Director: Dan Curtis
Year: 1976
Country: USA/Italy
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Haunted House
Plot:
Heading out to the country, a family agrees to look after an old mansion during the summer, and the longer they stay strange things start happening that makes each other question their sanity they finally convince themselves the house is making them go mad and try to escape the evil influence on them.
Review:
There are a few redeeming factors in this one as it's quite bland overall. The biggest positive to be had here is the central look and layout of the location here which is certainly appropriate in a haunted house film. That means the house itself looks great, and its design is a nice idea whereas rather than it being outwardly spooky it works its dread on the inside with the design and layoff offering the various rooms and endless corridors provides the kind of atmosphere that slowly draws on the various settings and as a spooky haunted house, it works because of that fine build-up.
The other big positive notion of the film is it being a regenerating one as well, which is a new idea and is pretty creatively handled. Aside from the central concept of a house needing to inflict pain and misery on people in order to stay alive which means that it causes physical and emotional stress on others in order to generate it's scares, and the few scenes where it does are instantly creepy and build up a great notion of dread. The swimming pool scenes are the film's highlights while the scenes of the house affecting them gives this some creepy moments. With a fine finale that has some action and suspense thrown in, it's really all there is to this one, though.
It has several factors which ultimately ruins this one is the fact that it's so long. There's no real reason why this is two hours long as the film just keeps on repeating itself to flesh out it's run-time. The fact that there are three sequences inside the pool is a prime example since it works wonderfully the first time, gets a little repetitious the second, and by the time the third one comes along it's a been there, done that feeling. The fact that so much of this comes so late in the film isn't a real good excuse either as the beginning is so padded that it stuffs the actual horror for the second half of the film which means that it then has to really deliver the goods at a breakneck pace to the finale to really give it a small saving grace. Sadly, even the second half is as slow as the first, and it simply produces boredom as a result.
The really big flaw, though, is that its idea of creepiness is a little off as most of it's supposed haunting tactics are just plain lame. Having an elder person get sick in the house doesn't inspire dread at all, and one character's insistence on caring for an unseen individual rather than take care of a family isn't that scary either, especially with the completely foreshadowed twist rendering it entirely possible to know what was coming all along. Scenes like the completely useless chauffeur from his nightmares doesn't amount to anything, and the fact that everything is written off regardless of intent the next morning as if nothing had happened the night before just makes for a rather bland time when they don't even care about it either. All of these come together to produce a really slow, boring film.
Overview: ** 1/2/5
This really could've been a great entry in the haunted house stakes, but as it's ultimately a criminally slow film, there's very little to like about this one. It's got a few good moments, but there's mostly not a lot there so give it a go if you're curious or appreciate these slow-burn psychological type of efforts, but for those looking for more upbeat fare don't expect a great time overall.
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