All Through the House

The cover for 'All Through the House' enticed me into seeing it. So did that it was purported to be an 80s throwback and that its idea was a good one. Also appreciate highly all the genres that 'All Through the House' contains and any film that tries to mix them.

Will admit to being a bit nervous as well, having seen my fair shares of failed execution of good ideas, some mediocre at best to terrible films lately and whether it would be as cheap as low-budget films tend to be. What a pleasant surprise 'All Through the House' turned out to be! It is not perfect or amazing, and it doesn't completely meet the quality of its concept. Still found it to be above average and it was a relief that the concept wasn't wasted.

'All Through the House' could have been better certainly. The killer is suitably creepy and there is effort to give him development (which is appreciated, too many films recently have failed to do that with their villains) but definitely could have been in the film more, he was underused. Some of the story is predictable and not always tight in pace, particularly in the middle.

The reveal didn't have me jumping out of my chair in shock or excitement and some of the dialogue is cheesy as sin (not a strong suit with the 80s horror films it throws back to admittedly but still). Occasionally, the film takes it too far with the vulgarity which doesn't always add an awful lot.

On the other hand, 'All Through the House's' look is surprisingly more polished than most low-budget films seen recently. There is a real dark eeriness to the film's look, and the killer's is cool and suitably creepy. The special effects serve their purpose well, not over-used and far less amateurish than feared. The music score is haunting and suspenseful, without over-bearing the atmosphere or making it too obvious something bad is going to happen.

Great the dialogue is far from, but it does boast some thought and some sharp and darkly funny satirical/black humour elements in a very 80s genre film way. The story isn't perfect either, but mostly it's very effectively atmospheric in tension, suspense and nightmarish eeriness, far from dull, intriguing and with some very brutally inventive kills. The direction shows confidence.

Regarding the acting, it is fair. Not exceptional, but not terrible. Ashley Mary Nunes is surprisingly agreeable in the lead role and hair-raising Melynda Kiring is the cast standout. The characters don't at least irritate.

In summary, not bad...not bad at all. 6/10 Bethany Cox

ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE starts off with a short buildup, followed by blood-gushing, bodily dismemberment.

Yep, it's that time of year again!

It appears that once more, some lunatic has dressed up like Old Saint Nick, in order to spread good cheer with his shears, relieving the citizenry of their boring lives! This Yuletide season, Santa's come to town to punish the naughty AND the nice!

Unlike most of these Christmas-based slasher films, this one has a real mystery going on. It's also gory enough to get the gorehounds howling!

AMAZING STUFF IN THIS MOVIE: #1- Multiple -male- Yule logs are lopped off! #2- A woman in a wheelchair takes flight, just like Rudolph! #3- It features more mannequins than in any department store! #4- there's an actual attempt at having a story line! #5- The bonkers finale is well-orchestrated mayhem!

This belongs in every entrails-filled stocking this year...

I didn't particularly like nor dislike "All through the House". In fact, if I had to label the one sentiment I experienced most during my viewing of this film, I'd say it's 'sympathy'. Sympathy because "All through the House" is reasonably well-made and entertaining for an amateur horror movie (yes, let's face it, it remains an amateur movie). And sympathy because the film looks exactly like how any inexperienced but over-enthusiast horror director would make it.

Honestly, I don't mean for this to sound disrespectful, but "All through the House" seems made by teenagers and made for teenage audiences. This basically implies that everything is outrageous but textbook & clichéd horror guff. The killer Santa Claus wears a horrific mask and uses nasty weapons like hedge clippers. All the girls are stunningly beautiful and have big breasts. The kills are insanely gore, sadist and obsessively oriented at genitalia. The poor girls get clippers through their breasts and the men get castrated. Even the innocent creatures (like harmless pets) and defenseless people (like helpless old ladies in wheelchairs) are brutally slain. Is this juvenile approach bad by definition? No, of course not, but the aspects that truly make horror movies memorably are overlooked because of this. There isn't any suspense or atmosphere, the potentially grim background of the murderous Santa is poorly elaborated, and the anti-climax is sort of disappointing.

All Through The House is a sexually saturated, viciously gory, low budget splatterfest with some great special effects.

There's a lot of T & A in this- and even some D- but they all get pretty mutilated by a serial killer who's wearing a santa suit and wielding a set of hedge clippers.

In fact, I haven't seen so many severed penises since Kim Ki Duk's Moebius.

And not even the pets are spared.

Like I said, pretty vicious.

The killer seems to be targetting the young adult men and women of a small town, our protaganess has returned to for Christmas vacation.

Her childhood friends start dropping one by one, as she investigates the fate of the girl next door- who had inexplicably disappeared- along with her own Mother, years earlier.

It turns out that her Mother was having an affair with the neighbour's wife...and now, all their fates have become intertwined...

Because this lady is a complete psychopath.

Ultimately leading to the film's twisted conclusion.

This is low-budget filmmaking done right (especially when compared to something like The Elf).

Although the story isn't particularly well developed, it makes up for it with gore.

Rendering it a fun little holiday horror Christmas slasher, in the end.

5 out of 10.

Just in time for Halloween comes this slasher throwback about a man wearing a Krampus costume doling out death with a pair of hedge shears. This one follows all the rules of slasherness in a campy manor from the breasts to the surreal characters to the cheesy squirting blood. A no brainer Friday night flick for sure and it keeps you laughing.

The killer liked to shear off penises (the cat gets at one of them) and I thought maybe the writer is telling us something but later you see that he literally has a bag of dicks. The end tells me a sequel is coming. There now is a new film the whole family can enjoy on Christmas Eve.