La maison du cauchemar

Trying to find love and comfort isn't always easy. When this nurse goes to a house to take care of a crippled old man, the house of joy turns into a house of pain and death! The old man and his servant hired a nurse to help him out. He's been living in pain. Being paralyzed waist-down, has a son who is psychologically disturbed, has a grandson who lost his parents in a accident. What more can you say? What's worse is when the people living in the house started getting killed all of a sudden. Even the nurse has a tragedy of her own. She writes to her mother about her job and how things are going. However, it turns out that her mother died giving birth to her, and was sexually abused by her father. This movie has a lot of twists and turns. Not boring. It's a cult classic by my book. A must see. 2.5 out of 5 stars

Meredith moves to the Langrock estate to take care of Langrock himself, an ailing man whose legs no longer work. Langrock has a son who is disturbed in some way, as well as his orphaned teenage grandson Gabriel who returns from a desert commune (or something) to live with the family. Langrock's butler has been working his way through the wine cellar for years, and the cook is proud of her granola...mmm.

Gabriel is a strange young man who likes lurking in shadows, saying or reacting in peculiar ways and generally making people uneasy. Meredith is fascinated by him, but also fears he's behind the brutal death of the guard dog and the other deaths that follow.

A fair amount of the movie also has voice-over by Meredith.

The Embassy Home Entertainment VHS is not the best print; nighttime scenes or those in the cellar are dark and lack definition. The end credits are fairly unreadable.

An attractive nurse named Meredith moves to the Langrock estate to take care of her patient:a crippled old man.She falls in love with sixteen year old grandson of Langrock named Gabriel,who returned from some kind of desert commune.A series of brutal murders in the gloom of the night is set in motion...Slow-moving but well-made and competent psycho slasher that often drags.The death scenes mostly involve head bashings and are pretty bloodless.I liked the main performance of Patricia Pearcy as I remembered her from Jeff Lieberman's "Squirm"."Delusion" is worth checking out for completists of 80's US independent horror.6 out of 10.

My review was written in February 1984 after a screening at 42nd St. Times Square theater.

"The House Where Death Lives" is a painfully slow-paced and old-fashioned gothic horror film, made in 1980 and originally titled "Delusion". Once-planned for release by the since-defunct The International Picture Show Co., picture has had territorial release over the past two years via Gotham-based New American Films as well as pay-tv exposure, ahead of its current Manhattan debut.

Trite tale unfolds in flashback (bookended by the heroine writing this story to her dad), concerning a young man, introverted nurse Meredith (Patricia Pearcy) arriving at a mansion to take care of crippled Ivar Langrock (Joseph Cotten). Another newcomer to the Fairlawn estate is Gabriel (John Dukakis), Langrock's suspicious-looking 16-year-old grandson who has been living in a commune.

Overly expository opening reels introduce (with a straight face) many cliches of the gothic format: a face seen at an upstairs window of a room that is always kept locked, a heroine prone to wandering inquisitively about the house and grounds, etc. One b one, cast members are dispatched by a sudden bonk on the head from a blunt instrument (it turns out to be a leg from a table) until the final reel reveals who the crazy is. Wedged into the package for the umpteenth time is a case of incest as a long-ago incident and plot motivator.

Director Alan Beattie fails to generate suspense or atmosphere in a picture that remains low-key even during violent scenes. Acting is more than competent, with red-headed, fair-complexioned Patricia Pearcy making a distinctive impression in the rather limited central role and Cotten (in his most recent screen appearance) thoroughly professional in support. Despite its release title linking the film with the overworked "blame it on the house" horror genre, pic's locale is neutrally plain and there are no supernatural overtones.

A young nurse named Meredith accepts a job looking after an ageing millionaire in his secluded country home. Almost as soon as she arrives strange events begin occuring. It then becomes apparent that someone is murdering all the occupants of the house and making their deaths look like bizarre accidents. It's left up to Meredith to try and reveal the killer's identity before she ends up next on his list.

Firstly don't be disillusioned by the back of the video blurb that would lead you to believe that DELUSION is 'a chiller in the mould of THE OMEN or REPULSION.' This is pure whodunit? owing more of a knowing nod towards Christie than Carpenter. Although saying that, slasher fans will find the odd thrill here, including one or two decent edge of your seat jolts and a couple of brutal slayings. It looks pretty well budgeted, cleverly shot and the cast do their jobs efficiently. The flicks main problem lies in the fact that it seems to drag far too much in between murders and it began to get a little too tedious towards the end. It's nicely directed and genuinely well acted but lacks the cheese that made most of it's hack and slash counterparts from that era so loveable.

Smart in places, but hardly memorable enough to ever be watched more than once. HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW is a much better effort, rent that instead.