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Directed by Michael Armstrong
Starring Frankie Avalon
Jill Hayworth
A deeply flawed yet still very memorable late 1960s fear film from the director of "Mark of the Devil"! This was produced in the twilight zone between "Psycho" and "Last House on the Left," when horror films could be surprisingly bloody but still had a kind of sixties innocence.
The film starts off so slowly that, for its first two thirds, "Horror House" is an almost un-watchably bad, overly talky teen thriller about young people in swinging London who decide to hold a seance in an old abandoned house, supposedly haunted. When one of their own is murdered at the home, they decide to cover up the crime, rather than end up being blamed by police and opening up some old drug charges. Big mistake.
An even bigger mistake: Returning to the house to investigate the murder on their own. When a slasher starts offing the teens using a machete, the plot thickens. The teens naturally keep heading back to the house, even after their friends continue being wiped out there.
Again, the story moves at a snail's pace, but when the first murder happens, it's actually quite grisly, especially for the late 1960s. Obviously, the producers realized they were competing with the likes of H.G. Lewis at this time, and did what they had to do.
But it's the ending where the real payoff happens. Suddenly, the movie exhibits a power and edginess that few horror films in the sixties dared deliver. The last killing is a particularly gruesome one. It almost seems like the film had two directors: One who handled the first two acts, and another more talented one that tackled the film's triumphant climax. Truth be told, some guides list this movie as having two directors: both Armstrong and a fellow named John Cardos, who also helmed "Kingdom of the Spiders."
Frankie Avalon makes a rare horror movie appearance and gets top billing, even though he isn't really the star of the proceedings. He does steal the show at the end of the film, however, delivering one of his most memorable moments on screen.
"Horror House" was never released on video in the U.S. to my knowledge, but it was a staple on some TV stations in the early 1970s, and remains a popular underground release. I first caught it on Creatures Features in the San Francisco Bay Area, back when that show ruled the TV airwaves (hosted by Bob Wilkins).
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-- Review by Lucius Gore
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