Director: Claudio Fragasso
Year: 1990
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: La casa 5
Genre: Haunted House
Plot:
After moving into a new house, a priest and his family find themselves terrorized by a series of strange supernatural phenomenon that points to the house being haunted by a malevolent demon seeking human souls to deliver to a Satanic entity and turns to a disgruntled colleague to save his family.
Review:
This here wasn’t too bad of a haunted house effort. That’s one of the most intriguing aspects here as the film wastes no time setting up this facet in the first half. Almost immediately after moving in, the daughters’ displays of supernatural happenings through the obsession with the swan rocking chair or the insistence that a being shining through the hole in the wall give this a great introduction to the kind of wild affair to the later haunting scenes. Not only running through the usual trappings of toying with lights, sudden outbursts of wind blowing through windows or wreaking havoc with electronics and household utensils but also scalding their faces or causing dreams where they appear as demonic brides attempting to lure the family away. That all of this comes about through the first half-hour gives the film fun, frantic pacing that makes it enjoyable.
That leads nicely into the film’s stellar supernatural action scenes. The first encounter with the demonic brides appearing out of the walls and chasing them through the house features several chilling scenes of the mass of creatures through the fog before being driven away, while the later sequence where they return to chase the children eventually taking one of them to their world offers the creepiest moments in the film. The finale, where the two priests come together to battle the main figure, really generates plenty of wild action as the religious confrontations for why they’re fighting lead into their non-stop battles. Featuring the exorcism of the son, the battle with the female demon and spectacular burning-down-the-house conclusion, the wildness here comes through nicely while also giving this one the chance for atmospheric touches and some ghastly ghoul make-up on the creatures. These are what hold the film up.
There are a few flaws here. Among the biggest issues here are the completely nonsensical ideas that are peppered throughout the film. The whole connection between the executed woman and the events at the house are never given as she’s never responsible for what was said to be responsible in the house or why the house was possessed in the first place. It’s also quite short on why the family was there as it seemed there was a purpose in them being brought in to stop the events from happening as the church seemingly knew what was going on but as for why nothing was done with the house until they moved in is incredibly strange and confusing. On top of that, the confusing series of events in the finale offers a whole mess of illogical actions that are thrown in for no reason, from possessing the husband during the ritual to the reluctant priest coming to battle for them without any thought as to how they’re integrated into the story.
That leads to the other problematic issue here where the film feels somewhat overlong not through pacing but continuous action. The finale is especially guilty of this as it seemingly throws obstacle after obstacle not as a means of the villains’ display of power but just to stretch the running time out. This ranges from the possession and exorcism of the kid to the temptation of the fallen priest and finally having the older reluctant priest coming into play to stop the demonic entity. Hardly any of these storylines come about with any kind of logical narrative build-up from what’s going on before and tend to just pop up out of nowhere to keep the film going and making for a somewhat overlong time here. Along with the films’ cheesiness, these are what hold this one down.
Overview: ***.5/5
A fun, filly over-the-top Italian haunted house cheesefest without too much going wrong with it, this was quite a fun ride so long as you're willing to go along with the premise and not think too much since that's where the majority of the flaws are found. Give this one a go if you're a fan of these kinds of genre efforts or are curious about this type of film while those with no interest or affection to the style should heed caution.
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