Paranormal initiation

American Horror House (2012) - It's not often you see a horror movie where none of the cast members go home early.

I'm pretty sure everybody was around from start to finish in this one, either as a ghost, or a killer, or a victim. Whatever they got paid, they had to work for it.

This is actually a made-for-TV movie that was shown originally on the SyFy (God, I hate that spelling) Channel. There was more gore than I would have expected, but it's definitely lacking in the T&A department. If you're into the latter, you'll have to settle for four sorority pledges walking up to a fraternity in their underwear.

It stars Alessandra Torrensani as Daria, more or less the most outspoken and fearless in a new group of pledges who are being put through Halloween Hell Night as part of their initiation.

The pledges have to deal with the usual witchy sorority leader, who tries to make their lives as scary and miserable as possible. But that's nothing compared to the supernatural horror all of them will experience.

The house was the site of a bloody double murder years before. A young girl stabbed her parents to death, while singing Itsy Bitsy Spider.

We see it happen at the start of the movie. We also hear the song a few times more, including once on a violin. Bad news for the music student who was playing it.

It's evident from the start that the real demon is the housemother, played quite enthusiastically by Morgan Fairchild. Man, does she have some attitude, to go along with a supernatural power that's pretty much off the charts.

This movie, while far from a classic, gets a high five for action. Crazy stuff is happening virtually from the first minute to the last, and some of it is quite creative.

Students are killed in messy fashion, then disappear, then reappear in not quite the same state they were in to start with. It was kind of confusing, actually, until I got used to the idea that dying in this movie doesn't mean you go away.

The acting, across the board, I thought was pretty decent. Morgan Fairchild was excellent in her evilness.

Well well well, I really think it's unfair that some reviews are so harsh on this one. It actually managed to impress me just a tad bit, sure, no originality here, a huge load of the usual horror scares, but still, they tried, they showed some good stuff, only if the ending would have been better. Just a little better!

What I really don't get, is why oh why did they decide to show some scary parts during the day? I mean really, do they know the effect of daylight over a spooky scene? Kinda makes it dull, unnatural, childish! After that, the movie continues much better, we get to learn a little about the characters, which in my opinion, acted as they supposed to, some dumb, some cocky and others bossy, afterwards some half gore, half scares, dunno, I say overall, a 5 is a good grade for American Horror House.

Yes! It could have been quite good, even with a much used plot, still, had potential, yes, it achieved some of it and yes, it ended as bad as it could have. But still, I've seen a lot more worse than this one right here, therefore, it's worth a look. No more than one tho, one, for the sake of curiosity. Yeah, that one, that killed the cat!

Not entirely avoidable by all means. There is some decent gore both in quality and amount, meaning that there is a fair bit of it and it doesn't look cheap. Some of the death scenes(though maybe there were too many because the horror elements outside of them suffered) are inventive and have an appropriate stomach-churning effect, the one with the saw stood out, while the other standout scene was when the sisters dressed as Sweet Alice Sweet. Morgan Fairchild- still looking amazing, she actually looks younger than she really is- is chilling and seems to be having a great time, by far the best performance of the movie. That is saying a fair bit actually because the acting generally ranged from overwrought to bland, in short while to be expected it was not particularly great. You don't get to know the characters either, in some instances they get under your skin(the two bitching sisters) or are not on screen long enough to make an impression. The dialogue doesn't flow very well, makes little effort to develop or explain things, so a lot of American Horror House felt very undercooked from a writing standpoint, and the bitching was so overdone that you wanted the characters doing the bitching to shut up fast. Story-wise, there is no better news, some of it drags but other parts felt improvised and erratic. There are an almost complete lack of horror and mystery elements, which hurt the movie significantly. The horror was predictable and atmosphere-less(sure the death scenes were gruesome but those aside there's not much to the horror). And it would have helped if the ghosts were more believable, you don't even believe that they are ghosts but instead it's oddly reminiscent of the Chamber of Horrors section in Madame Tussaud's but much less scary. American Horror House doesn't do well as a mystery either, more suspense, atmosphere and less predictability will have helped it and also that it wasn't so obvious to us too early who the person behind the killings was. There are cheaper movies out there than American Horror House, but the choppy editing, too bright lighting(one external review likened it to Hallmark/Lifetime quality and that is apt here, often it doesn't feel like it's a movie about horror houses and ghosts), and old-school effects that sometimes were okay but looked at other times comparatively dated to the rest of the movie's look cannot be ignored here. All in all, you can do with worse but American Horror House is one of those once-seen, quickly disposable movies(personal opinion of course). 3/10 Bethany Cox

Released to TV in 2012 and directed by Darin Scott, "American Horror House" (aka "Sorority Horror House" or "Paranormal Initiation") chronicles events during Halloween at a haunted Southern sorority house. Morgan Fairchild plays the housemother. Alessandra Torresani & Salina Duplessis play initiates for the sorority. Dave Davis is on hand as the male protagonist while Gralen Bryant Banks appears as a private detective.

The low ratings for this movie are hilarious. What were these critics expecting with a Syfy horror flick about a sorority house? For what it is, it delivers the goods. It's got a compelling story, plenty of low-budget gore and a buffet of good-looking women. The pic's generally serious, but with a sense of humor (e.g. the veteran sorority girls). Sure, it's cartoony, but it was made-for-TV, after all, and it scores high marks on the female front.

The film runs 87 minutes and was shot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The script was written by Anthony C. Ferrante.

GRADE: B-

Attempting to pledge a new sorority during a Halloween party, the new pledges find the event used as a recruiting session by the ghostly house-mother suffering under a malicious curse to possess the house and must find a way to stop it from going through.

This one here was actually quite an entertaining and exceptionally fun entry. The main element of the many pluses that comes up here is the fact that this one uses a near-continuous amount of ghost action which keeps this one moving along at such a brisk pace and never really lets it up. The early ghost shots of the girl haunting the cellist in the practice room and appearing to the rejected pledge are pretty chilling scenes and definitely set up some creepy atmosphere when mixed with the actions of the cop investigating the disappearances inside the sorority to the girls going through the initiation ceremonies at the same time. These manifestations of the ghosts are more than enough to provide a dark atmosphere here that's based off the haunting encounters being quite fun while also giving this one some solid supernatural basis. This makes the shots of the ghosts possessing the different artifacts and chasing them for great moments here featuring the attack on the group in the attic where the bear costume continues the attack, the final ghost ambush on the detective and the different visions of the past tragedies from the child's murders to the original deaths of the different figures in the house's history really gather up into formidable and enjoyable scenes. Finally, the main segments where they go around and invade the party, whether through ghostly temptation or simply appearing solely to those aware of their presence but remaining to the other party guests, is incredibly fun and definitely lives up to it's spectacle showpiece by setting the turning and corrupting in motion as well as providing this with the thrilling and action of the chases along the house where it finally gives them the key to overcome them. When mixed together with the rather gory deaths that are thankfully not CGI but actual prosthetics, there's a lot to like here. These here are enough to hold off the few small problems with this, starting with the lame point here involving the cursed-to-remain storyline which certainly doesn't need to be there and is introduced so late as to be an afterthought. There's the usual bad CGI, but overall this one wasn't nearly atrocious and remained quite enjoyable.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Language, Brief Nudity and drug use.