Product Details

• Actors: Alexandra Day, John Wintergate, Kalassu
• Directors: John Wintergate
• Format: Color, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Code Red
• DVD Release Date: April 29, 2008
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001302URC
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #220,574 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Boarding House" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

A man with telekinetic power inherits a big house with a horrible past. He opens the house up as a boarding house and very quickly becomes inhabited by a group of gorgeous women. Soon the long sleeping evil supernatural power inhabiting the house starts killing off the tenants one by one.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Insane, bizarre, demented do not describe this freakshow! May 15, 2008

By J. Wingenfeld

Format:DVD

BOARDINGHOUSE is a micro-budget shot-on-video horror movie which is arguably the first-ever direct-to-video movie ever produced (and almost definitely the first shot-on-video movie transferred to 35mm and shown in theaters). While at first glance it seems to be nothing more than a cheap piece of schlock shot in someone's backyard, what makes BOARDINGHOUSE stand out amid the hordes of other such movies is the movie's undeniably off-the-wall atmosphere, demented performances and amusingly ameteurish make-up and visual effects. The average viewer will no doubt be completely bewildered, but fans of underground horror and drive-in exploitation will be delighted by this unrelentingly weird little freakshow.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Seperates the the REAL exploitation fans from the tourists... November 15, 2009

By A. Copp

Format:DVD

BOARDINGHOUSE is the kind of horror movie that is very rarely made anymore and is even more rarely appreciated for the out of touch with reality entertainment it offers. To put the movie in the right perspective the viewer has to watch it in the frame of mind that someone would have encountered it in 1981, stumbling into a Drive-in or grindhouse theater, probably assisted by some mind altering medication and being side swiped by this deviant blast of Northern Californication Occultic blarny. Boardinghouse takes you head, twists off the top and does unmentionable things to your gelatin matter whether you like it or not. The movie ENJOYS making a mess of your brain on a fifty cent budget.

Sure the acting is bad, the videography hurts your eyes at times, and the singing by the star is out of whack. But all of this adds up to the experience of being from an entirely different planet. A planet where a middle aged occult hustler just needs to put an ad in the Sunday paper to get a half dozen babes to move in with him and at the height of his powers can make a bar of soap zoom around the bath tub with his mind! It has boobs, gore and video generated shadow monsters! It was only the second movie ever to be shot on commercial video and released to theaters (the first being Frank Zappa's 200 MOTELS) so for that alone it is a landmark.

It is movies like BOARDINGHOUSE that separate real cult/exploitation film fans from the tourists who just watch the "cool" stuff that Fangoria or Maxim would feel safe recommending. Loving real trash like this alienates people, but once you get past that feeling that is where the real gems are.

The DVD from CODE RED is a labor of love with a riotous commentary and featurettes with the director and star these days.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece of "Bad" 80s Horror! (Focus--white light!) February 15, 2010

By Lemmy Caution

Format:DVD

I recommend this film to anyone who wants to laugh until their stomach muscles ache. I first saw it, about 10 years ago, at a screening at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, presented by Bill Landis, author of Sleazoid Express, an excellent book on exploitation cinema. "Modern Art" aptly describes this shot-on-video time capsule of awful early-1980s clothing, hairstyles, computer graphics, and extremely cheesy music and pathetic "special effects". The end result?

A masterpiece of horror that defies description. Throw in the most ridiculous script, dialogue and acting outside of an Ed Wood or H.G. Lewis film -- and you're in for a wild ride! We were falling out of our seats at the SF MOMA, shaking with uncontrollable laughter, and dumbstruck with awe that Boardinghouse was ever made, that it actually existed in the same universe as our own.

A recent (shaky) on-camera interview with director Wintergate and star Kalassu is interesting chiefly for their attempt to convince us that the film was meant to be a spoof -- and that their efforts at parody were overruled by the producer, who apparently believe Boardinghouse would work better as a serious horror movie! I'm not sure what to believe.

The transfer quality is about what you'd expect -- high-def digital video cameras didn't exist in 1982 -- and the filmmakers claim this was shot in "broadcast-quality" video, then transferred to 35mm celluloid for theatrical projection. Huh. Most of it still manages to look as if they used consumer-grade equipment typical of the time. This disc was apparently transferred off the original video source material, so it's certainly watchable (as well as laughable).

Don't take my word for it: rent or buy this movie, and you will realize that your life could never be complete until you've seen Boardinghouse -- and stay with it right until the mind-melting, soul-shattering, bloodcurdling finale: FOCUS! WHITE LIGHT! FOCUS! WHITE LIGHT!