House of Forbidden Secrets

A well-constructed horror story with beautiful camera shots and lighting in the Dario Argento mold, House of Forbidden Secrets was a good Friday night frightfest. The build-up is nicely put together and you don't need to wait too long before scary things occur within the building. It takes a little bit of time to introduce the characters and set up the story, not in a "slow burn horror" kind of way like The Witch or Ring, but it does have something to say, storyline wise. The Previous occupants still present an ancient evil waiting deep in the bowels beneath the property, waiting to cross back into our world for some bloodthirsty revenge. Director Todd Sheets proves to have a good sense of style and mood, he crafts a film that works and doesn't want to pander to a younger, "hipper" audience for the sake of doing so. He does not pander to audiences who are used to super fast "music video" type editing either.

The tone, the setting, the music, the lighting and the twists in the plot were all produced to get maximum thrills on a meager budget. And I think it worked well here. It's obvious that everyone on this film worked very hard to make something original but that plays like an old Horror movie from the 70s or 80s. Though there are a few hitches, as is the case with most low budget movies, the film takes on a very ambitious story and ends up being a successful endeavor in which the plot, production, and effects are just enough to let the few budgetary glitches slide by barely even noticed. Much better than films that spend millions of dollars and fill the screen with CGI, If you allow yourself, you can be completely pulled into the film itself and take it for what it is, a fun throwback done right. House of Forbidden Secrets was exactly what I had hoped it would be, a fun way to spend an hour and a half.

Cast, crew and their friends and family should be barred from rating and reviewing movies. They should be ashamed of the blatant BS they spew. This movie is sincerely awful from start to finish.

Oh look, the first guy to play Jason Voorhees, the guy from Trolls, Lloyd Kaufman, hey I know those names and enjoyed their most successful movies, I'd better rate this really high because I liked them in another movies right?

Wrong!

The top rating reviews here are fake and most likely written by those involved with the film. The acting is God awful, they're obviously ad-libbing a lot, but not good enough actors to make it funny or entertainment for the viewers, and it just drags on going nowhere, like it's trying to rely on B-grade actor star power on screen to engage you into thinking this movie is actually decent. The original 'Gone in 60 Seconds' had better acting than this!

This movie will keep you guessing the whole way through. Loved the cast in general. Having seen it, I now can't imagine the movie without Dyanne! She really was perfect for the role of Greta. I thought the character of Wayne played by Brad Westmar brought some lightness and humor to an otherwise creepy situation - he got a few laughs out of me for sure. The sound and video quality was excellent, and the soundtrack impressed me - very high quality and added a whole other dimension to the film - emphatic. I like that it was not the usual top-40 hip hop/pop charts sound track. You almost go into the film expecting that and then are surprised with this amazing orchestra. All around, a fun movie on the darker side.

This is definitely not a grindhouse or giallo film as other 9-10 star reviewers stated. It does not pay homage to those geners. Its an insult to great indi and 0 budget movies. The cinematography was bad, the acting awful.

If you enjoy flat, slate beer infused with cigarette butts and aerosol spray cheese on stale limp crackers. you will definitely love this film.