All Through the House

It's movies like this why I love independent horror. The lead actress did such a great job. I usually don't like the female lead in lower budget horror films cause i find the acting can be a bit distracting. Ashley Mary Nunes did an amazing job. If she was playing the lead role in Rob Zombies movies i'd actually be able to sit through one of his films. I sure hope we get to see her in more horror films. This movie deserves an audience. I've never taken the time to write a review on any movie. But I know a film like this needs word of mouth. Everyone involved in this movie deserves this movie to be seen. I think with the right amount of coverage they could get a bigger budget for upcoming films and do something special. I would love it if we got a sequel in the future. Or even something like Evil Dead 2. Evil Dead 2 was more of an updated high budget version of Evil Dead. Ashley would have to be in it of coarse.

I didn't particularly like nor dislike "All through the House". In fact, if I had to label the one sentiment I experienced most during my viewing of this film, I'd say it's 'sympathy'. Sympathy because "All through the House" is reasonably well-made and entertaining for an amateur horror movie (yes, let's face it, it remains an amateur movie). And sympathy because the film looks exactly like how any inexperienced but over-enthusiast horror director would make it.

Honestly, I don't mean for this to sound disrespectful, but "All through the House" seems made by teenagers and made for teenage audiences. This basically implies that everything is outrageous but textbook & clichéd horror guff. The killer Santa Claus wears a horrific mask and uses nasty weapons like hedge clippers. All the girls are stunningly beautiful and have big breasts. The kills are insanely gore, sadist and obsessively oriented at genitalia. The poor girls get clippers through their breasts and the men get castrated. Even the innocent creatures (like harmless pets) and defenseless people (like helpless old ladies in wheelchairs) are brutally slain. Is this juvenile approach bad by definition? No, of course not, but the aspects that truly make horror movies memorably are overlooked because of this. There isn't any suspense or atmosphere, the potentially grim background of the murderous Santa is poorly elaborated, and the anti-climax is sort of disappointing.

What lured me in to watch "All Through the House" was the movie cover/poster, as it has a blood-drenched Santa holding a pair of hedge cutters. And knowing that this was going to be a slasher horror, then the movie did seem to have the potential to be a good movie. And given my love for the horror genre, then of course I gave "All Through the House" a chance.

The movie starts out quite alright, and there is action in form of killing right from the very beginning. But that was also just about as exciting and thrilling as this movie would be. The rest of the movie just settled into a monotonous trot and just paced onward in a pace that left no one winded.

There is actually nothing to be seen in "All Through the House" that hasn't already been established, done and seen in other slasher movies, both the established franchises and the stand-alone slasher movies. So you shouldn't expect anything out of the ordinary when you sit down to watch "All Through the House".

As for the acting in the movie, well let's just say that it was fair enough, taking into consideration the genre and the budget of the movie. However, I can say that there was nothing outstanding or memorable to be witnessed throughout the movie.

The effects in "All Through the House" were adequate. But again, not really special effects that left any lasting impression of awe or amazement. But the effects served their purpose well enough.

The killer himself, well he definitely is no next Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger or Michael Myers that is for sure. Actually this serial killer is hardly one that you will remember once the movie has come to an end and the end credits start to roll.

There are far better slasher movies available, and this movie might be suitable enough for an off-beat slasher movies during a prolonged slasher movie marathon. Just don't get your hopes up for anything grand or spectacular.

Just in time for Halloween comes this slasher throwback about a man wearing a Krampus costume doling out death with a pair of hedge shears. This one follows all the rules of slasherness in a campy manor from the breasts to the surreal characters to the cheesy squirting blood. A no brainer Friday night flick for sure and it keeps you laughing.

The killer liked to shear off penises (the cat gets at one of them) and I thought maybe the writer is telling us something but later you see that he literally has a bag of dicks. The end tells me a sequel is coming. There now is a new film the whole family can enjoy on Christmas Eve.

All Through The House is a sexually saturated, viciously gory, low budget splatterfest with some great special effects.

There's a lot of T & A in this- and even some D- but they all get pretty mutilated by a serial killer who's wearing a santa suit and wielding a set of hedge clippers.

In fact, I haven't seen so many severed penises since Kim Ki Duk's Moebius.

And not even the pets are spared.

Like I said, pretty vicious.

The killer seems to be targetting the young adult men and women of a small town, our protaganess has returned to for Christmas vacation.

Her childhood friends start dropping one by one, as she investigates the fate of the girl next door- who had inexplicably disappeared- along with her own Mother, years earlier.

It turns out that her Mother was having an affair with the neighbour's wife...and now, all their fates have become intertwined...

Because this lady is a complete psychopath.

Ultimately leading to the film's twisted conclusion.

This is low-budget filmmaking done right (especially when compared to something like The Elf).

Although the story isn't particularly well developed, it makes up for it with gore.

Rendering it a fun little holiday horror Christmas slasher, in the end.

5 out of 10.