Interesteg What makes it different from others?

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Milo-Jeeder I can't believe I've never even heard of this film, even though I'm a 32-year-old avid horror movie fan who pretty much devotes his life to cheesy 80s flicks. Directed by Umberto Lenzi and branded as a sequel to the "Evil Dead" franchise, "Ghosthouse" reunites all the conditions to be a cult b horror flick, but it seems like it hasn't reached that status, or at least not yet. In "Ghousthouse", the story begins in 1967, when a man named Sam Baker finds her young daughter, Henrietta, hiding in the basement, after killing her cat with a pair of scissors. More angry than surprised, the man locks her daughter up in the basement, telling her that she has to be punished to for her sin and telling her to pray for God's forgiveness. Sam later tells his wife that he thinks their daughter is under some kind of spell or a curse, a theory that Henrietta's mother adamantly rejects. Afterwards, both Sam and his wife are brutally murdered by an unseen killer, while strange events occur in the house, like a light-bulb that inexplicably begins to expand until it explodes (um, okay) and a mirror that shatters to pieces for no apparent reason (Man! Not even 10 minutes have passed and we already have a seemingly haunted house, a killer on the lose and a murderous child?). While her parents are being butchered upstairs, Henrietta cries in the basement and finds comfort holding a strange clown doll that plays an eerie lullaby music which, apparently, makes her feel all warm inside (even though the goddamn clown is creepier than Chucky and Annabelle combined and the lullaby is more disturbing than soothing)Twenty years later, an amateur radio operator named Paul picks up a signal of two people screaming, presumably before being attacked by someone or something. Paul somehow manages to track down the location where these screaming occurred and decides to travel to this place with his girlfriend, Martha (sure, why would they call the police in the first place? after all, these are badly written characters in a low budget horror flick and they need to act accordingly). When Paul and Martha arrive to the place where the screaming occurred, we find out that it's the same house where Henrietta and her parents used to live. Paul and Martha are greeted by a decaying old man who kindly tells them to get the hell out of there and mind their own crap. Of course, crazy old farts are never taken too seriously, especially when they look like they're in a stable relationship with booze and mental illness. As soon as they arrive, Martha tells Paul that she wants to leave, because the house gives her a bad feeling (could it be because it's the same house where Lucio Fulci filmed "House by the Cemetery" and Martha saw the movie? That would have been something else).Paul and Martha break into the house (of course!) to come across a group of four young squatters who travel around in a camper and a motorbike (because in the fictional USA, young people just break into houses, like it's totally an okay thing to do). One of these youngsters, whose name is Jim, owns a radio and his voice sounds exactly like the voice of the person that Paul heard screaming the night before. Paul, who conveniently recorded those screamings on tape, allows Jim to listen to the recordings, and though the later one admits that the voice in that tape sounds exactly like his own, he denies having been involved in any screaming situation whatsoever during the night before. "Ok, what the fudge is going on here?", Paul wonders. Soon, him and Martha will unravel a mistery that started with Henrietta and, more specifically, with her creepy clown doll.Plot-wise, "Ghosthouse" fails terribly. Though it makes an effort to provide some sensibleness from time to time, as the story progresses, some situations seem to make no sense whatsoever, and we foolishly assume that those loose ends will be tied up in the end... but they don't. Convolutedness is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to films and "Ghosthouse" sure is an example of a convoluted plot that ends with a bunch of unanswered questions. I haven't read much about the making of this film, but something tells me that, while initially the story was meant to wrap up more coherently, the producers asked for certain plot devices and scenes to be written into the story, in order to make the film more "commercially appealing". This has happened to other famous Italian directors, like Lucio Fulci who was forced to add zombies in "The Beyond", so it wouldn't be surprising if a similar thing happened here. From what it seems, in "Ghosthouse" they go through great lengths to give us a gruesome imagery and shocks, which only adds confusion and takes time away from the film to give the audience a proper explanation to the events that happened. As the credits start to roll, we understand that many things just didn't make sense all along and we are forced to come up with our own theories to fill a bunch of blank spaces in the script. This is not exactly a sign of superb script writing, but the movie is enjoyable nevertheless. Examples with major spoilers ahead: 1) Why is Valkos, the crazy old man, so determined to kill these kids and Mr. Baker's former business partner? Is he related to the person who originally owned the clown doll and he feels the obligation to avenge him or her, just because Baker stole the freakin' doll? Or is Valkos simply a raging psycho, looking for any excuse to butcher people? Is he the one who killed Henrietta's parents at the beginning? 2) Why do we see the goddamn Grim Reaper lurking around the house, like he has anything to do with this? Who the heck invited the Grim Reaper to this convoluted mess? 3) What are all those dead bodies doing in the basement? Should we assume that, besides the grave robbing, the house was also built over a ground with dead corpses buried there, like it happens in "Poltergeist"? (it wouldn't be surprising, since this flick also latches out onto the success of the film directed by Spielberg, by featuring a similarly creepy clown doll). Be that as it may, those dead bodies in the basement are never explained or even mentioned by the Lieutenant who reluctantly steps in to take care of this mess. Italian low budget horror productions that try to pass as American, by setting the story in the USA and featuring a cast of actors of different nationalities, tend to offer a "kit" of tropes that "Ghosthouse" parades for the audience to enjoy. For example: the ghost of a little girl in a white dress, a creepy doll, a drunk and crazy old man, the abandoned big house, lots of cobwebs, creepy lullaby music, a dark basement, youngsters breaking into the aforementioned abandoned house and, well... the list goes on and on. Yup, we have all the classics here and more over the top than in any other Italian low budget production that I have seen. The characters in this flick are one-dimensional and generic, which is reasonable, considering that there are so many of them, so much action going on throughout the film and so little time for character development. In the end, do we really care about that in a flick like this? I think not. Those who are acquainted with Italian low budget horror productions may also expect something in which "Ghosthouse" excels: poorly written dialogs that are also horribly dubbed, resulting in something hilariously bad. While the predominantly horrible acting and monotonous dialogs may work in favor of certain similar productions, helping to develop a surreal dream-like atmosphere, in this case, it only adds up to the unintended hilarity, which makes the flick even more entertaining (Paul and Martha's constant heated arguments deserve a honorable mention)"Ghosthouse" offers a truckload of entertainment, but several things just don't make sense, which is frustrating for anyone who, understandably, prefers a coherent plot. It stays away from any kind of sex or nudity, which is rather unusual for a flick like this. This film provides a nice amount of gore, with blood that is super red because... well, who the hell expects realistic looking blood anyway? There are a few cool death scenes, though the low budget can be clearly perceived. The strident soundtrack, composed by Piero Montanari is both creepy and cheesy as well. The opening theme and the lullaby are played several times throughout the film and it's the type of music that sort of "stays" with you afterwards (something that is very common with Italian horror productions).Just enjoy this film for what it is and don't try to make too much sense out of it, or you'll be in for a big disappointment. I recommend watching it as a double-feature with "Witchery" (1988), which was also branded as "Ghosthouse 2" and "La Casa 4", though it has nothing to do with either one of those franchises.

ernesti By the late 80's Umberto Lenzi had seen his better days of his career and this movie is just a proof of how it must have been a struggle to get this together. Well all in all it's a decent attempt if it's compared with many other movies with a haunted house theme.The Italian horror movie genre was dying out in the 80's and so had the Italian film industry in general. No international productions were made and the days of glory of the 70's were long gone. Lenzi was one of the few directors trying to stay afloat.It's surprising how good the film still is with such a limited budget. It has good creepy atmosphere and music but one of its shortcomings is really bad acting. It could have been so much better if they had had better actors or at least had their voices dubbed over. I couldn't help laughing at the overacting and forced dialogue that seemed like they read their lines from paper.After all it still was such a pleasant surprise. It's so much better than many other horror films with similar theme.

jdollak I first saw Ghosthouse around 1996, and while I sat through it, not much of an impression was made. But the memories of the movie remained, and specific shots remained in my mind. Eventually I watched it again, and was struck with how charming it is. The script is unpretentious, with some incredibly simplistic writing. But the horror elements are a bizarre mix of fairly disconnected clichés. But it will stick with you, not in its entirety, but just little things.I watched the movie a third time recently, and I'm willing to concede a few more substantial faults. The pacing is awkward and it slows down a whole lot during some sequences. Some of the things - like the little storm in the bedroom - are laughable.Despite these faults, the fact is that this cheap movie is a memorable one. For a horror movie, the ability to remain in our memory is a really important one.

slayrrr666 "Ghost House" is a really enjoyable supernatural haunted house film.**SPOILERS**Working with a radio receiver, Paul Rodgers, (Greg Scott) keeps receiving strange transmissions over the radio, which begin to get to Martha, (Lara Wendel) his wife. Tracking the source to a small town-house in the country, he finds that Jim, (Martin Jay) Susan, (Mary Sellers) Mark, (Ron Houck) and his girlfriend Tina, (Kate Silver) are living in the house where he received the transmissions, and after looking around, they all get a weird vibe from the house. When they suddenly start to die mysteriously, they discover that the house is haunted by the spirit of a young girl who was driven insane and murdered her grandparents years ago, and that the spirit doesn't take too kindly to them coming in her house. As the deaths continue, they try to find out how to stop them before they all wind up dead from her rampage.The Good News: This was a really nice supernatural entry. One of the best facts is that there's a great ability to remain so creepy while it's so cheesy. The main house where everything takes place is incredibly creepy, with the basement set-up, the decorations placed down there and the way that they're set-up make this a wonderful setting. From the great method of letting the main hauntings get started, with the demonic-looking clown that is just down-right creepy because of the twisted smile and the white face paint being involved it has a just never-ending manner of setting up an atmosphere to this that manages to make the real haunting scenes all the better. The scene in the bedroom with the dolls coming to life and then all the other stuff reverting back to hide the truth manages to make the scene great. The last assault on the friends stuck inside is even better, from the howling wind to the really great method of the supernatural instances coming to life and the simply incredible scene where the hooded figure comes down the stairs carrying a knife, and it's revealed to be a skull-headed grim reaper with the bony features melting down. It's a great scene, and combined with everything else the film throws into the last half of the film, it's got a lot to like about it. The other thing that really works for this is the great deaths, which are really nice and bring about some nice gore. There's a fan blade flying on it's own to slice a throat open, an ax rammed into the top of the head, a knife impaled in the neck, a guillotine slicing in half at the waist, stabbing in the back with hedge-clippers and another is run over by a bus, among others. These here are all the really good parts to this.The Bad News: There really isn't all that much wrong with this one. The only flaw in this is rather big but non-detrimental, is the film's incredibly slow burn to get going. There's some nice stuff early on, but the film does take it's time to get to the great areas that occur in the second half. The encounter with the hitchhiker, who disappears after a couple minutes, the long walk-through of the house when they first arrive, and especially the scenes of him playing around with the noise transmissions are full of scenes that go on for a long time before they lead into anything of excitement, which really works here to make the first half a little slow-going. There's a really big problem there, and it's the biggest and most impacting on the film.The Final Verdict: A rather enjoyable entry that really has a lot to like about it with only a few mild flaws to bring the film down. Give this a shot if you're into creepy haunted house films, a big fan of European horror fare or the creative cast or just plain interested, while those who aren't into this type should heed caution.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language