HouseofDeath

House of Death (aka Death Screams) (1982)

Here is another basic slasher movie from the early 80s. The movie opens with a couple of kids getting naughty under a bridge. You know what happens to teenagers that get naughty in slasher movies, don’t you? Well they of course get killed, though I’m not sure exactly how because the movie is very dark (could just be the copy I watched). Then we get a long bit of introduction of the characters before they head off to a party in the woods, which then moves to a cemetery! The killer comes after them and starts to pick them off one at a time. Eventually the killer is stopped and sort of explanation is given for their motivation.

After starting out with a bang and a couple of quick kills House of Death slows down to a crawl as it starts to introduce the characters. This includes a couple of older ladies that are kind of cool, but really have nothing to do with the story. I don’t understand if they are there as possible red herrings, but I never got the idea they were threats. There is also a stalk and kill in broad daylight that was a bit hard to swallow and really slowed the movie down. To be fair and not give anything away both the old ladies and the kill during the day do sort of play into the story a bit, but not enough that they couldn’t have been cut out. Now when they get to the woods things pick up and House of Death becomes a mediocre but functional slasher movie.

Can’t talk about a slasher movie without mentioning the staples of the genre. We get some nice female nudity right from the start with first couple killed. There is even some skinny-dipping later on! But the gore is a little bit lacking. Most of the kills are pretty tame on happen off screen. We do get a very Black Christmas kill on a merry go round and neat bit with some hands. But other than that I was kind of disappointed. One of the things that has surprised me as I’ve tracked down some of these more obscure slasher flicks are how tame most of them are with the kills. I guess they seemed a lot bloodier to a preteen me than they do now. That said there is a decent body count (9) as well as some music that is generic cheesy 80s fun.

This is not a good movie. It does have it moments where it can be some goofy fun, but overall I just didn’t like it that much. I can’t really recommend it, unless you can get it on the cheap and are a fan of 80s slasher movies. Then maybe you might watch it once before putting it on the shelf to collect dust.

1 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer