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This post-AMITYVILLE HORROR haunted house film directed by porn director Armand Weston occasionally delivers the goods, but is more-often-than-not lame, overpadded and a little cheesy.

Writer Lauren Cochran goes out to the country to try and get past her agoraphobia, but when she moves into a frighteningly familiar octagonal house, she finds that there's things to be afraid of inside as well! First off, I'm rather disappointed that the film didn't make the main character's agoraphobia more of a main plot point. The idea of an agoraphobe renting a haunted house, unable to leave because of crippling panic attacks but unable to stay because of haunting specters, would make for a pretty claustrophobic watch. Instead, Weston's script takes the plot in many different directions, implementing slasher elements, prostitute ghosts and a CHANGELING-like mystery unraveling.

Sometimes, it works; there are some actually pretty spooky scenes here and there, and the mystery moves deftly enough to keep you involved. There are also some really fun set-pieces involving sickles and high-rise rescues.

Unfortunately, the over-the-top acting and dialogue from most of the supporting characters ruins any atmosphere the film could've created (the writer's quippy boyfriend had me about ready to turn off the film 20 minutes in). The unraveling of the mystery reaches a silly, melodramatic conclusion. And I often found the sound design to be distractingly amateurish, a gripe I do not have very often. Overall, you could do a lot worse with '80s haunted-house flicks (HOUSE WHERE EVIL DWELLS, any AMITYVILLE film), but you could also do better (CHANGELING, SILENT SCREAM).

Fun fact: The octagonal house where the film was shot is still standing in New York state and may be the only domed octagonal residence still in existence in the United States!

Lauren Cochran (Robin Groves) is an agoraphobic novelist who leaves the hustle of the bustle of the city to rent an isolated house in the country, where she hopes to concentrate on her next book. Fat chance, for soon after arriving, the writer suffers a series of terrifying visions that lead her to suspect that the place is haunted. She's correct, of course: her new abode, a whorehouse during the war, was the site of a terrible, bloody massacre, and now the spooks want revenge!

For a film about a haunted brothel, by a film-maker best known for X-rated 'roughie' porn, The Nesting is surprisingly less exploitative than one might expect, taking a comparatively reserved approach that concentrates more on delivering atmosphere and scares than simple shock value.

To director Armand Weston's credit, the result isn't all that bad, with an intriguing basic plot, reasonable central performances, and one or two well constructed death scenes that benefit from the sparse but effective use of gore (the demise of a nasty hick at the hands of a sickle wielding Lauren is especially fun); but although the finished product ain't a total disaster, it's not a complete success either, suffering from a poorly developed script in desperate need of judicious pruning (the film is way overlong at 102 minutes!), a couple of irritating characters (most notably, Lauren's wise-cracking boyfriend Mark), some blatant silliness that should have been fixed before filming commenced (how the hell does Lauren's self-help tape know the layout of her apartment?), and a daft ending that just doesn't know when to quit.

It's a shame, because one can't help but feel that with such a salacious premise, the whole affair is something of a wasted opportunity: if Weston had stayed true to himself by allowing his film to be even half as depraved as his X-rated output, The Nesting would have been a far more satisfying film—a sleaze fan's idea of heaven instead of a fairly entertaining, but ultimately forgettable ghost story.

5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

An agoraphobic writer gets a house in the country which turns out to be haunted. That's a great set up to a movie. You have a character who's scared to leave their house being stuck there with things even more terrifying than what awaits them outdoors. Unfortunately, there were times I almost forgot the heroine had this affliction, because she sure seems to get over it whenever the plot calls for her to and there aren't enough scares to make this slow burning, overlong movie very interesting.

Armand Weston's "The Nesting" (shot under the title "Phobia" but losing that monicker to John Huston's coterminous pic) is an effective tale of supernatural horror introing a most appealing actress, Robin Groves, as lead. Almost derailed by an overplayed psycho-amuck, pic resolves itself convincingly as an atmospheric haunted house thriller.

Groves stars as Lauren Cochran, an author of gothic novels, latest of which gives pic its "The Nesting" tag. Her intense phobia of leaving her New York townhouse is temporarily overcome when she moves to a spooky remote Victorian mansion.

Coming under the spell of ghosts inhabiting the mansion, a former brothel, Cochran's fears return. She becomes a gog in the ghosts' revenge upon their murderers, with the original massacre related in a slow motion "ballet of death" flashback executed in the style of Sam Peckinpah. By pic's end both the ghosts' vendetta and heroine's fears are exorcised.

Pic almost falls apart midway when Weston focuses on one of the murderers who maniacally goes after Cochran in an all too mundane "mad killer" fashion. He allows David Tabor as the psycho to mug outrageously in an embarrassing Rod Steiger imitation, and the film has a hard time recovering its credibility.

Aside from this lapse, pic is carried by the intense performance of Groves, who somewhat resembles the late British actress Rachel Roberts. Supporting cast, apart from Tabor, is okay, with John Carradine providing black humor and exposition, while Gloria Grahame unfortunately is waste in a bit as the brothel madam and lead ghost.

With this pic, helmer Weston makes the jump from hardcore porn to mainstream production, demonstrating a strong visual sense and narrative skill. Atmospheric film boasts excellent special effects, but the musical score is trite library music.

My review was written in April 1981 after a Times Square screening.

Well i've seen this movie a couple times and I have a copy of it on DVD that I transfered from VHS last time I rented it. This is one of those classic horror movies from back in the day when horror movies actually did make you jump, and they made sense! LOL The plot took me for a spin and it was a little confusing at times, but i've figured it out after the second time seeing it.

I with they made movies like this still that had odd story lines to make you think, and that didn't always rely on today's technology to make it all about the special fx.

This movie was cool though, definitely worth the watch!