Le manoir aux sept cadavres

A movie crew shoots its latest satanic flick at a house which had experienced seven actual murders. John Carradine plays the grim grounds keeper who warns of the impending dangers. This felt very much in the spirit of the superior CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS, I thought. And like that film we have to sit through a lot of exposition until we get to the ghoulish mayhem at the very end. There isn't much to recommend for most of the first three quarters, unless you like watching people shoot movies. But I always get a kick out of seeing Carradine wandering about in any horror film. Also starring in this movie is an older Faith Domergue (50's sci-fi beauty) which is interesting. And it's funny watching John Ireland playing the part of the most insufferably arrogant director any underpaid actor would ever want to work for. ** out of ****

...but I've seen better too.

The story here is predictable--a film crew trying to film a horror movie in a place where murders occurred. Three guesses what happens. This isn't a total bomb--the cast is fairly good with pros John Ireland, Faith Domergue and John Carradine giving the best performances. It's reasonably well-made--for a low budget film. Just don't expect any nudity, swearing, blood OR gore (the film has a very mild PG rating). I was never totally bored--it's OK viewing on a quiet night. I saw it on video--it was a HORRIBLE print--very dark and some scenes were impossible to see. Still I didn't hate it and it does have a cool ending which surprised me--basically nothing happens up till then so it catches you off guard. Worth seeing but only if you're a horror film completest.

Attempting to shoot a horror movie on a cursed location where the real life murders they're emulating occurred, a film crew accidentally conjures a deformed being that slowly begins killing them off one-by-one.

A slightly disappointing but overall quite creepy effort, this one really could've been great with the fixing of a few minor details. The main issue at hand here is the remarkably slow-paced offering, as there's just hardly anything going on but the movie shoot for the entire running time in the first hour, leaving this to rely on it's other efforts to work but basically doesn't even get started with it's killing until the hour mark or even making any mention of the killer until then and it causes the film to go along quite slowly. This is the most disturbing feature since the rest of the film is quite nice, with a large Victorian house serving as the basis for both the film and the movie being shot there giving off an incredible atmosphere, the slow-building set-up making for a chilly time and the rampage by the decomposing corpse being quite bloody and enjoyable, but overall it's just really hurt by it's slow set-up.

Rated R: Violence and Language.

In THE HOUSE OF SEVEN CORPSES, a film crew attempts to shoot a horror movie involving seven mysterious deaths. They happen to be filming in the very house where the actual deaths occurred.

Uh oh!

A book of spells is found, and they decide to use it in their movie. Big mistake! Bad things start happening almost immediately: A cat is mutilated, turning into a sock puppet, and the book's mumbo jumbo causes the cold inhabitants of the nearby cemetery to stir!

This all culminates in the best part of the movie when a ghoul goes on a killing rampage. The last 20 minutes are pretty good, but the rest is a grueling slog.

John Ireland stars as the cranky director, Faith Domergue is the cranky actress, and John Carradine plays the cranky old caretaker.

Recommended, strictly for the macabre finale...

I saw this fun retro horror film when it was brought back to the big screen last year. I liked the story and characters, it was an awesome movie to see for Halloween! I thought Tommy was cute, I wish his character had been elaborated on further. Enjoyable movie, I'd recommend it!