The House of Violent Desire

This movie gets worse by the minute, but if you happen to like nicely framed shots and unusual lighting, you may want to watch. The plot begins fairly decently, but transgresses into pure silliness about an hour in, the whole time seeming like a lengthy episode of DARK SHADOWS from the 1960s--a show I watched as a child. 2 stars for good filming techniques.

Arriving at a remote mansion in the countryside, a woman hired to be a new maid for a mysterious family begins to witness the psychological unraveling that emerges once they welcome a stranger in the middle of a tense battle of sexual battle of wills within the household setting off a fierce battle to survive.

Overall, this was a standout Gothic-horror-style throwback. That it plays so well with these elements in a great manner offers the majority of the fun with this one where it runs through the style and tropes of the genre in fine fashion. The idea of the outsider arriving at a remote mansion featuring a mysterious family with mounds of secrets within them is the type of glorious setup that plays homage to the greats of the genre as the more things are unraveled and revealed the more it opens up the different elements deeper under the surface. With the secret rooms off-limits to others, a mysterious accident that claimed a life in the not-so-distant past, and a cryptic stranger looking to stir hidden feelings with repressed urges, this one works incredibly well at harboring that slow-burning tempo so crucial to the genre. On top of that, once the secrets start being revealed and the tension within the house gets turned up, the film becomes far more intriguing with how everything gets brought about. The search for the missing father and how that leads to the missing items, the desire to look into the closed-off attic that provides the clues about the ghostly visions within, and the arrival of the stranger who starts to instigate upheaval within the established couples all force this one along into the type of required tropes within the genre that move this along quite smoothly. These all lead together into a gloriously twisted and frantic finale where the devilish actions take place as the various forces here come to take revenge in their own means which provide some macabre moments through it all. The other really impressive aspect of this one comes from the stellar use of the influx of sexual content within here to prove their madness and insanity. As the situation grows darker and more depraved, the idea of how the different scenarios get brought up as the use of tempting each other with the reality of carnal desires strikes a major chord in the middle section here. Despite not being overly graphic about what's going on, the use of being open and frank with the sexuality at play where it deals with intriguing BDSM-type relationships or other types of relationships that take on a different air than expected with how they tackle the setup featured here in the final stages where this plays a major part in the action featured throughout here. All told, these all give the film quite a lot to like as while there isn't much to dislike here there are some drawbacks to be had. The main factor with the film is the excessively long running time that drags this one out far longer than it should be. It's far too long for its own good with several plotlines that really could've been told at a brisker pace, with the siblings trying to convince themselves something's going on or the numerous conversations about the nature of pleasures being the main ones which leave the running time more than it needs to be. It causes the maid to disappear from the middle of the film entirely despite being presented as the main character due to this bizarre treatment, and the series of revelations that come about are oftentimes way too much to take seriously as it all could've been taken down somewhat slightly. These are the few factors that hold it back.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity, and sexual content.

My God What is this film ?. A movie without music will be a piece of nothing. music is present in every part, in order to cover the overall weakness Bad performance. A meaningless story. Boring. The only acceptable thing is the place.

2 hours loss. You will have two questions at the end of the movie, 1. Why 2. What

Nearly two hours... TWO HOURS!

This film started firmly in the 7 rating then went to a 6 and rapidly to a 4 and ended up at 3 after two hours of torturous viewing.

It's not that it's a bad concept, and it seems some effort has gone into the intention to make a decent film, the problem is the intention just doesn't translate in to the reality of what this film could be, or have been.

I was hoping that this was going to be a good British horror and at least live up to the hype - but it is neither.

It feels like a local amateur dramatic club has cobbled together some cash to make a project film.

The majority of the acting is wooden and strained and really fails bring the characters or story to life, or to engage the viewer. It's not necessarily that the actors are bad at acting. It could equally be that the director has not taken the time to either relay what they expect or are too busy rushing through scenes to pay attention to detail and give the actors what they need for best performance.

There are obviously one or two actors who have great potential, and may well have theatre experience, but without proper direction their skill is not being allowed to come through in character in this film.

The film looked visually promising to begin with, but like other things, rapidly became fairly ridiculous for the period the film is supposed to be set in. Some scenes were visually perfect and interesting, while the majority just seem to be shots where the camera was set on automatic and to hell with taking time to get the lighting right. It really wouldn't have taken that much effort or time to make a few fundamental changes.

The same with the sound. In some scenes it is clear that thought has been given to recoding and balancing the mix, while in others (ironically usually when there was substance to a character's dialogue) it was difficult to separate dialogue from the overpowering volume of music or the far over/misused sound of thunder - which just became annoying in the end. Sound quality also seemed to be a serious issue with medium to long shots often sounding like it had been recorded with a baked bean tin.

Next up - prop interaction. Oh my goodness, someone wasn't paying attention.

There are times when the characters interact with props in a way which is obviously wrong, if not downright amateurish and stupid. Without using spoilers I can't really give examples, not that I would have to for anyone half-awake watching this film.

Overall, this film looked as though it might be a good watch. If the people who made this film were as good as the hype they wrote then this would be brilliant. Unfortunately, this seems to be (yet) another example of people with too much spare cash and a woeful lack of skill and attention to detail thinking they can do something they obviously can't.

Perhaps they are more suited to shooting family videos with an iPhone.

As for the 10 ratings - they are obviously false.