Customer Reviews

Horror House on Highway 5

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

 

 

Given the lack of budget, the fact most of the actors have not appeared in any other film and a completely homemade feel of this film, I would ascertain it must have been a student project for film school. Given that assumption, the film manages to succeed modestly on a few levels. The lack of budget only enhances this type of film and most everyone in the film, including the antagonists, is at least likeable. The mood is too light, even comical, for most of the film. It never sinks into misogyny, even though several opportunities arise. While this makes the film more appealing, it does not necessarily make for an effective thriller. There is some quite terrible acting is displayed here; especially atrocious are Randy Daitch as the professor and Max Manthey as Gary. Additionally, Phil Therrien hams it up something awful as Dr. Mabuse, a man obsessed with carrying on the experiments of a German rocket scientist who had relocated to the area following WWII. The choice of naming the doctor after Norbert Jacques's criminal mastermind is intriguing, though the relationship is apparently perfunctory. As fortune would have it, a student from the local City College comes knocking on Dr. Mabuse's door, looking for information about our German scientist for her school project. The good doctor conspires to use this student for some bizarre experiments. He reads some incantations in what, one can assume, is supposed to be German (as a fluent German speaker, I could not recognize more than two words he reads) and orders his assistant, Gary, to brand the student with a hot iron. Alas, the dim-witted Gary has fallen in love with student Sally, who really only wants to escape this madness. (Rather wisely and perhaps presciently, Sally is listed in the credits only as "Irene F.") To compound matters, a killer is roaming the area concealed by a mask of Richard Nixon. The actor is listed as Ronald Reagan, which, obviously with intention, conjures thoughts of animosity toward these two Republican presidents. "You fascists!" screams Sally at her captors at one point. It is not apparent to me what point the filmmakers were trying to make, except to compare her oppressors with Nazis, Reagan and Nixon, and to make it abundantly clear these people are all wicked. There are no heroes, however, only victims. Despite some (ostensibly intentional) overacting throughout most of the early proceedings, the film does manage to build a modest amount of suspense toward the end. The other high point is Susan Leslie, who plays a student conducting research on rocket propulsion. Ms. Leslie is one of the most attractive actresses I have seen in recent memory and she appears to have some acting ability, so I find it unfortunate this film was her sole appearance.

While not great, this movie does serve as a fairly entertaining diversion: there is a little nudity (a rather attractive female with a fantastic body); an engrossing, albeit simplistic, storyline; some cool music, and the aforementioned Ms. Leslie. If you are a fan of horror, especially 70's and 80's cheapo horror, give this one a look. If you like your films with big budgets, extravagant effects and Hollywood stars, pass up this one.

One final note: I find it ironic that an obscure, independent film such as this is coupled on DVD with "The History of Hollywood Horror Films." Just one more odd thing about this DVD.

HORROR HOUSE ON HIGHWAY 5 is one of my favorite low (nearly nonexistent) budget movies. We get gratuitous nudity, a psycho-killer in a Richard M. Nixon mask, and two moronic nazi / sadist / occultists trying to re-animate the dead Dr. Bartholomew (inventor of the mythic V2 rocket)! There's also a pot smoker guy and a scientist gal who use their launching devices as a make-shift minefield, and their experimental rocket as a handy bazooka! Watch for the garden-rake lobotomy too! Lots of twisted / stupid humor make this one a pleasure to watch! HHOH5 is my kind of insanity! God bless the makers of this delightful mass of ghoulish ghoulash...

Hey, if you've never had the pleasure of seeing Horror House on Highway 5, now's your chance, since it's now out on DVD! The DVD itself is nothing overly special, it's a bit rough at the beginning but the picture quality (?) improves after the first few minutes. There are 3 students assigned to do a project on some German ex-patriot rocket scientist guy that did secret and weird things in some old house (off Highway 5, of course) and off 2 of them go to the house while one stays in town to do in-depth interviews with other psychos. We have some guy running around in a Richard Nixon mask (who is credited as Ronald Reagan) and one unfortunate student who is also a pothead that ends up with a garden tool embedded in his forehead yet still manages to get around. The soundtrack is rather interesting as it's mostly old instrumental surf music and garage bands like The Count Five, etc. In some ways this is almost like a horror movie fashioned by the hands of John Waters, but in other ways it's almost indescribable. For comic releif we have two bumbling psychos, one by the name of Dr. Mabuse who thinks he has brain parasites. Like you really need any comic releif in this. You have to wonder in what spirit this was made, and I personally think it was made in the spirit of fun, but it's really hard to tell sometimes. If the folks that made this movie were even remotely serious about their efforts then I'd be very surprised. This is a real hoot and a must for any fan of trashy stupid horror movies. YEAH!

The movie is ok but the source material for the dvd transfer is clearly a multigenerational vhs video copy with a continuous roll on the bottom of the screen and color distortion in the corner the whole movie when its not skiping and the sound is not distorted.

Terrible....the plot didnt really go much further than a couple a wackos trying to scare a couple of college kids who are trying to conduct a college project near their house in the woods by highway 5.

The acting, plot, and graphics were terrible all together. I wouldnt recommend this so called horror classic to anybody. Save your cash!!!

I am a big horror movie fan so I look at different sites for movies that I may not have heard of before and this movie (Horror House on Hwy. 5) happened to be one of the movies that I came across when searching here on Amazon. The reviews for this movie were mostly 3 stars so I bought it thinking that at least it would be a reminder of the lost 70s style of movies. But I should have known by the title alone that it would not be what I expected. Hopefully I will be able to make my money back on this turkey or even take a loss just to make room on my shelf for a good movie. Next time I will rent it before buying to make sure that I want to spend money to actually buy something like this one.

I didn't expect a whole lot from this one, especially with the other reviews on this page but I was expecting a better DVD copy at least. There was obviously no mastering done and someone just dubbed this from a VHS cassette that was pretty worn down. I also didn't hear the Dolby Stereo that was mentioned in a previous review and the running time was more like 85 minutes and not almost 3 hours. I don't think I could have taken the quality for 3 hours.

The film was not disappointing really, it had all of the elements of a really cheap early 70's horror flick. No budget, poor audio, horrible acting but to me all those things are good! It succeeded at being exactly what I wanted in a cheesy cheapo, it was unintentionally funny, had a little nudity, violence and still was entertaining even with poor lighting and some really dark scenes.

The story has been exposed already so there is no need to go over all of that again but I will say that Dr. Mabuse and his cohort Gary were hilarious. The V Rocket was never really explained and how saying satanic passages in German while "ironing" a girl was just so hokey that I couldn't help but laugh hard! I suppose it raised some welts on the girl or something, I have no clue.

If the transfer was better I'd give the movie a higher rating but because this is about this particular release I can't do more than 3 stars. If someone else finds the original negative print and actually puts some time in producing a better copy, I would be glad to iron out a little more for this hidden horror laugh classic.

If your looking for a 90's studio release with CGI and big gore effects, this one will not work for you, but if you enjoy Last House on the Left or any of the early horror classics, this should fit in nicely.

There has never been a type of movie with more allure than the thriller series. Many have scared the socks off of their poor audience, with a particular tip of the hat to "The Blair Witch Project," but this movie is different. The movie tells you with its story, its tone, and its color that something will happen, but you can not put your finger on it until the end. The movie supports no "cheap scares" present in movies like Scream in which a scene is not scary, just sudden and startling. This movie, "horror house on highway 5" Will make you afraid. Afraid of the dark, and afraid of being alone. The genuine surprise ending added closure to a genuine 21st century scary movie. And, with added footage, you will not want to miss "horror house on highway 5" Note: This movie is only for those who are not afraid to be truly afraid.

Horror House is a classic. Even though it is low budget, the Sixties psychedelic music mixed with the surf sounds of the same era make this a must-have. But I must admit I give all 5 stars to the extra feature..."Hollywood's History of Horror". This feature shows us the movie trailers from the black and white era of "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" through such classics as "The Blob", "Invaders from Mars" and even Hitchock's "The Birds". A must see.

I really have no idea why I picked up this film. The first dvd I got was broken but Amazon sent me a new copy ASAP. The second dvd was fine and I popped it in the player. There is a great feature on the dvd that is as long as this film but it's over horror movies in Hollywood since the 30's up till Pyscho. The quality is pretty bad but it was very good with lots of great clips. The movie itself was very, very poor qualtiy and looked like it was ripped off an old VHS. It was a decent movie but nothing out of the ordinary.