Director: Theodore Gershuny
Year: 1972
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: Night of the Dark Full Moon; Deathhouse
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
After the death of his grandfather, a stranger arriving in a small town to look into selling the property unleashes a wave of violence against the locals caught up in the scheme and forces him and a woman who has ties to the deranged history of the house to solve the murders plaguing the area.
Review:
This was a pretty underwhelming genre effort. Among the main drawbacks here is an overly talkative and sluggish tempo that leads to an excruciatingly long time before anything happens. With the first half going through an endless array of setting up the situation with the death that leads to the house being inherited, the conditional measures that are put in place once that happens, and the town being unsure of what to do when the lawyer arrives looking to buy the property that it takes far too long before anything happens. The mystery about what’s going on at the house, the owner of the property, and the mysterious disappearances around the house which is theoretically fine enough but it’s just so infrequent with its action that it’s incredibly sluggish and bland far too often to make much of an impact.
When it drops this and focuses on the few bits of stalking throughout here, the film isn’t that bad and has some likable factors. The setpieces throughout the house and surrounding areas showing the killer is around waiting to strike are usually quite fun, especially the first ambush on the couple in bed who are then knocked off in quite brutal fashion as a result. Later scenes involve the killer striking others around the house grounds including a stranded motorist on the highway and the later attack on the curious townsmember as the killer continually leaves a series of threatening messages about the crimes. This is quite thrilling and works nicely enough with the aforementioned mystery about how the house’s history leads into the current murder spree, but it’s not enough to overcome its bland atmosphere.
Overview: **/5
Generally dull but still worthwhile enough genre effort, there’s some worthwhile features here that are enough to make this watchable but has more than enough issues to keep it from rising above that point. Those who appreciate this kind of slower-style genre entry or are curious about it might have the most to like here while most others should heed caution with it.
Comments
Post a Comment