The Shunned House

The first time I watched this, I had much to drink. See, when I watch the usual low budget crap, I like to be drunk, it is entertaining that way. Well, the story in this film is very complicated and I couldn't follow it. So, I watched it a second time sober, and was most impressed.

What we have here is three stories tied together - this is not an anthology. A novelist and his girlfriend stay in this Shunned House for inspiration for his novel. She isn't too happy to be there, but he finds more than enough inspiration for his work. So, he tells her about the terrible history of the house, and thus we start seeing the other two stories. One is about a woman with a violin who plays beautifully, but has some kind of dark secret - something on the other side of her window. The other story is about a sleepwalker. Then during the second half there is this woman, all bloody, with her eyes covers and her lips sown together. I still can't figure out how she fits in to the rest of the story. However, as the movie goes, all these stories, according the novelist and his girlfriend, start building up, and climax, and of course, there is a twist or two at the end.

The music was brilliantly haunting, the effects were very good for the low budget (it doesn't look like Brain Damage Films usual cheap slasher). This is a serious horror film, not some cheap horny teenagers go smoke dope have sex with each other and get gruesomely murdered one after another. The acting in this film was also very good for the budget range. Hey, better than some of the terrible actors in Hollywood, Sandra Bullock ain't got nothing' on The Shunned House, ROFL. Seriously though, only a total movie snob, obsessed with high tech effects and A-List acting would turn his nose up at this one. I definitely recommend it for all horror fans. 7 out of 10.

The Shunned House (2003) is a terrible film "based" upon the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. I have seen some bad adaptations before but this one takes the cake. Not only did the filmmaker used the basis of The Shunned House for the movie but he also used Music of Eric Zahn and Dreams of the Witchhouse. Sadly none of these show up in the movie. The director should have stuck with one story and made a lame version of that instead of taking from several stories.

The "movie" was shot on digital video, I can deal with that but their was nothing in this one that was the slightest of interest. Blood, gore and nudity was tossed into the picture but it's still bad. People want to throw around the title worst movie ever made. I have nominate this one. It is that horrible. A message to the director, don't try to adapt anymore H.P. Lovecraft. Please!!

Unwatchable, don't even try to watch this abortion.

You might get a few chuckles if you get a bunch of your friends and watch it. That's the only way I would see this one again. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Ivan Zuccon, without a doubt the most exciting young genre director in Italy, has stuck with the works of HP Lovecraft for this, his third feature. But whereas The Darkness Beyond and Unknown Beyond were generically Lovecraftian, La Casa Sfuggita (co-scripted with Unknown Beyond writer Enrico Saletti) adapts three specific HPL short stories.

Rather than a straightforward anthology, however, Zuccon and Saletti have set all three tales in the same building, interweaving them to achieve a dreamlike sense of horror. So in the present day we have paranormal journalist Alex (Giuseppe Lorusso) and his sceptic girlfriend Rita (Federica Quaglieri) in an adaptation of 'The Shunned House' itself. Alex is investigating an old inn which has seen scores of mysterious, often violent deaths over the previous three centuries. Much to Rita's displeasure, they are going to camp out in the derelict building until Alex has finished his research.

In the same building, 50-60 years earlier, Luigi Montella (Emanuele Cerman) is a young mathematician, who is investigating the non-Euclidean geometry of the inn's plans and playing chess against his neighbour Nora (Silvia Ferreri). This part of the film is based on 'Dreams in the Witch House.' Finally, right back in the 1920s, a writer name Marco del Vespro (Michael Segal - not the British actor who was in I Claudius etc) becomes bewitched by the haunting violin music emanating from the next room, where lives the beautiful but mute Carlotta Zann (Cristiana Vaccaro). That's 'The Music of Eric Zann.' With three stories set in different times - perhaps more: who/what/when is that mysterious masked figure? - The Shunned House is not an easy film to follow, which is entirely in keeping with the complexities of Lovecraft's work. Zuccon (who also edited the film) doesn't just mix smoothly between stories; the whole point of the film is that these three tales interact, as characters from one time see/hallucinate those from another. It would be pointless for me to be specific; the film must be seen as a whole.

And there's blood. And dead people. And people get killed in awful ways. This is a horror film in the grand tradition and confirms Zuccon's place as the natural successor to Lucio Fulci. Luigi may be a somnambulist child-killer; Rita sees dead people; there's a mysterious girl repeatedly hitting her bleeding forehead against a wall; and when Carlotta's last violin string breaks... Christ, it's horrible! It all comes together in a bloody, scary conclusion.

Zuccon's camera, often roaming around a room, brings the audience right into the world(s) of these people. There is nothing workmanlike here. Every shot is just right: the angle, the movement, the lighting, the cutting. It's just a shame that this was shot on video and not film. Please, someone give Ivan Zuccon the budget to shoot in 35mm! The cast all cope well with the English dialogue. Particularly notable are Cerman (also in both Beyond films, as was Segal) whose boyish good looks and sensitive-yet-unnerving performance reminded me of Brendan Fraser in The Passion of Darkly Noon, and Vaccaro, who overcomes (in fact, uses) her lack of dialogue to bring exceptional depth to her role as the troubled violinist. Massimo Storari's make-up effects are as gruesome as ever, and kudos also to costume designer Donatella Ravagnini and set designer Roberta Romagnoli, and indeed everyone involved with this marvellous film.

Ultimately, what does it all mean? I'm not 100 per cent certain (and I've read the script!) but frankly the film wouldn't be true to the Lovecraftian source material if I was. It is all (I think) connected with the mathematics of the inn's design, thus putting The Shunned House into the tiny sub-genre of mathematical fantasy horror, along with the brilliant Pi, the disappointing Solid Geometry, and a handful of other titles. I think that ultimately the building itself is 'the monster', much like The Fall of the House of Usher or The Shining. But I strongly suggest that you take any opportunity to see this film and decide for yourself.

MJS rating: A www.mjsimpson.co.UK

The location is adequately creepy and some performances and scenes are haunting and intriguing (the girl with the violin and the young writer storyline especially).

The rest of the movie, however, feels a bit disjointed and the actors who play the "modern" characters cannot act at all. The general vibe is amateurish. Which is a pity because this movie had a lot of potential and could have been a little rural gothic jewel.

I love the literary work of Lovecraft, the man was the master of the macabre but every time someone makes a movie based on his works they have the habit of being really quite bad.

The Shunned House is the worst one yet, and that is really saying something.

Italian made (So they should really have known better) but every kind of amateurish. The writing is so poor I can confidently say I didn't entirely follow quite what in the blue hell was going on.

The story was baffling the delivery was cringe inducingly boring and as much as I looked I can confidently say the movie does not have one single redeeming feature.

I don't give 1 star very often, but this is so very very deserving.

The Good:

Not a sausage

The Bad:

Every square inch of the film

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

I can't take a character seriously if they're named Luigi