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Horror House

PG 1969 1h 32m Horror Fantasy List
Reviews 20% Audience Score 250+ Ratings
Trying to salvage an evening after a dull party, a group of English mods and their American friend, Chris (Frankie Avalon), decide to pay a visit to a supposedly haunted mansion. They lock themselves in, and, following a seance, one of them is brutally killed. Realizing the killer must be one of their own, unofficial ringleader Chris prevails on everyone to bury the body and keep quiet. It's only after the police begin investigating that the group decides to ferret out the killer. Read More Read Less

Critics Reviews

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Eddie Harrison film-authority.com ...an interesting product of its time. Not particularly Gothic or sinister, it wields the slasher clichés with surprising skill, and has an odd, lurid energy that make it watchable... Rated: 3/5 Jan 23, 2024 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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alvin a Not anywhere near the Hammer scary movies of that time. Interesting to see a bit of the look of the time but really not a horror film. Watching it as a Creature Feature or any similar format on TV makes it more watchable. History I know of: This was Frankie Avalon's parting from his long teenage years from all the Beach Blanket movies. His acting career did not extend much farther but he's definitely still got the hair style that went away with the arriving of the long hair for boys.. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member This Tigon film takes place in Swinging London as we see a bunch of twentysomethings at a party who then decide to liven things up by going to an old out of town mansion that is reported to be haunted. The backstory as to why is that the family who used to lived there twenty years previously had all been butchered by a family member.  Things go awry when the group decide to split up and explore the inside of the property with candles. Two members of the entourage are then killed with the rest fleeing the mansion in fear for their lives. The police then investigate. The film explores an interesting conceit that the group members who weren't murdered and escaped now have to grapple with regarding the murderer. Was it someone already at the mansion or more shockingly, was it a member of their group? Paranoia and ennui ensue.  The version of this film that I saw was a 2K restoration and looked gorgeous. The colour palate for the film is shown off beautifully with the finest in late 60's mind expanding fashions being shown in all their glory. The interior design is just as 'of the moment'.  Frankie Avallone stars as the only Yank in the film (he also looks like he's been beamed in from the 1950's) whilst his co-stars include Richard O'Sullivan and Jill Haworth. The kills are just as lurid, colourful and 'pop art' as the fashions with the blood being bright vivid red and very paint like. It's aesthetically pleasing and reminds me of the blood used in George A Romero's masterpiece Dawn of the Dead a few years later. But whilst the film looks great and acts as a time capsule for what was going on in 1969 (albeit a sanitised filmmaker's version), the rest of the film is a bit pedestrian. The police investigate, the groovy bunch decide to go back to the mansion to look for clues (!) and then the film concludes (no ending spoiler here). It's mostly unremarkable with bland characters, not much plot and middle of the road dialogue. A bit like one of the groovy beautiful characters in the cast, the film looks great but is quite empty. A shame. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review steve d Surprising end but deeply uninteresting characters and weak storytelling lead to a forgettable horror pick with little to recommend it. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Weak horror film is mainly interesting because of how closely the plot hews to the teen body count horror film formula long before the formula was firmly established a decade later with the "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th" films. Frankie Avalon and a group of British teens go to an old mansion where they are then killed one by one. Who is the murderer? (SPOILER ALERT!) I was really hoping it would be Frankie of Beach Party fame, but sadly it was not. Writer/director Michael Armstrong, the man who made the notorious (and poorly made in my opinion) "Mark of the Devil," delivers another weak film here. I do think this film could have been better if Armstrong got his original choice of David Bowie as the killer. Unfortunately AIP felt Bowie would clash with Frankie. Too bad. That might have made this a much more memorable of film. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Dull and horribly dated. We could have had Bowie in this but were stuck with Frankie Avalon instead. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/20/23 Full Review Audience Member EARLY TEENAGE SLASHER FLICK THAT'S WORTH A LOOK--Swanky, Mod British Giallo/Slasher!! Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Horror House

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis Trying to salvage an evening after a dull party, a group of English mods and their American friend, Chris (Frankie Avalon), decide to pay a visit to a supposedly haunted mansion. They lock themselves in, and, following a seance, one of them is brutally killed. Realizing the killer must be one of their own, unofficial ringleader Chris prevails on everyone to bury the body and keep quiet. It's only after the police begin investigating that the group decides to ferret out the killer.
Director
Michael Armstrong
Producer
Tony Tenser
Screenwriter
Michael Armstrong
Production Co
Tigon British Film Productions Ltd., American International Pictures (AIP)
Rating
PG
Genre
Horror, Fantasy
Original Language
British English
Runtime
1h 32m