Customer Reviews

THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED

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2 star:		(1)
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Ilsa Goes to School

From beginning to end this film is a masterpiece of horror! From the plot, acting, set direction, photography and music everything is top notch. I don't know where to begin even parsing it because there are so many elements.

The plot: A new student arrives at an ultra strict boarding school in the nation of Europe sometime in the late 1800s where all the students are drop dead gorgeous teenage girls.

The school turns out to be more FUBAR than Twin Peaks. There isn't just one story line, there are dozens. Because the girls have spent years literally imprisoned in the gothic mansion having every human dignity and joy denied them (accept apparently 24 hour access to hair dressers, makeup artists, and clothes that make 'Bladerunner' look tame) girls seek out debauchery where ever they can. Whether it's drawing lots for trysts with the visiting woodsman, or the head mistress's horny 15 year old son, S&M whipping sessions, or just plain lesbianism, these are the only lives they know.

The big scary house holds more secret passages and dark attics, for secret meetings and abuse than any in film history. It's amazing so much was packed into only 90 minutes so effectively.

The head mistress herself isn't just an sadist and prison warden, she also has an incestuous crush on her 15 year old son whom she scolds daring to merely look at all the pretty girls he lives with. He should find a nice woman like mother. A young Norman Bates in training.

Then there's the teacher's pet. In some ways she has more power than the head mistress herself. She uses her power to force lesbian acts from fellow students but all the while has on obvious crush on the head mistress herself.

The local handy men are also slightly less creepy than John Wayne Gacy.

While all of these story lines are scary, nothing really "horror" happens accept for girls disappearing. Are they escaping? The head mistress keeps redoubling security. Are they being murdered? No bodies are turning up. Who and how many are in on the disappearances? This is more of a side plot that results in an M. Night Shamalyan style surprise ending I won't spoil.
Clearly this film, whatever its title heavily influenced VC Andrews' masterpiece `Flowers in the Attic' about a big creepy house where children were so abused they turned to incest for love. And many other haunted house movies such as Wes Craven's `The People Under the Stairs.'

But this probably most inspired the Euro trash D Nazisplotation films of the 1970s such as the `Ilsa' series, where Ilsa the sadist systematically tortured innocent women for 90 minutes. Unfortunately the Nazisplotation films went way overboard in terms of gore. Even the most hardened horror fan doesn't want to see people gang raped by midgets or animals while being set on fire. Or Nazis canalizing Jewish babies. (`Last Orgy of the Third Reich')

`The House that Screamed' features far better psychological horror than blood and guts.

The main star of the film is by far the gothic mansion itself. This is a haunted house to end all houses. The photographers did a great job in not even showing the entire house in one shot so we can only guess how big and scary it really is.

To clear up a few production notes and rumors I've seen online: this was a group European production not filmed in any one language. English, Spanish, French, Italian depending on which actor is speaking. The whole film is then redubbed for whatever country it's released in. As a result the film ends up looking dubbed in any language.

This dubbing style is similar to the Hong Kong martial arts films which may involve a variety of different language actors. The action scenes are shot and then dialogue and plot are dubbed in later

Hence it is inaccurate to say it's a Spanish film dubbed to English.

2nd most websites cite the time period as the turn of the century, 1900. However the school only uses candles! By 1900 they would have been using electricity or gas lamps at a minimum.

Anyway this horror film is a MUST SEE for all horror fans. Don't let anyone give away the ending!

Anyone entertaining purchasing this disc might research the Elvira version instead. This disc is obviously from a VHS master and has a few awkward edits making it pg-13.

This is a classic horror film from 1969. It has more thrill to it than horror and keeps you guessing as to who the murderer is. I just love horror films of the 1970's and this one came out a year before the 70's began. So it still goes in my collection, also because it has nice looking women in it!!.