Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"The House of Seven Corpses" AKA: Who really killed Cleon?, August 28, 2002
The House of Seven Corpses was one of my favorite late night spooky movies that my brother and I would tune in on NYC's channel 9 or Boston's channel 36 beamed into our living room in upstate NY on early cable, sans the bells and whistles that today's teens enjoy. We used to take bets on who killed the ageing diva's (Faith Domergue's) cat Cleon (My money was on the director of the film within a film, John Ireland) as well as wonder why a witch like Mrs. Beale (at the start of the movie, they were re-enacting a seance scene for the movie the soon to be victims were shooting) would need a gun to protect herself from the Zombie she was summoning? John Carradine (who interrupts the seance/film shoot at the beggining of the movie) joined an excellent cast, including Faith and John, to put together a scary little film on a shoestring budget that is still fun and suspenseful even after multiple viewings. OK, you have to suspend disbelief, but that goes for most movies that provide escapist entertainment. As for the movie being violent, next to watching the evening news these days "The House of Seven Corpses" looks like a quiet walk in the park! The DVD is a high quality "Image" release and is recently available at a bargain price on top of it. It was originally selling at a fairly high list price, it is now quite a bargain here at our favorite internet site, Amazon[.com]. The wonders of the American recession! Don't forget the popcorn and don't put out the cat! Do enjoy this film on a stormy night curled up on the coach preferably with company, or at least the cat.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Utah Schlock-O-Rama!, August 13, 2002
Filmed in the Utah governor's mansion, this little cheap-o goodie is low on sense and high on atmosphere. It's highly entertaining, no matter how you choose to view it. On the one hand, it's actually pretty good as a simple, straightforward low-budget horror film; on the other, it's so cheaply made and (in some ways) nonsensical that you can good-naturedly laugh at it.The story is a movie in a movie, which is always an enjoyable conceit: director John Ireland shoots a low-budget picture in the haunted Beal mansion, the owners of which all came to untimely and violent ends. The cast and crew don't take it very seriously, though middle-aged actress Faith Domergue (one of Howard Hughes' favorites, still surprisingly beautiful) wants to do her best since she is concerned about her future job prospects. In the interest of making the black-magic angle of the movie more believable - caretaker John Carradine heaps scorn on the filmmakers for their blatant disregard concerning the house's actual history - Domergue reads part of the script's ritual from a Latin translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead found among the Beals' belongings, and ends up raising a little real hell from the family graveyard...which causes the film's cast to gradually succumb to the same violent demises formerly suffered by the unfortunate Beals. For as cheap a movie as this is, it's shot quite beautifully. The color is especially vivid and rich, and the cinematography is pretty crisp. There are looped sequences and some shoddy day-for-night photography, but it's rather impressive in spite of that. Dominic Frontiere's moody first season Outer Limits score is recycled for the soundtrack, to good effect. The actors play it all for real, and remain surprisingly credible. And the action sometimes surprisingly sucks you in, with a few gruesome and shuddery moments. The film's logic flaws are legion - whoever dreamed up a Latin translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, for instance? - and its ending won't stand up to close scrutiny. But if you're partial to those old Creepy and Eerie magazine stories that used to be put out by Warren Publishing, you'll love this flick - it performs exactly like those schlock horror mags read.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
House of Seven Corpses not for Mummy fans, January 16, 2002
There is a definite generation gap when it comes to appreciation of films in general and horror films in particular. At a mere 36 years old (OK, 37), I have no tolerance for the likes of The Mummy with Brendan Frasier or most other mass market video games masquerading as films. This stuff is all empty, loud, mind-numbing product, no different from the Coca-Cola you drink when you watch it. If this kind of talk is making you angry, you will not at all be interested in The House of the Seven Corpses, which is atmospheric, well-scripted and DOES feature rotting corpses. BUT they don't run really fast in massive groups, and the hero is about 65 years old so it wouldn't be becoming for him to leap 20 feet into the air and sever all 7 corpses at once.
Seven reasons to see The House of Seven Corpses:
1) Intriguing film-within-a-film self-reflexive weirdness
2) Clever dialogue as delivered by John Ireland
3) Cantankerous dialogue as delivered by John Carradine
4) A chance to stay with the entire cast for several nights at the creepy Governors' Mansion in Utah
5) Eerie choral musical score AND stock music from Outer Limits
6) Convincing rotting corpses
7) Opening credits sequenceIf that's not enough, I have more. If you're still reading this, hopefully a few of the reasons above will suffice. And for those of you who think this film is awful, I understand why a measly seven corpses, with only two of them SLOWLY coming back to life, will not.
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