy (it also appears in Lucio Fulci's The House by the Cemetery) and the ghost of the girl gives a few chills.

While it's no comparable Fulci cult classic, Lenzi offers some gory kills but what will stay under your skin long after the credits is the genuinely disturbing, eerie, repetitive verse.

How can you not like this movie?! Not only was it good, but it was also good! Sure the acting isn't the best and the dubbing is a little off, but that's not what made the movie what it was anyway! The nursery song is soooo creepy! And the little girl, freaks me out every time. The beginning is the best though...