BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The_Void House of the Damned is only an hour long, but somehow it manages to make that hour feel like about five hours and also manages one of the most spectacularly bad endings that I have ever seen. The plot is just your average haunted house premise, and sees an architect and his wife go to stay in a house that turns out to be haunted. The film actually gets off to a promising start when we are introduced to the characters, but things go downhill once the house itself is introduced; it's just an average place in California. I've come to expect more creepy residences from haunted house films! Once it starts proper, it soon gets very boring also and most of the film is taken up by pointless drama without a scare in sight, which is very boring indeed. To the film's credit, it does look very nice and the crisp black and white picture is easy on the eyes. Nothing really happens during the main bulk of the film and I have to say that I am very glad the film is only an hour long. The ending itself is just unbelievably stupid and makes practically no sense at all. It seems like a desperate attempt by the writer to introduce some shock value, but it doesn't work. Overall, this really is a rubbish film and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

dbborroughs An architect and his wife go to remote castle like house somewhere in California. They are to do a survey of the house for the owners who have know retaken possession of the house after renting the place out for ten years. Once they arrive they find the road to the place blocked off by a makeshift dead end sign. Later that night, as they sleep in their beds something steals their keys to the place. What is going on? Moody and atmospheric tale in which there isn't much beyond the mood and the atmosphere. Here is the story of two couples alone in a big empty house who try to unravel what is causing the (few) strange events around them. The problem is that not a great deal happens and when you get to the final revelation its terribly anti-climatic. Certainly for the first half of the movie you're hooked by the mood and shadows of whats on the screen but then it suddenly begins to dawn on you that almost nothing has happened and unless something radical happens nothing is going to. Honestly there is enough for a half hour movie here but not enough to prevent boredom for the films one hour running time.This is not a movie to see pan and scan since all of the things that make the film so eerie and moody will be cut off by the panning and scanning. For all its flaws this is a movie that should be looked at to see how mood can be created in a widescreen image.Ultimately though, this is a movie thats best left to people who want to see a scary movie but one thats not too scary. Perfect for parents who want to show their kids an adult thriller but don't want them up all night screaming. The rest of us may want to take a pass unless an undemanding mood hits.(A Word of Warning- The DVD has the trailer on the disc and I suggest avoiding it until after you see the film. It gives away almost all of the high points of the film while suggesting a much more action packed film)

MARIO GAUCI An obscure and rather uneventful but nevertheless atmospheric and effective little chiller which presents us with a new twist on "the old dark house" theme which may ultimately disappoint some viewers. I won't divulge it here for those who may feel inclined to check this one out: I'll just say that it combines elements from two well-known Tod Browning movies - FREAKS (1932) and MARK OF THE VAMPIRE (1935) - and leave it at that! The plot deals with an architect and his wife having to spend the night in the infamous (and supposedly uninhabited) Rochester castle, who are later joined by the former's boss and his sassy girlfriend. However, before long, things start to go bump in the night: a bunch of keys mysteriously disappear and reappear with a couple of them missing, a few doors are inexplicably forbidden to the house dwellers, the girlfriend disappears after a quarrel with her intended, etc. It all seems to point in the direction of the crazed proprietress of the mansion who is currently spending her days in a mental institution but, eventually, we discover that there are even stranger forces at work here... As I said before, the moody lighting and occasional 'scary' set-pieces are the whole show in this one but, despite the lack of star names, the foursome acquit themselves quite adequately under the circumstances; in the latter stages of the film, Richard "Jaws" Kiel also makes an appearance as an unexpected 'guest' of the Rochester mansion.The low-priced Fox DVD is accompanied by a theatrical trailer which should not be viewed before the main feature as it virtually shows snippets from all the film's best sequences; interestingly, the much brighter trailer enabled me to make out some details which had eluded me during the film itself!

Mozjoukine In the sixties, Robert Lippert's Associated Producers scored a contract making black and white 'Scope B movies to run with Fox's big pictures and turned loose house director Maury Dexter on them. The results were uneven but one group - the contemporary thrillers - the Los Angeles films - were more striking than most of the big films that elbowed them out of the advertising space.Along with WOMAN HUNT, AIR PATROL and the later RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA, HOUSE OF THE DAMNED spins a thin budget into something surprisingly memorable. It succeeds where the Tod Browning film FREAKS failed in making it's circus performers real rather than monsters. The film's curious gentleness is one of its surprises.The building of tension is nicely crafted - the unanswered phone, moving shots of the deserted private road, disturbing detail like the broken sculpture, the thirteen keys and the re-appearing sign.Throw in the winning Merry Anders, anticipating the self reliant seventies woman and the atmospheric Hollywood Hills mansion setting which was once actually a haunt of bootleggers. People I see this with are always surprised that such a film exists.