Director: William Rose
Year: 1974
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: La casa della paura
Genre: Cult
Plot:
Recently released from prison, a troubled woman forced to make ends meet takes a job at an apartment building where she learns the truth about the previous tenant who ran afoul of a strange satanic cult and now believes that she’s being targeted next forcing her to find a way to stop them.
Review:
This one had its moments but was still decent enough overall. One of the few engaging elements present here is the fact that this one goes for a rather fine mystery as to what's the culprit behind the disappearances. After being provided with the fine opening scene, the resulting sense of mystery bandied about due to the rather overt case about the disappearances building up around her and the strange visions of the masked killer tormenting her that spurns on the true investigation. Since this runs alongside the scenes of the devious doctors running through their plans with each other in the secret basement, this adds quite a lot to the overall story attempted here as there's some fine work to be had at this point in the story. Likewise, the inclusion of the red-masked killer working for the group helps to give this one some solid horror elements that are played up together into a decent whole here, making for a decent enough story here which really ramps up in intensity in the later half here.
The second half brings about a bit more action as the early setup provides some great impact. As we get to see the cult’s intentions finally coming together as the exploits of the cult manage to bring about an investigation into the strange dreams she has that tie everything together, it all leads to the revelations that are shown here leading through the series of interactions with the group. As the flashback gives us a chance to see the torture inflicted by the red-masked psycho which features some great whipping and torturous devices being utilized that also gets some solid nudity included here as well. The fun finale has some more action involved with the addition of a car chase throughout the countryside and a final trip to the cult’s hideout for a grisly Satanic ceremony that wraps this up rather nicely. Alongside the typically-impressive nudity usually featured here, these here manage to hold it up somewhat.
This does have some flaws to hold it back. The main factor to be had against the film is the generally underwhelming and bland pacing that manages to focus more on the origins of the cult’s obsession with her than anything else. Going more for a slow-burn approach that gets pretty in-depth on how they treat their own, who they target, and how her activities around the apartment leave her in their crosshairs ends up causing the film to be far more dull than expected with very little happening for long periods. The series of clues that focus on her looking into the former tenants with her friend manages to last quite a while here involving the duo going around talking to others trying to find out the truth about what happened at such a glacial pace that there’s so little actual genre material going on for a large part of the running time.
There’s also the immensely stupid and confusing storyline with very little going on that makes any sense. There’s so little explained here about the cult, how they plan to operate, sacrificing others, or how everything is supposed to be a secret when everything they do is so blatantly obvious that there’s not much chance of them trying to get away with their plans. Even how they expect clues to disappear when left out in the open as a big mystery about the disappearing bloodstain left in the apartment is a big giveaway here as that investigation ties into the killer’s reveal later on as that never goes anywhere so everything is just difficult to figure out on top of not having a lot of action to help it out. With a weak look and production style, there are a lot of issues with this one bringing it down.
Overview: **/5
Enjoyable enough as it is but still quite problematic, there are some fun aspects here that do get undermined quite a bit due to the series of flaws holding this one back. Those who are intrigued by this one or are the most ardent Eurohorror fanatics will want to give this a shot while most others out there turned off by these features should heed caution with this one.
Comments
Post a Comment