Scream... and Die!

"The House that Vanished" (alternately known as "Scream... and Die!" follows a London fashion model Valerie Jennings who accompanies her boyfriend to an abandoned house in the middle of the woods for reasons unknown to her; he claims there is something he needs to find there. The two end up witnessing a murder, and while Valerie manages to escape, her boyfriend-and the house-seem to vanish.

Directed by Jose Ramon Larraz, who directed the fantastically atmospheric "Symptoms" directly after this, "The House that Vanished" is an underrated and overlooked giallo-inspired horror effort that exudes atmosphere extremely well. The well-known American title of the film, "The House that Vanished," is weirdly alluring, and part of what drew me into obtaining the film in the first place. Sounds fascinating, right? It is, at least for the majority. The first forty minutes or so of the film truly leave the viewer itching for what is going to happen next, and the apparent disappearance of the house itself creates an ample mystery to be solved.

When the film wraps itself into a conclusion in the last act, things do feel somewhat anticlimactic; the surprise somewhat falls apart as the inevitable conclusion comes into sight, but that aside, I still found this film remarkably entertaining and well-made. The dimly-lit interiors of the titular house are ominous and cold, contrasting well with Valerie's' proper London flat. The cinematography is also effective, and the shots of the killer, appearing only as hands, feet, or weapon, are reminiscent of many a giallo. It's clear Larraz took his cues from the Italian cinema of the time.

All in all, "The House that Vanished" is an effective and atmospheric effort, enhanced greatly by its moody visuals and a relatively engaging mystery at its core. Though not quite as chilling as "Symptoms," it is one of Larraz's better films, and also unfortunately one of his lesser-known. 7/10.

A photographer takes his model girlfriend to a defunct manor outside London in the fog. After witnessing something horrific, the woman makes it back to London and informs her friends of what happened. When they travel to the vicinity they can't find the house. Meanwhile she starts dating a frail-looking artist who lives with his aunt.

"The House That Vanished" (1973) is also known as "Scream... and Die!" It's basically a mixture of "Psycho" and "Twisted Nerve," as well as "The Last House on the Left" from the year prior. There are also similarities to "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," which debuted to the public-at-large around the same time, just shortly later in October, 1974. It lacks the compelling story of "Psycho" and the over-the-top mayhem of "Texas," opting for the dramatic tone of "Twisted Nerve," albeit adding nudity and a puke-inducing sex sequence (you'll know the one I'm talking about).

Barbara Meale (the first victim), Andrea Allan (Valerie), Annabella Wood (Stella) and Judy Matheson (Lorna) are all notable in their unique ways. Unfortunately, there's a glaring plot hole in the last act involving Valerie being oblivious to the direction Paul takes her outside London. Aduh.

It runs 1 hour, 35 minutes, and was shot in London, Essex and Hertfordshire; the latter two being northeast and north of the city respectively.

GRADE: C.

Despite all the bad things I'd heard about this film, I decided to go right ahead and watch it anyway as both the titles (Scream and Die, and even better, The House That Vanished) sounded interesting and director José Ramón Larraz did make one of the best lesbian vampire movies of all time with the excellent Vampyres. I have to admit that the film isn't quite as bad as I was expecting; there's a good atmosphere and a few decent moments of tension; but overall I have to go with the majority opinion here and say that the film is very dull on the whole and is mostly riddled with genre clichés. The film gets off to a promising start as a young couple stumble upon an old house in the woods. Being a thief, the boyfriend decides that they should loot it. However, instead of valuable items; the couple find a murder. The girl flees the house and the boyfriend vanishes. Naturally she tells people what she's seen upon returning to society, but her attempts to find the house again fail - the house has...errr...vanished. Anyway, she finds another bloke but the murderer is still out there...

The film features the cheap looking and very cheap sounding British style that many seventies British horror films feature. José Ramón Larraz photographs the film well and gives it a thick and foreboding atmosphere that does benefit it; although it must be quite difficult to make a film about an old house and not have some sort of atmosphere. The plot is the biggest problem with this film as it is really boring and not much of interest happens. There's a murder sequence that sees a naked woman get sliced that's well done and it's one of the few highlights. José Ramón Larraz does make an attempt to make up for the lack of plot with plenty of naked women, most of which are quite beautiful so that was nice of him. There's not a great deal of gore in the film, though it does seem to want to incorporate as much of the Giallo style into the film as possible. The characters in this film are pretty stupid and make daft decisions, and this stretches all the way to the ending which is completely obvious and can be seen coming a mile off. Overall, I can't say that I enjoyed this film much and I can't recommend it either.

THE HOUSE THAT VANISHED is pretty good atmospheric psychological thriller. I had very little hope for it when I started watching this Larraz film. To make matters worse, the video transfer is very dark, grainy and the sound had some weird looping technical glitch. I quickly thought then that the movie flatlined from the get go, certainly during the scene with the woman undressing in front of the killer, which was a tad ridiculous. But when the movie ended, to my surprise, I actually enjoyed it. The film is not the greatest ever made and there are a lot of faults to it (pacing is one of them) but the atmosphere is very good and the story is more about the intertwining aspects of location and identity than horror or violence. THE HOUSE THAT VANISHED reminded me a lot of Mario Bava's HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON. It's like a twisted soap opera. This film deserves a better transfer, on video or DVD, than the one that's for sale on eBay (from Media), which I bought for 50 cents!!!

The House That Vanished (1973)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Model Valerie (Andrea Allan) is with her rather worthless boyfriend as they drive around in the fog. They come upon a house and the boyfriend goes inside to steal from it but soon the two of them witness a murder. The next day Valerie manages to get back home but she hasn't heard from her boyfriend and she fears that he's dead so with the help from a friend she tries to track down that mysterious house.

José Ramón Larraz's THE HOUSE THAT VANISHED is a film that seems to be remembered thanks in large part to its American promotional material. The trailer and poster of the film played off the same tagline (It's Only a Movie... It's Only a Movie...) that made Wes Craven's THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT a hit. The promotional material on this film is quite impressive and it's clear that it worked because the film gained a cult following despite the fact that it's really not that good.

There are some good things to be found here with one of them being the atmosphere. I thought the director did a nice job at building up a rather sinister atmosphere and this here was without question the highlight of the picture. Another nice thing was the fog and its thickness as the couple drive through it. I thought these scenes were rather effective and the idea of a house being hidden by the fog was something I liked. I also thought Allan was quite attractive and helped keep you somewhat glued to the film.

As far as the rest goes, it's pretty bad. The worst thing about the film and what eventually kills it is the fact that the pacing was just awful. The film has a very slow pace, which is fine if you're able to capture some sort of slow-burn but that's not what happens here. The film continues to grow more and more boring as it comes to an end and what's worse is the fact that it's really not too hard to figure out who the killer is. We're treated to some bloody violence and plenty of nudity but this here can't stop the boring feeling.

THE HOUSE THAT VANISHED wasn't as awful as some make it out to be but there's no question that the atmosphere was wasted.