Chain Reaction

Olaf is Germany's sfx-wonder. And he is an amateur in making movies. He started with video-home-movie-horror-events with incredible sfx which looks like the best days of Lucio Fulcio or the Hellraiser movies. But script, directing actors and dialogs are not his profession. I know that he is thinking that directing is his profession, but that is not true...look his movies. This movie is also a small-big-budget-amateur-movie with on a high trash-level and a lot of unmeant comedy. But there is a lot of splatter and gore sfx on a high level. Jürgen Prochnow has a small part in this movie and the only reason for it is, that he want to give this movie a chance because of his name. The story and setting is always the same in a Ittenbach movie: the hell, the dead, maniacs, zombies, rednecks and some stupid heroes with some lame Tarantiono-dialogs.

Loads of gore, decent effects and unintentionally funny characters made this film just makes it bearable. I had to watch this in 3 different sittings and maybe that's the best way to see it without becoming tired of the story.

There are events that set off a chain reaction and sets a series of events into motion.

House of Blood (called Chain Reaction on the IMDb) is really a pretty terrible movie in many respects. Christopher Kriesa is not that bad an actor, but the rest of the cast is pretty bad (except for what is basically a cameo from Jurgen Prochnow). I think the movie was shot in Germany. The gore effects are pretty bloody for the most part and some are pretty good.

Others are not, especially the make-up work. We're left in the end with a lot of important unanswered questions. The whole "chain reaction" aspect and other parts of the writing are pretty poor.

House of Blood is pretty poor and I'd only suggest a rental if you want something to make fun of or are that desperate for gore effects (lots of the red stuff flows). Thou renteth at thine own peril!

On my TV, the film begins with two criminals getting out of a bus with pink jumpsuits, not the traditional orange.This is a gore flick which should appeal to the young, over 10 and less than 25. Got to love gore. There is little true acting. I feel like yelling "Road trip!" Carnage in the forest. Typical plot. The movie is very unpredictable. However, if you are a blood and gore fan, this movie is for you. The movie could have been 15 minutes shorter, which might have helped it. The movie has lackluster plot, contains lackluster actors, lackluster acting, and is just a highly predictable, minimally entertaining movie. But you gotta love it for what it is -- just late night entertainment.

A very professional movie from the former "ultra-gore" auteur (Premutos ,The burning moon)Olaf Ittenbach. Chain Reaction (aka House of Blood) is a professional, good looking 35 mm film, with car crashing, great makeup and gore FX but it lacks in entertainment value. I mean, its very boring and confusing. The plot is very hard to follow and the action scenes comes only in bits (when they come are cool with gore and blood, but its a very talkie movie, and the dialogs sucks. Premutos was a great low budget movie. Then Ittembach entered more mainstream. The "fromdusktilldawnesque" Legion of the Dead was pretty cool and entertaining, but stuff like this or Riverplay make me think if i will watch a new Ittembach movie. 4/10 for the good productions values only.

I've rent this movie in a local videostore. why did I do that. It's a typical Ittenbach movie. Cheezy gore effects, bad acting, and a cheap story. The story is about four prisoners and a doctor who survived a crash.(The doctor's car hit the bus.) They kill the guards who were on that bus an try to run for the boarder.After hours of walking they find this old cabin in the woods. The family in that house speaks an old language (for covering the bad acting), and they act very mysterious. And then the horror part of the movie begins. Unfortunately this part is too short. Watch the bald guy in the movie, it's the German version of Dr. Lecter. If you are a horror fan and looking for a good laugh, maybe this movie will do the trick. If you're looking for a gore movie, there are better films.