Customer Reviews

Ghosthouse [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

With the DVD revolution came a rebirth of b-horror, with various companies releasing dozens of special edition versions of out-of-print 80s horror movies at a time. Unfortunately, some were overlooked, and the long-out-of-print Ghosthouse is among those that haven't been rediscovered.

This film has a little bit of just about everything b-horror... You have one of the most amusingly absurd plots ever contrived (CB radio nerd picks up scary message from the future, tracks down the signal using 80s home computer technology, then drags his girlfriend there to share his finding with another group of trespassing teens and twenty-somethings...mayhem ensues), a killer clown doll, a murderous ex-psychiatric patient, graveyards, gory deaths, amusing effects that seem to just be there for the sake of it (including a number of glass objects blowing up like balloons and exploding..ooh, scary), an evil little girl, perhaps the best b-horror music theme ever (a cheesy short little loop that sounds like a demonic children's song and plays a part in the plot..and something I'd love to get the license to for use as an intro track to an album by one of my bands..), a weird hitchhiker who shows up at various points in the story... I could go on, but you get the idea.. And with all this, it still manages to balance the levels of unintentional humor and horror to the point where it's uttertly enjoyable, maybe even at (or..dare I say..surpassing?) the Evil Dead series mark.

Unfortunately, for now you'll only find this gem used on VHS. It's even hard to come by at rental outlets. Hopefully one of those companies currently reissuing horror and cult DVDs will eventually unearth this highly entertaining horror film and give it the attention it deserves.

[good things]
It's a great, but typical haunted house movie, even though not very interesting it was entertaining. The girl wasa very good and creepy addition to the downright eerie backing music/score. I believe the movie was very well done, and the location was right on.


[the bad]
Typically with movies like this, the bad acting is a given-- we have that. We also have almost no blood, and the blood and effects we get were obvious low budget, but alright. The story also kind of drags on a little too long, there were times when I found myself wanting to hit fast forward. The overdubbing wasn't too great either.


[final thoughts]
Umberto Lenzi is not known for making great films, Ghost House is nothing different, but definitely one of his best. This movie is one of my favorites from my youth, and the backing music used to scare the piss out of me.
At any rate, Ghost House holds up with the test of time. It may not be a great movie, but it is not only very watchable, but entertaining with scares

this is one of three ghost house movies that lenzi shot. This is the best by far but they are all good ghost movies. Unless you are a gore hound , this one is just a blast with wicked music behind the story even. It's a cult classic for good reason, now a movie fans would rate this somewhat lower I am sure but this is b movie greatness from a great director who could make everything from giallos to crime dramas to bad horror but this isn't bad it's cheesy cult fun that is loved all around the world. A regular critic would say look at the acting , the low budget but miss the wierd fun of it all. So if you love b movie cult classics that are wierdly fun then this one is for you. The dvd looks pretty good too with no extras really but at least we got this one on dvd. The other two are harder to find and I only have one of them on dvdr! This isn't a dvdr it's a real dvd so enjoy.

Ghost House has been a hard movie to track down for some time, but if you do make the effort, be prepared for disappointment - the film itself is a bit of a washout. First of all the house is the same one as used in Fulci's "House by the Cemetery"...if only this movie was as good as that one! The plot sees a bunch of teenagers (two amateur detectives and a band of holidaymakers) investigating an empty house that was once the scene of a gruesome double murder. What follows is a very muddled series of hauntings and more murders, seemingly carried out by the ghost of a little girl and her toy clown. The various deaths and ghostly visions are laughable, including dozens of completely unrelated manifestations such as a ghost dog, the head of a corpse in a washing machine (why??) and a vat of something that looks like porridge under the floor. Most hopeless of all are the scenes in which the actors pretend to be attacked by the evil clown doll (an obvious but lame attempt to rip-off "Poltergeist"). The murders are fairly gory, but none are particulary convincing, and the acting is nearly all terrible, not helped by the script which just continues to make up excuses for all the characters to keep going back in house to get picked off. Plus the red-herrings that go nowhere (the hitchhiker and the crazy old caretaker), and explanation for the haunting which is pathetic...it seems as though Lenzi knew he wanted a ghostly little girl and a clown doll, and just wrote a story around it. In its favour, the film is well shot, and a few jolts actually do work (the one when the biker girl is washing her face in the sink was fun), but there is zero supense or tension.
As I said, it's not worth the effort. But if you really must see it, there's a great Region 2 DVD release - available from Amazon.co.uk. I have this edition, and its a nice looking remastered print (uncut and widescreen, no less), but even so, there are far better euro-horrors around than this.

The quality is much better than I could find on torrent websites and such. It's obviously not an official print of the film, but considering the rarity of the film it will have to do. If you are searching for a NTSC DVD of the film, this is the one you want to pick up.

I actually watch this when I was a little girl and Iv'e been looking for this movie for about 12 years. I went to hollywood video for them to look it up about 12 years ago and they couldn't find it and I searched on the internet back then and couldn't find it and now I found it. I'm happy