dark house is a 2014 horror film directed by victor salva and starring tobin bell , lesley-anne down and luke kleintank .

the film follows a man named nick di santo , who discovers that not only is his long-lost father alive , but that he may be able to explain the source of his son 's telekinetic abilities .

dark house ( 2014 film )

victor salva ' s horror film involves a young man with clairvoyant powers who inherits a mysterious country house .
we will spoil the movie ,
dark house
, which was first released as
haunted house
in 2014 . we have 3 big twists , a couple of red herrings , some pretty good acting from luke kleintank and the always creepy tobias bell ( of saw fame ) . the movie runs at 103 minutes long .
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dark voice :
now draw the house . little round window above the door . good . . .
dark house is a movie starring jeffrey combs , meghan ory , and diane salinger . a troupe of actors hired for a haunted house attraction soon find that they are working in a true house of horror .
a sampling of recent movies that received one star or less from washington post film critics .
no religious artifacts and / or texts were damaged or destroyed during the making of this film .
playing like a virtual compendium of horror film cliches , dark house represents a regression for director victor salva , who helmed the far superior jeepers creepers . this tale about a young man possessing mysterious gifts who discovers that he’s inherited a decrepit old house throws a bit of everything into its ungainly mix , including the presence of horror film icon tobin bell ( the saw films ) . but the overstuffed film is definitely less than the sum of its admittedly occasionally scary parts .
tags alex mckenna anthony rey perez dark house ethan s . smith haunted lacey anzelc lesley - anne down luke kleintank tobin bell victor salva zack ward
the generic title is not even the most unimaginative element of this overstuffed , cliche - ridden horror film . twitter
salva certainly gets points for creative repurposing . much of what transpires in “dark house” has been seen before , just not all in the same movie .
culture crypt looks at a few fantasia film festival features shaping up to be hot topics among horror fans in 2018 .
the bodies are either that of axemen or cute dark haired men with axes buried in them .
“dark house” is rated r ( under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian ) . heads are split , hearts are harvested , and a fetus is terrorized .
the only real issue with the film is the second act drags a bit . if the time could have been taken to tweek and trim it just a bit , the film would have been much tighter . hopefully this film ends up being a success for salva since it seems as if he has been trying forever to get his final entry into the jeepers creepers series off the ground .
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before even watching this film for review , i knew it had a built in controversy . viewers may or may not know about director victor salva’s past criminal history . while i do not condone salva’s criminal history in any way , shape or form , i prefer to keep his personal life separate from his film work . while i may not like the man , there’s no denying his talent as a filmmaker . one of my favorite films of the 2000’s was his exceptional jeepers creepers . his latest offering is dark house , but unfortunately it can’t hold a candle to his 2001 hit . the film’s writers seemed to be grasping at straws on what type of film they want it to be . is it a haunted house thriller , a demonic possession flick , angels vs . demons , or what ?
dark house is a thrilling and horrifying road trip , full of twists and brutal surprises ; a suspenseful thriller about a young man and a chilling old house that has survived decades , awaiting the return of its prodigal son . . . a house that can escalate nick ' s gift to see death before it happens , but holds within its walls the origins of a dark family legacy so horrible it may have already reached out to nick ' s unborn child .
the house at the center of the horror film “ dark house ” is not just poorly illuminated — aren’t they always ? — but also ill conceived . according to the wildly improbable screenplay , the ramshackle southern plantation home around which this tale of demonic real estate revolves was swept off its foundation 23 years ago by a flood that deposited it , intact , several miles away . we’re talking brick front steps and all .
as i said earlier , victor salva is an accomplished filmmaker . dark house is shot amazingly well and looks gorgeous . the film has potential with some creepy moments here and there but whatever tension builds up is eventually diluted by asinine character actions ( lets have sex in the woods when we’re fighting for our lives with evil axmen running around ) .
review : i’ve never been much of a victor salva fan . i enjoyed the first jeepers creepers but couldn’t make my way through the sequel . his film rosewood lane was horrible but i was shocked to find his latest outing dark house to be a solidly entertaining and creepy little film . he takes a cast of relative unknowns , with the exception of genre veterans tobin bell and zack ward , then delivers a tightly wound tale with several twists , colorful characters , and an axe wielding mob of angry ghosts .
review : zak bagans’ demon house ( a scary , unbelievable documenta . . .
an earlier version of a headline with this review misstated the surname of the film’s director . as the review correctly notes , he is victor salva , not salvo .
“the housemaid” is an elegantly eerie thriller with the grand gothic style of “dark shadows” before barnabas collins became the star of the show .
the old dark house’s singularity is ( or should be ) part of its appeal . a few years ago i showed it to students at the huston school of film in galway , fulling expecting them to hate it . only one had even heard of it , never mind seen the thing , but they laughed in all the right places and seemed properly unnerved by its creepier moments . enjoy the film in full here . interestingly , having fallen into copyright hell , it is not officially owned by anybody . so , this post is legal and everything .
they ' ve returned . . . or perhaps the house has been following then .
seth commands the axemen to wait for his signal to go back to the house .
the acting is above average ; all the principals do a good job . undoubtedly , tobin bell can do no wrong , he stands out in his role and does his best with the character , but for this film it’s too little too late . there isn’t an inordinate amount of gore in the film but there are a few key scenes with some interesting bloodshed .
lilith stays with eve up on ledge with car . boys go to explore look for house .
the house should have been pulverized . they find the house almost totally intact . . . apparently it slammed into a huge tree , which saved it , furniture , silverware , and all .
the front entrance ' s double doors slowly creak open as they head near the house . they all stop in their tracks . a voice booms out of house telling them to go away .
on the other side of the frontyard come a motley crew of young cute strapping men with all sorts of weapons , gingham shirts , and dark hair .
michael o ' sullivan has covered the arts for the washington post since 1993 , contributing reviews and features on film , fine art , theater and other forms of entertainment to style and weekend . follow
by the time “dark house” reaches its midpoint , nick has collected a pregnant girlfriend , a concerned buddy , a trio of helpful land surveyors , and the deed to that mysterious old house mentioned earlier . en route to uncovering the secrets of said house , nick and company encounter a crimp - haired tobin bell , a gaggle of ax - tossing golems , and end up in a parallel reality where all roads lead back to the mansion no matter what .
is there a better horror film than the old dark house ? yes , there probably is . ranking films in such fashion is , of course , a mug’s game . also , you might reasonably argue that james whale’s extraordinary 1932 entertainment isn’t really a horror movie at all . there is nothing of the supernatural about it . the picture leans towards camp mania as much as it does towards the ghost story . there’s really nothing much like it in the canon .
the film works best during the first and third acts . the characters are introduced in an interesting fashion and we don’t have to wait too long to get into the weirdness . the final act gives us a satisfying conclusion and the final twist was really imaginative . the cast is believable and it’s always a pleasure to see guys like ward or bell pop up . the film is light on gore but a few moments do arise and may surprise you . the axe wielding maniacs hop along , crouched low to the ground , and hurl their axes . pretty creepy design and my favorite idea in the film .
seth slowly walks back into the house , and after a long pause , allows nicky alone in .
the noise of axemen running and impending doom freezes . there are no axemen inside the house yet .
you might argue that , in film history , the old dark house doesn’t lead anywhere . it has precedents in comic horrors such as the cat and the canary , but us spookery went somewhere less challenging after the shocks of tod browning and edward g ulmer . the wolfman and dracula ended up becoming part of a franchise family that has echoes in the current marvel universe . the coupling of sexual unpleasantness with horror wasn’t much welcome in hollwood once the hays code came in .
“saw” icon tobin bell enters odd danny trejo territory with his too brief appearance in “dark house . ” despite top billing and a co - producer credit to boot , bell appears in what is still an important role , albeit one that is only onscreen for three relatively short scenes .
the film goes on , dredging up even more cliches about biblical , shape - shifting demons , paranormal progeny and the numerological significance of the number 23 . that number also is featured prominently in salva’s “jeepers creepers” films .
uh oh . . . something dark and dusty is moving in the fire place . nicky , by himself , candle in hand , walks along a hallway , tapping his foot , listening . he hears different thud . he finds himself near the tree at the corner of the house .
“dark house” spins a web with so many intriguingly bizarre threads that it is almost impossible not to smile while marveling at the inventiveness of its amalgamated ideas and wondering how in the world all of these things will tie together . with so much for the imagination to chew on , it feels like “dark house” is leading towards something cleverer than what it ultimately delivers . so when the hump between lead - in and climax drags the momentum through a tar pit , it affords more time to recognize that most of the toys in the sandbox end up buried at the bottom , unused and unnecessary .
“dark house” cruises effectively for a considerable amount of time on the strength of a strange mystery that steadily increases its intoxicating weirdness by piling on elements of haunted house suspense , angel versus demon mythology , and ax - wielding maniac mayhem . then once all of the cards have been dealt , the hand plays out as a round of flat action that tastes disappointingly stale in light of how many potent ingredients were in the mix .
two other diner patrons join in the conversation . one introduces the house rumor : the house was called
wormwood
. it was despised by residents of the town , who were seriously spooked by it . then , more 20 years ago , a massive flood washed away the town with the house , but the house landed somewhere - - intact . the other , black haired white male diner snorts and doubts the rumor ' s authenticity while furtively keeping his eyes on his companion .
we find nicky on a road trip with ryo and eve on a quest to find the house from his childhood art .
meanwhile , surveyors and other people alike stare dumbfounded straight , realizing the creepy house is in front of them , again .
they all walk towards the house as eve complains about having to wait for the axemen to come back and kill them .
there ' s a very special man trapped in house that understands what your life was like . talk to him .
a young woman , claire , who witnessed a massacre as a child goes back to the house in which it happens as part of a troupe of actors auditioning for roles within a haunted house attraction . as both new arrivals and old cast soon begin disappearing one - by - one , claire is left wondering if the house really hunted or is there a killer amongst them .
dark house formerly known as haunted is a mishmash of horror tropes , some of which work and some don’t . there’s a lot going on in the film and much to sort out . the mystery surrounding nick’s father is unclear . he’s an evil force that seems to live in the basement of the house yet controls his evil doers by talking to them from inside walls via heating vents in other places . then we have seth’s axmen with a different agenda , maybe good – maybe evil . why are they like a hunchback chorus line slinging axes all over the place ? is this a demon vs . angel standoff ? ultimately , there are more questions than answers in the finale leaving viewers scratching their heads .
seth ( tobin bell with long , stringy dirty hair , and a rick owens outfit ) comes out of the creepy house .
now all axemen pop up in formation in front of the house , barricading the entrance with their bodies . they hunch down .
eve ( on the phone ) :
. . . never going to find the house . i destroyed the deed .
a paranormal expert discovers a house that is at the intersection of so - called
highways
transporting souls in the afterlife .
it is a mild letdown since “dark house” initially appears to be creating a fresh and fun original story out of tired tropes and well - worn plot devices . after it becomes clear that the mystery merely builds to an average good battling evil theme , the movie rushes to make pieces fit and whatever doesn’t is left by the wayside .
by next sunny golden morning , eve and ryo rush back to the house , and are stunned by the carnage in the yard .
ryo goes with lilith to go back to nicky ' s abandoned car to salvage some warm clothes . it is dark , and . . . romantic ( ? ) ? ? they glance at each other , and then start kissing passionately , stripping off clothes , and having sex . they don ' t notice the axemen suddenly appear around the house .
the movie falls just a pinch short from being great since there are several moments which drag on for far too long . salva grabs a few ideas from past genre films and mashes them together in a film which is almost always entertaining and might just give you a few goosebumps .
the friends are huddled near the cellar door ( coincidentally at the end of the hallway , with front door of house at other end ) .
i really wanted to like dark house more than i did . it had an interesting look and feel to it with potential for success , but the writing doesn’t make it over the hump of mediocrity . with an ending that left more questions than answers , it ultimately falls flat and doesn’t work . genre die - hards may find this worth a watch but mainstreamers probably won’t .
“dark house” stands flapping in the wind with asides regarding numerology , foretold prophecies , and nick’s “dead zone” ability that kicked off the whole story ending up in effect as inessential distractions . and when the script is backed into a corner with something it doesn’t know how to handle , it lobs a hail mary pass that more often than not sticks out like a throbbing red thumb .
) , lilith ( with dark short hair , pale skin , lacey anzelc ) , and lastly , sam ( red haired pudgy guy , reminiscent of jonah hill , played by ethan s . smith ) , who they almost hit .
lucky later appears alongside a stalled car on the road , causing chris to swerve and to crash into a tree at the bottom of the embankment . everyone then discovers that they have mysteriously returned to the old house . with sundown approaching , the group decides to spend the night in the house .
short synopsis : a real estate agent finds himself trapped in a haunted house with a mysterious squatter and must learn to conquer his fear to escape .
this film proved to me that he still has a passion for the genre and he deserves to tell that final story . he has found the perfect writing partner in charles agron . this is his first foray and it seems like the two of them really worked well with one another . you couldn’t ask for a better picture from the blu - ray though it lacks special features . it does include a short behind the scenes feature which is something . dark house may not be perfect but it’s far better than most dtv features as of late . this is a return to form for victor salva and i hope to see this streak continue . * * * 1 \ 2 ( out of 5 )
when nick di santo learns that his father is not only alive but can possibly reveal the origin of his son ' s dark gift , he sets out on a trip that takes him to an abandoned mansion he thought . . . see more »
synopsis : when nick di santo learns that his father is not only alive but can possibly reveal the origin of his son’s dark gift , he sets out on a trip that takes him to an abandoned mansion he thought only existed in his childhood imagination .
when nick di santo learns that his father is not only alive but can possibly reveal the origin of his son ' s dark gift , he sets out on a trip that takes him to an abandoned mansion he thought only existed in his childhood imagination .
nicky , by himself , is confronted by lucky , the cute black haired diner from before , who tells him to stop running . it does not matter where nicky runs . the house will follow him . in back of him , the house looms up , and the windows alight with a warm , cheery light .
nick di santo has the gift to see how any person that he touches will dies . he visits his mother lilian that is in an asylum since when he was eight years old and learns that his father is alive . nick lives with his best friend ryan and one day he meets eve in a bar and he finds that he can touch her without any vision . eve moves to nick ' s apartment and soon she is pregnant . out of the blue , nick inherits an old house and he shows to ryan and eve that he used to draw that house since he was a child . they travel to the countryside but they do not find the manor . they decide to return home and they meet chris mcculluch , lilith and sam that are measuring the area . they show the location of the house where nick meets the strange seth . they are hunted down by creepy creatures with axes but they flee . they decide to leave the place but the road leads them back to the mysterious house . what is the secret of the dark house and the creepy creatures ?
just before halloween , three young brothers alone in a big house are menaced by three escaped mental patients who have murdered some traveling circus clowns and taken their identities .
four years later – eve raises her son as a single mother . meanwhile , the little boy is instructed to draw the old house by a voice in the walls .
nick di santo has the gift to see how any person that he touches will dies . he visits his mother lilian that is in an asylum since when he was eight years old and learns that his father is alive . nick lives with his best friend ryan and one day he meets eve in a bar and he finds that he can touch her without any vision . eve moves to nick ' s apartment and soon she is pregnant . out of the blue , nick inherits an old house and he shows to ryan and eve that he used to draw that house since he was a child . they travel to the countryside but they do not find the manor . they decide to return home and they meet chris mcculluch , lilith and sam that are measuring the area . they show the location of the house where nick meets the strange seth . they are hunted down by creepy creatures with axes but they flee . they decide to leave the place but the road leads them back to the mysterious house . what is the secret of the dark house and the creepy creatures ? written by claudio carvalho , rio de janeiro , brazil
the film does , however , draw a distinction — one of degree — between the comic horror we can see downstairs and something more wretched lurking upstairs . in a masterstroke of unheimlich , whale casts a woman , elspeth dudgeon , as the 102 - year old sir roderick femm , who knows something awful about another , unseen member of the family .
nicky unwillingly leaves house with questions in his mind and finally notices the axemen . terror ! nick + gang all start running , axemen start lurching with clubfoot . . . .
after exploring and reminiscing and matching memories or flashback imaginations to inside of house , nicky touches a huge drapery against wall and drapery suddenly shakes briefly as if something is behind it .
he along with his friend ryan ( anthony rey perez ) and the now pregnant eve head out on a road trip to see the house and maybe nick can learn something about his father . once they arrive in the small town , they learn the house was washed away in a flood years ago . but there is a legend which says the house was hit by the flood and moved deep into woods . the three of them are determined to find it but what lies in wait for them when they get there will change their lives forever .
suddenly ryo ( friend ) outside tells nicky that his time is up - - it ' s time to go . but seth angrily pins him to wall and tells him for years he has tried to destroy the house . the house was washed away by the
god
flood , and the tree growing through wall has been used for lynching . . . horrible stuff .
seth very adamant in telling them to go away . then nicky chimes with the fact that he has the deed to the house , and wants to know what happened to its previous occupants .
mere minutes into “dark house , ” it becomes depressingly clear that the deficit of imagination displayed by the title will not be made up for by the content . ( one wonders why the makers even bothered to replace the original name , “haunted . ” ) grabbing off - the - rack ideas — the creepy - crumbly mansion in the woods , the “deliverance” - style locals , the troubled young man with the weird psychic power — the director , victor salva , stuffs them into a plot of resounding silliness .
saucy lady tells other diners to stop spreading stories but nicky insists on knowing more so the black haired diner points to map on wall signaling that should be the approximate area house washed away to .
nick takes ryan and eve with him as he goes in search of the mansion to learn the truth about his father and his ability . nick discovers that the house was located in a town called river’s end , but the town washed away in a flood . a local named lucky tells nick that legend says the house known as “wormwood” could not be destroyed and only washed away to another location .
featuring heavy doses of gore supplanted by ear - piercing , sudden loud noises to ratchet up the tension , the visually cluttered dark house - - its unimaginative title representing a slight improvement over its even more unimaginative original title , haunted - - fails to weave its numerous plot strands into a coherent whole . and while bell infuses his stringy - haired character with his characteristic creepy flair , it’s not hard to imagine that the actor , who also co - produced , is merely biding his time until the saw franchise is inevitably resurrected .
haunted is a movie starring luke kleintank , alex mckenna , and anthony rey . when nick di santo learns that his father is not only alive but can possibly reveal the origin of his son ' s dark gift , he sets out on a trip that takes him to an abandoned mansion he thought only existed in his childhood imagination .
throw in some ominous biblical prophecies , a discourse on the cosmic significance of the number 23 ( a theme previously explored in the 2007 jim carrey film the number 23 ) , and some nasty twists involving several supporting characters who turn out to be not quite who they seem , and it soon becomes obvious that the screenplay co - written by salva and charles agron has bitten off far more than it can comfortably chew .
they stop at roadside diner , and meet a middle aged , saucy diner attender lady ( she ' s in tv series bones as marjorie , and turns out nicky also played a recurring role as an intern anthropologist in bones ! ) . nicky recognizes a large dusty gray / scale photo of the house in question in the center of a densely decorated wall . he asks the attender lady how to find the house .
the tree ' s branches cut into house so they can grow . this , mind you , is the tree from which people were lynched . nicky reaches out to touch the tree , and bam ! another hand from within grabs his .
the surveyors invite themselves into nicky ' s quest for his house , and they drive up to the approximate area , a raised road , of which both sides severely slope downwards and are densely filled with fall trees . it is a beautiful golden afternoon .
chris , the surveyor :
shut up guys !
while eve has a mini tantrum , and refuses , with good reason ,
there ' s no way i ' m staying here
. nick agrees with chris to stay in the house .
provided that person is destined to die in horribly violent fashion , nick has the ability to touch someone and see how s / he will meet the reaper . the origin behind his blessing / curse involves a father he never knew , an insane mother who speaks to a voice in the walls , and a dark mansion in the woods that literally fell off the map when a flood wiped out a small town .
it turns out the house is still standing in the middle of nowhere , having been washed intact several miles into the isolated woods . the trio soon discovers the house is occupied by a grizzled , long - haired lunatic named seth ( tobin bell - saw franchise ) with unknown intentions . alarmingly , seth commands an army of axmen who shuffle crouched down side to side in unison like nightmarish gorillas . in trying to find answers about his father , nick and friends find themselves in a supernatural nightmare they might not make it out of…alive .
naturally , the house is guarded by a menacing caretaker , seth ( bell ) , who attempts to warn them away . it isn’t long before violent mayhem ensues , with the young interlopers pursued by seth’s gang of ax - wielding troglodytes whose awkward gait makes them resemble escaped gorillas .
back on the road , nick , ryan , and eve come across a trio of land surveyors named chris mcculloch , lilith , and sam . the surveyors help nick search for wormwood . while lilith waits behind with eve , the four men go into the woods to find the house .
nick , ryan , and chris return to the women and everyone escapes in the surveyors’ van . they drive back into town , but find it strangely deserted . as if in a parallel reality , lucky can see nick and the others searching for help outside the diner . lucky then tells a voice in the walls that he will lead nick back to the house .
at one point , nick and company are run off the road by one of the “ deliverance ” - style locals , played by screenwriter agron . when nick proposes that they spend the night in a house so inhospitable it makes “the amityville horror” look like “downton abbey , ” eve inadvertently asks a telling question : “how am i the only one that thinks this is a bad idea ? ”
chris , the surveyor man and nicky find the cellar , with its heavy , old door . they must pull it in jerks to open it . with the first pull - - all of a sudden , axemen are strung down from the trees in the forest / frontyard . pull - - the axemen ' s feet suddenly touch ground . pull - - axes thud the ground . ryo is still outside at the porch , oblivious , bat in hand . every time the cellar door is pulled a little more open , the axemen army makes an unnerving step forward to the house . with one more great pull , the cellar door is finally thrown half open , and the axemen start their run . ryo finally notices , and narrowly gets away into the house , yelling
axemen everywhere !
laughton is one of several dissolute young people — all affected by the first world war , we feel — who , on an appallingly rainy night , end up sheltering at the house of the horrible femme family . the first person they meet is karloff as a towering , grunting butler named morgan . “even welsh oughtn’t to sound like that , ” one of the party says upon hearing his efforts at speech .
in one instance , once everyone is lost in the forest , trapped in an old house , and surrounded by murderous men brandishing tree - chopping blades , naturally no one’s cell phone works . except when one of the characters needs a bit of background exposition about the unfolding drama . then he is suddenly able to google a few convenient references for plot - advancing purposes , even though making a phone call is still a no - go .
eight months later – nick meets with judge maxwell bing , who appears to be communicating with someone through a grate in the wall before nick arrives . bing goes over the details of molly’s will and nick learns that he inherited an old mansion . nick shows a photo of the mansion to ryan and to eve , who is now pregnant with nick’s unborn child . nick tells them that it is the same house he had drawn all throughout childhood , but never knew actually existed .
the men meet seth , the house’s mysterious resident . seth tries to warn the men away from the property while referring to sam as samael , but ultimately allows nick inside . as seth gives nick more cryptic warnings , a group of long - haired axmen in trenchcoats surround the men waiting outside . ryan calls for nick and the four men then flee through the forest with the axmen in pursuit . a thrown ax hits sam and seth then puts his own ax blade into sam’s skull .
nicky opens files and recognizes a photo of a house complete with little round window above the door , that he has been drawing for his whole life , starting from when he was a child , and through his waning dreams as an architect . he decides to find it to answer his questions . from the folder given to him by bing , he has the deed to it and he wants to visit it to find out what happened to people in it , and perhaps find a link to his unknown father .
informed by the family lawyer ( max gail of barney miller fame ) that he’s inherited an old house in the country that he’s somehow managed to be able to draw since childhood without ever actually seeing it , nick sets off with his best friend , ryan ( anthony ray perez ) , and his very pregnant girlfriend , eve ( alex mckenna ) , to investigate its whereabouts . not dissuaded by some hayseed types who inform them that it was washed away in a torrential flood years earlier , the trio soon discover it , although not without nearly running down some friendly land surveyors along the way .
lilith reveals herself as a demon to eve , but seth arrives to kill lilith before she can harm eve or the baby . nick confronts chris and learns that chris is part of the same league of demons to which nick’s father belonged , as are lucky and the townspeople . as his father’s half - human and half - demon offspring , nick’s destiny is to release his father’s trapped soul from the house using the blood of 23 beating hearts . seth and the axmen are actually the opposing force of angels in a battle of good versus evil . the townspeople arrive and engage in a bloody fight with the axmen
later nicky visits the attorney mayor bing who hands him the contents of his mother’s will in the form of a stack of papers wrapped in a folder . oddly , there is no other present for the reading . behind his desk , the attorney , bing tells him there ' s no one else in the room as his mother indicated in the will that only nicky alone was to see the will’s contents . nicky looks at stack of papers wrapped in folder . just then , bing appears behind him and shows him the way out . as he exits out , mayor waits until nicky is out of earshot and then turns to vent and tells him nicky will find the house .
the central character is nick ( luke kleintank ) , who on his 23rd birthday visits his mother ( lesley - anne down ) , who’s been in a mental institution since he was a child . nick’s ability to foresee how a person will die is signified by his vision of her dying in a fire , a prophecy that almost immediately becomes reality when the loony bin goes up in flames .
cast : luke kleintank , anthony rey perez , alex mckenna , lesley - anne down , tobin bell , zack ward , lacey anzelc , ethan s . smith , max gail
about which the less said the better , so i will merely remark that the aforementioned young man ( luke kleintank ) , his heavily pregnant girlfriend ( alex mckenna ) and a few interchangeable sidekicks head into those woods and a showdown both biblical and bonkers . voices leak from heating ducts , bodies hang from a tree , and a three - legged dog makes a pointless appearance . none of which is as unintentionally amusing as the army of ax - wielding henchmen who advance in unison in a sideways crouch , like a chorus line of cave men from a mel brooks musical .
for mr . salva , this is a long way down from “jeepers creepers , ” his respectable little 2001 frightener elevated by genuinely spooky moments and some semblance of logic . here , instead of terror , we have vapid leads and supporting players who pause to have sex while surrounded by homicidal demons . sadly , the only thing audiences are likely to find horrific is the acting . or the possibility that any of these people might make another movie .
opens on friday in manhattan and los angeles . directed by victor salva 1 hour 43 minutes
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i thought you might be interested in this item at urltoken title : new york times ( 1 publisher : new york : new york times . isbn / issn : 0362 - 4331 oclc : 746941922
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lakeith stanfield and his sorry to bother you crew reveal their most soul - crushing jobs in our freewheeling interview .
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when radio talk show psychiatrist , dr . sonny blake , moves back to her hometown , she takes notice of her neighborhood paper boy ' s unusual behavior .
an attorney decides to take a trip with his father to their isolated family cabin to talk things out but their ensuing family argument is suddenly interrupted by two escaped convicts .
as children , rheanna and annette are happy . however , after an evening of ghost stories and games with their friend tara , what started as innocent fun soon turns into a nightmare . rheanna , . . . see full summary »
two men , both hiding a deadly secret , are on a murderous rampage through the desert .
a woman returns home to her estranged family after a near - fatal accident , but begins to suspect something is not right .
set a few days after the original , a championship basketball team ' s bus is attacked by the creeper , the winged , flesh - eating terror , on the last day of his 23 - day feeding frenzy .
jake is given a monkey ' s paw that grants 3 wishes . after the first 2 wishes leave his friend cobb undead , cobb pushes jake to make a final wish .
an heyoka incarnates into a small , rural community in iowa and turns the town upside down .
luke kleintank and patricia belcher appeared together on the tv show
bones .
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chase williamson teams up with lauren ashley carter and matt mercer in horror thriller , artik .
invisible woman , mr . fantastic , the thing , & human torch by artgerm
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it’s nick di santo’s ( luke kleintank ) twenty third birthday and he’s making a special trip to see his mother who he hasn’t seen in years . she was committed years ago to spend her time in a mental institution . nick feels it’s time to learn something about his father but she is too far gone to offer him any answers which may make sense .
later that night he meets eve ( alex mckenna ) and the two quickly fall in love . nick has a gift ( or curse ) and can vividly see how someone will die if they have a violent death just by touching them . he’s afraid to touch the ones he loves because he doesn’t want to know . after his mother dies in a mysterious fire at the hospital , he inherits an old mansion out in the middle of nowhere .
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starring : luke kleintank , alex mckenna , anthony rey perez , zack ward , lacey anzelc , ethan s . smith , lesley - anne down and tobin bell
i am a horror journalist , producer , ravenous horror fiend , aficionado of the classic universal monsters , hammer horror , werewolves , and all things horror .
real annabelle doll to be moved tonight . watch it live ! . . .
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studio : new video group director : victor salva writer : charles agron , victor salva producer : charles agron , don e . fauntleroy , victor salva stars : luke kleintank , anthony rey perez , alex mckenna , zack ward , lacey anzelc , ethan s . smith , max gail , lesley - anne down , tobin bell
born with an ability to see how people will die , nick investigates a haunted family home that holds the truth about his mysterious power .
on his 23rd birthday , nick di santo is summoned to the mental hospital where his estranged mother molly is committed . nick touches his mother and has a vision of her dying violently in a fire . molly tells her son that she promised the “things in the wall” that she would tell nick the truth about his father , but nick leaves before hearing her out .
nick goes to a bar with his best friend ryan . there , nick meets a girl named eve and later takes her home . it is also revealed that nick can see a vision of how a person will die by touching him / her , provided that person is destined to die violently . on a news broadcast later that night , nick learns of a fire at the asylum that takes the life of his mother .
as strange events continue occurring throughout the night , a mob of axmen surrounds the group . nick and the others come to realize that the axmen become animated whenever they try to open a mysterious door to the basement .
after fleeing from the axmen , nick and ryan find sam’s body in the forest , but they see that his flesh was hiding a demon underneath . ryan recalls seth referring to sam as samael . using his phone to look up the reference , ryan discovers that samael is a demon’s name and so is lilith , who is said to go after unborn children .
the next morning , ryan and eve confront nick , who has accepted his true heritage . nick tears out ryan’s heart . realizing that nick intends to kill her and the baby as the final two sacrifices , eve flees in a panic . eve blacks out , but later awakens in a hospital to learn that she gave birth to a baby boy and that it was seth who saved her .
although he relies a little heavily on watery saucer eyes to convey his tortured good guy persona , luke kleintank and the rest of the cast are more than game for delivering solid performances that are actually better than some of the material they have to work with . director victor salva and his co - writer charles agron were on their way towards tapping into classic horror inspirations for a seemingly unique spin on familiar territory . and they still manage to create a fair share of tense atmosphere and entertaining set pieces . but the final direction loses its focus before buckling under the weight of characters , concepts , and side plots that do more to weigh down the core story than they do to enhance it .


house of mystery is a 1961 british supernatural mystery film .

it was based on a play director vernon sewell had filmed three times before .

it was known in germany as das landhaus des dr. lemming ( " the country house of dr. lemming " ) , and because of its compact running time , aired in the u.s. as an episode of the tv series " kraft mystery theatre " .

house of mystery ( 1961 film )

winchester mystery house san jose , california . home movie 8mm film october 1961 tags : winchester mystery house san jose , california
home movie
8mm film 1961
smoking holes that were once my eyes . . . : house of mystery ( 1961 )
house of mystery is a 1961 british horror film written and directed by vernon sewell ( ghost ship ; the blood beast terror ; burke & hare ) .
everybody dies . no mystery there . but why and how everyone dies . now , there ' s a mystery worth solving . probably the biggest mystery there is .
mystery date . . . are you ready for your mystery date ? choose your fate . . . walk through this gate . . .
( 1961 ) , directed by jack clayton , is the most elegant , evocative and frightening of them all .
later , just to remind us how things have changed a tad since 1961 , certainly in the area of house prices , alan qualifies : “must be worth at least £6 , 000 . ”
the editor of eqmm and guests blog about suspense , short stories , and the mystery - fiction scene .
a young couple go to check out a house they ' re thinking of buying . a somewhat mysterious woman tells the couple several stories of the fates that befell the house ' s previous owners .
it was rumoured that murder , she wrote , which ran for 264 episodes between 1984 and 1996 , was pitched as an american version of miss marple . the title is taken from murder , she said , which was the name of the 1961 adaptation of agatha christie’s miss marple mystery 4 : 50 from paddington .
a young couple want to buy a lonely house which turns out to be haunted . . .
house of mystery is one such film . it opens with pair of newlyweds arriving at country cottage that is for sale , where they meet a mysterious woman whom they assume to be a housekeeper ( even though the house clearly hasn’t been occupied or cleaned in many years ) . the woman shows them around and then mentions a ghost as one possible reason why the house is unsold despite being ridiculously cheap . she then tells stories about the former occupants , which are effectively a collection of tales interwoven into one .
this was lynch ' s first entire digital video film , shot on a handheld sony pd150 recorder . this three hour mystery - horror film was no different than most of lynch ' s other works , although there were general outlines to follow about a doomed film project , adultery , and a possibility of pregnancy :
actor and producer bob balaban went to director robert altman and suggested doing an agatha christie - style whodunit , reviving the manor house mystery style of the late author . julian fellowes , who won the academy award for best original screenplay for the 2001 film , later described it as a “reworking of the genre” .
well , the would - be house - buyers say , what of it ? people die in houses all the time .
will they be a scream . . . or a dud ? - - mystery date , from built - in badly .
due to the nature of the film , it was open to interpretation that the whole film might have been the dream of either cobb , or someone else .
in the film ' s first epilogue , the lost girl ran into smithy ' s house where she happily embraced her estranged husband and child ( a symbol of nikki ' s own restored marriage ! ) .
movie titles given in upper case refer to entries in a comprehensive encyclopedia of film noir .
when i eat a york peppermint patty , i get the sensation . . . of communing with the spirits of the dead , in a musty old house !
with valerie bertinelli , michael gough and diana rigg , and one in 1999 with jodhi may and colin firth . film versions of the novella include the 1985 spanish film
but then the creepy lady tells them of the experiences of the young couple who bought the house a few years later , harry ( kaufmann ) and joan trevor ( newman ) .
kooky little low budget ghost story about a couple trying to buy a haunted house in a forest where a trio of folk were murdered . worth a spin .
roger ebert became film critic of the chicago sun - times in 1967 . he is the only film critic with a star on hollywood walk of fame and was named honorary life member of the directors ' guild of america . he won the lifetime achievement award of the screenwriters ' guild , and honorary degrees from the american film institute and the university of colorado at boulder .
the screenplay by truman capote was actually based on the 1950 stage adaptation by william archibald and may be one reason henry james purists find fault with the 1961 film version . the story of a governess , miss giddens , who is entrusted with the care of two small children , flora and miles , by their uncle at a remote country estate , james ' novella creates a mood of dread and menace through the increasing anxiety of miss giddens who suspects that the children may be influenced and corrupted by the malevolent spirits of the deceased former governess , miss jessel , and caretaker peter quint of bly house . the beauty of
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice , telling a story of startling cruelty . what a space it opens…
in the film ' s second epilogue and final scene , nikki was back home in her living room with many characters from the film . she seemed at peace .
, there is never any doubt that bly house is haunted - you see the ghosts . yet a sense of mystery and ambivalence still exists regarding the children . are they conduits for the evil spirits or truly innocent ? miss giddens ' obsession with discovering the truth brings a feverish intensity to the proceedings which is almost as chilling as the phantoms she seeks to exorcise .
film company in 1958 . most of their output consisted of b movies , usually hour - long crime melodramas , along with a few comedies ( a couple of which were julie christie ' s first film roles ) , a few well - regarded horror films (
in america , the film was shown on tv as part of the kraft mystery theatre series , and it would subsequently be packaged as part of the edgar wallace series of films that anglo - amalgamated were producing at the same time ( and which were also b - movies under an hour long ) . it’s currently available on dvd in the uk as part of the edgar wallace mysteries box set .
make a crappy horror film . other than that , sewell was responsible for the blandly passably
future learning and skills – giving everyone the opportunity to build a lifelong relationship with film .
scorsese has his work cut out for him in making his film . it will not be a
remake
any more than werner herzog ' s
bad lieutenant
is . it will be a scorsese film . assuming he retains the broad outline , he can ( a ) solve the mystery , or ( b ) leave the mystery hanging , as i believe haneke does . can you get away with that in a hollywood film , with leonardo dicaprio already attached as georges ? will the mass american movie going public let him get way with it ? if anyone can , maybe scorsese can . he ' ll try to be clever enough to conceal that he got away with it .
they’re met at the door by a rather creepy middle - aged woman whom they assume to be the caretaker . she starts to tell them about the house , and the
to watch this again after all those of remembering it from kraft mystery theater , i had to order a copy from a private seller in england . it wouldn ' t work on us dvd , so i had to watch it on the computer .
a new governess , miss giddens ( deborah kerr ) , was taking care of a young boy and girl for wealthy bly house estate owner and bachelor , the uncle ( michael redgrave ) . the orphaned children were :
chaz is the publisher of urltoken and a regular contributor to the site , writing about film , festivals , politics , and life itself .
as with any david lynch film , making sense of the surrealistic images , unconventional and non - linear plot , overlapping storylines , alternate worlds , hyperlinked events , and changing identities ( doubling of characters as doppelgangers ) can be dubious . even the title of the film was ambiguous , not referring to a region in socal , but something more interior to the psyche . the film ' s main clue was its tagline :
ariadne and fischer fell off the building as their
kick
to get back . cobb woke up again on the shores of saito ' s beach house - the film ' s opening scene . for cobb ' s successful efforts at inception with fischer , saito made a phone call to clear away cobb ' s legal troubles with immigration at lax , enter the us , be freed of his guilt , and be reunited with his children - at the film ' s conclusion .
, looking like a dour , severe version of roger moore , also eventually figures in the film ' s plot . born canadian , his film credit list is short but interesting . he had a bit part as a newsboy in james whale ' s
during one of the first run - throughs of the script , a disturbance was heard backstage in the studio - when devon investigated , he saw nikki ' s lurking double seeing herself ( at a later point in the film when she entered an alleyway and a door marked axxon n ) . nikki ran away , into the plain suburban home of another film character named smithy ( character sue ' s husband in the film ? ) .
they promptly moved to another house , a single - story home . soon , the supernatural events began to reoccur , e . g . , the lp record playing on the phonograph changed to
tiptoe through the tulips
and a figure was seen dancing in the living room , doors abruptly shut and opened , a riderless rocking horse rocked , and a laughing doll - child ran through the house .
director james wan and writer leigh whannell , creators of the
saw
film franchise , created this exceptionally - suspenseful horror film . it was derived from elements of typical haunted house tales , the exorcist ( 1973 ) , the shining ( 1980 ) , poltergeist ( 1982 ) , the cell ( 2000 ) , and paranormal activity ( 2007 ) . the supernatural flick posited the existence of an unseen shadowy world known as
the further
( known in many such films as the
other side
) , inhabited by creatures ready to possess the souls of humans .
( 1968 ) , a poor and sometimes downright inept monster movie which was such an unpleasant experience for stars peter cushing and robert flemyng that both lambasted the film in later interviews . flemyng didn ' t have many nice things to say about the film nor the director , while cushing would go on record as calling it the worst film he ' d ever appeared in . the second and more distressing film as far as lost opportunities are concerned was the occult chiller
this classic science fiction film by director don siegel involved the fear of a small town doctor that many of his patients , friends and relatives were experiencing fearful paranoia and delusions that their acquaintances were imposters - and were possibly being replaced by doppelgangers . the film was an effective metaphor for the fear of communist infiltration during the cold war 1950s .
the mystery , of course , involves the identity of the person or persons sending the videos which disrupt the bourgeois routine of a parisian family . the interim solution by many viewers seems to be that pierrot , the evasive and distant son , is their source . this despite the fact that the movie also places suspicion on majid , the childhood victim of georges , and on majid ' s own son .
was everything in the film a dream of her ideal and righteous life - a
blue tomorrow
? during the cheerful end credits , nina simone delivered a strong rendition of
sinnerman .
( 1977 ) . she also did a fair amount of tv work in the 1960s , the majority now lost , unfortunate victims of the common bbc practice of
wiping
videotaped programming for re - use in the 1970s . of series still intact , she did have a recurring role as flora , the house maid , in the children ' s historical adventure series ,
) is pretty blunt about its reputation :
no one ' s taken it because of the ghost .
she then goes into a series of flashbacks explaining the home ' s sordid history . once a farm house , orchard cottage was purchased by eccentric hermit and electronics expert / engineer mark lemming (
didn ' t receive any oscar® nominations . it did garner international awards such as a best british film nod from the bafta and a palme d ' or nomination at the cannes film festival . still , the film was not a box office success in the u . s . francis said ,
i ' m sure jack [ clayton ] was terribly disappointed with the reaction that
the film tricks us ( as it did me ) with the next brief shot of a boy with a bleeding mouth . if you watch carefully , the camera pans across the room to the bleeding boy by the window . this is not georges ' adult home , it ' s from his childhood home . the living room in this sequence is the same as the same sequence later in the film where georges is leaving his mother ' s house . the boy i believe is majid , from georges ' childhood memories .
around 9 . 45pm on friday , 3 december , at “styles” , their house in berkshire , christie drove off and eventually abandoned her car , lights on – containing a bag of clothes and an out - of - date driving licence – on the edge of a chalk pit , by an eerie natural spring known as the silent pool near guildford .
the film ' s open - ended conclusion let the viewer decide whether trent was insane or whether what he experienced was actually reality .
timmy then took control of malcolm ' s personality and strangled psychiatrist dr . malick in the front seat of the van as the vehicle lurched to the side of the road . timmy whispered the nursery rhyme ( in voice - over ) as the film ended :
for the remainder of the film , simon ' s mind was in a confused state regarding the actual year , alarming events with his brother and wife , and his own existence .
director jane campion ' s dark feminist sex film was considered a pretentious rip - off of richard brooks ' looking for mr . goodbar ( 1977 ) . it featured the tagline :
josh became skeptical and unsupportive of renai ' s allegations (
i ' m scared of this house , there ' s something wrong with this place . . . it ' s like a sickness . . . i can ' t be alone in there anymore
) ; he avoided her stressful problems and privately thought she was crazy
now , then . certainly walid . probably pierrot working with him . probably not majid ; his protestation of innocence completely convinced me . how did you feel ? we come to the smoking gun i referred to in my review at
around
the 20 : 39 point in the dvd . i was thinking specifically of the boy with blood in his mouth , and the shots on either side are also crucial . as the critic michael mirasol writes in his discussion of the film , a preceding shot
refers to the spot where georges ' house is being recorded ( the film ' s opening shot ) . it has to be a pov , but from whose ?
tcm celebrates the 100th anniversary of a musical legend with three nights of programming devoted to some of leonard bernstein ' s . . . more
was better , but you rarely get an academy award for a film that isn ' t successful no matter how good your work on it .
) shows up armed with all kinds of gadgets to help . using a camera and light meter , he ' s able to pick up on strange vibrations in the living room where most of the supernatural events have been taking place . a photograph of mark lemming confirms their worst fears : the dead man is the same man they ' ve been spotting around the house . burdon calls in psychic mrs . bucknall (
in one way , it made her name . gillian flynn , in the book and the film that have made her name , perhaps pays silent tribute to the ingenuity of her literary heroine . . .
matt zoller seitz is the editor - in - chief of rogerebert . com , tv critic for new york magazine , the creator of many video essays about film history and style , a finalist for the pulitzer prize in criticism , and the author of the wes anderson collection . his writing on film and tv has appeared in the new york times , salon , new york press , the star - ledger and dallas observer . ( banner illustration by max dalton )
nikki had auditioned and received the part of sue blue , playing opposite womanizing actor devon berk as billy slide ( justin theroux ) . the film was an adaptation of a polish gypsy tale ( an adulterous love story ) - with a plot about marriage and murder . it was directed by high - profile , pompous kingsley stewart ( jeremy irons ) , with assistance from a broke freddie howard ( harry dean stanton ) . production on the previously - cursed remake ( titled vier - sieben : 47 ) of the film was never finished when the two leads were murdered . there were intimations that the current film would also be cursed .
the film ' s last line was uhl ' s memory of eisenheim saying :
everything you have seen is an illusion . it ' s a trick ,
as he laughed to himself at the recollection .
the film opened with a view of a creepy old woman ( philip friedman ) through a window , holding a candle - a major hint , and then the title screen in pulsating , blood - red lettering .
the film is a classic ‘quota quickie’ – made to fulfil the british film quota imposed on cinemas . this rule ensured that a number of ‘full supporting features’ were cranked out to play alongside more popular american films , and while this system eventually degenerated into the release of tedious travelogues and plodding information films , for a while , it ensured that some interesting – and now , unfortunately , all too rarely seen – productions were made .
it’s through her spiritual perception of past events that we learn the story of what actually went on between stella , clive and the betrayed mark . mark was experimenting one day in the annex on his dog sally—“sally , you may not know it , but one of these days you’ll be more famous than rin tin tin”—when it became obvious to him that stella and clive were closer than they should be . thanks to having bugged one of the rooms in the main house he was able to hear them talk :
writer / director chris d . ' s ( chris desjardins ) first feature - length film was this direct - to - dvd / video low - budget , independent horror film . the over - used plot twist in this film was also seen in carnival of souls ( 1962 ) , siesta ( 1987 ) , jacob ' s ladder ( 1990 ) , a pure formality ( 1994 ) , the sixth sense ( 1999 ) , the others ( 2001 ) , soul survivors ( 2001 ) , stay ( 2005 ) , and many other films .
director spike lee ' s r - rated film was a typical hollywood retreaded heist - thriller flick , specifically a tense hostage drama . it reflected elements found in serpico ( 1973 ) , dog day afternoon ( 1975 ) , the comedy heist film quick change ( 1990 ) , and die hard : with a vengeance ( 1995 ) .
illustrator of comical pictures , watcher of too much television , erstwhile ne ' er - do - well .
an unwritten code of film is that when it is important to know who did something , it must be a character in the film , unless that character can be clearly eliminated . i ' ll rule out georges . that leaves almost certainly walid , probably pierrot , and to a very uncertain degree majid . the only other possibility is - - none of the above , but someone none of the characters is aware of . in the real world , that would be possible . the film itself would necessarily be unaware of this observer , and could see only the consequences . the chances of that are vanishingly slight , but with michael (
you can never know
) haneke , it can ' t be completely ruled out . consider his current success with
the white ribbon .
the children did it ,
i hear . how can anyone be sure of that ?
attending hospital physician dr . newman [ revealed as mr . cable - the father of the two sons ] matter - of - factly delivered the news to simon in the film ' s final line - with an added final sentence -
you died , mr . cable .
the film opened with cunning leader dalton russell ( clive owen ) and his gang committing the
perfect bank robbery
at the manhattan trust bank in the wall street district .
director john carpenter paid convoluted , warped homage to stephen king and h . p . lovecraft in this film that blurred the boundaries of fantasy and reality , fact and fiction , sanity and insanity , and reality and cine - reality .
that the film needed to be shot in cinemascope , a screen format he did not want to use . luckily , he had one of the best cinematographers in the business working for him - freddie francis ; they had previously collaborated on
simon ' s ' death ' in his dream of the year 2000 was mirrored or paralleled with his death in 2002 . the film returned to the car accident scene - also shown in the film ' s opening - when simon was being treated by emergency personnel . peter told him :
it ' s your choice , simon , where you go . it ' s your choice .
a time stamp clock showed the time of his death : 20 : 02 .
there ' s only one way to discuss such matters , and that ' s by going into detail about the film itself . i hesitate to employ the hackneyed word
spoiler
here , because no one in his right mind should read this without experiencing the film . i won ' t even bother with a plot synopsis . you ' ve seen it .
director james mangold ' s psychological thriller was similar to a popular concept of many plot twisters , a combination of fight club ( 1999 ) and agatha christie ' s novel and then there were none , adapted into many film versions . in the familiar thematic plot , a group of individuals in a remote location were being killed off , one by one .
dazed , she then returned ( drenched in blood ) to malloy where she had handcuffed him earlier , and laid down next to him in a spooning position , as the film ended .
director roland suso richter ' s enigmatic psychological thriller ( direct to video / dvd ) was based upon screenwriter michael cooney ' s own play
point of death
- a title that gave away the film ' s entire plot twist premise .
director jack clayton ' s scary , supernatural - psychological horror film was adapted from henry james ' novella , the turn of the screw . the setting was in the 19th century in victorian england , at a gothic , bleak english country estate .
. . . where i post examples of my artwork . you can find it by clicking on the picture of the
the film opened with a scene revisited much later in the film - cobb was lying on a beach where he was found delirious . he envisioned his children playing near him . he was taken by an armed guard to a beachside fortress where he was faced by wealthy , aged corporate executive saito ( ken watanabe ) . the japanese businessman had been cobb ' s latest employer .
elise ' s immediate discovery was that otherworldly presences , including the blood red - faced , black - bodied demon , and other spirits or ghosts were definitely in the house to pursue dalton ' s spirit . she stated :
it ' s not the house that ' s haunted . it ' s your son .
dalton was astral - projecting himself ( his spirit had left his physical body ) when he traveled into a far - off dark world known as the further . but on one of his out - of - body journeys to the far - off spiritual world , he had traveled too far and become lost . elise said they must get the son back before the disembodied and tortured spirits of the dead and other malevolent entities with an
insidious agenda
took over ( or possessed ) his physical body ( an
empty vessel
) .
in the not very surprising twist ending ( the very ubiquitous death - dream revelation ) , jane ( who believed she was alive ) ventured to azami ' s ex - husband ' s house , where she was surrounded by many dead junkie apparitions , including all her dead acquaintances . she was spiteful when dax and others offered her a hit :
( every single horror film made between 1950 and 1990 will eventually be listed . if you notice any films missing please let me know and i ' ll make sure to add them . )
i ' ll be covering a few of independent artists ' other interesting theatrical releases in future blog entries , and perhaps some of the merton park adaptations of wallace , as well .
( 1971 ) , a kinky s & m ; portrayal of quint and miss jessel played by marlon brando and stephanie beacham . none of them appear to have the fervent cult following of
nikki ' s possessively jealous and intimidating husband piotrek ( peter j . lucas ) warned devon that his wife was out - of - bounds for an affair . however , as the film was being made , nikki did begin an affair with devon , in the role of her character - simultaneously , her loss of identity and its fragmentation started when she paranoically feared she would be discovered .
then , she realized he was dead (
miles ? miles ! miles ! oh ! oh , no .
) . sobbing , she leaned over and kissed him , as the film ended .
in gone girl , the book and the film end uncertainly , nick seemingly stuck with a pregnant amy , who is determined to stick by his side ; he may or may not stay with her for the sake of the child . of course , by then , the audience knows that amy is a psychopath and a murderess .
called the film
one of the most elegantly beautiful ghost movies ever made . . . the filmmakers concentrate on the virtuoso possibilities in the material , and the beauty of the images raises our terror to a higher plane than the simple fears of most ghost stories . there are great sequences ( like one in a schoolroom ) that work on the viewer ' s imagination and remain teasingly ambiguous .
the film ' s plot , told in flashback , was about insurance fraud investigator john trent ( sam neill ) - now a violent and delusional asylum inmate in a padded cell (
i am not insane
) , who had been institutionalized after axe - murdering a reader of a popular horror novel , in the mouth of madness .
director vernon sewell had a four decade career . his other films include supernatural comedy the ghosts of berkeley square and a trio of horror films that came at the end of his career – the blood beast terror , curse of the crimson altar and burke & hare .
when the film ended with a slaughter at the asylum by monstrous creatures , trent wandered out into the world that was alarmingly empty after a bloody slaughter and civilization had seemingly been destroyed by cane ' s creatures .
in this high - concept film with a well - constructed plot twist , each of the strangers that was being murdered , one - by - one ( each victim had a room key placed on or near their body , with each room number connected to the order of the deaths ) , was not a real person . they were specific personalities of the ' host ' malcolm rivers ( pruitt taylor vince ) .
so why am i talking about the movie here ? is it just because i’m a confirmed nanette newman fanboy ? ahem . heaven forfend . nothing of the sort . surely . the raison d’être of this entry is that the movie’s a variant of latin quarter , which most certainly is of interest within the broadish parameters of this site .
in the persona of nikki ( now dead as sue and reborn ) , she escaped from the trap of the film ( after the shooting was completed ) . she entered into a nearby cinema , where she viewed on high in blue tomorrows , and some of the events of the film . she entered the theater ' s projection room - and found herself in the
axxon n
apartment building . she shot and killed the phantom with a gun in a hotel hallway ( as he died , his face displayed a hideous view of nikki ' s own clown - face ) . she eventually wandered into hotel room 47 ( which held the anthropomorphic rabbits in the tv sitcom ) , where she kissed the lost girl and freed her . nikki and the rabbits faded away .
a low - budget thriller with all the mystery and tension of a shelved thunderbirds episode . two petty crooks discover their consciences after their accomplice dies in a hit - and - run accident , and they decide to break back into the bank they have just robbed to prevent the manager and his secretary from suffocating in the safe . if the anxious expressions and banal utterances of the villains aren ' t bad enough , there are the glutinous exchanges between the stuffy boss and his assistant as they find love in adversity . director vernon sewell sets up this improbable story quite neatly , but it ' s hardly breathless entertainment .
the film concluded by being folded back upon itself - trent entered an abandoned movie theatre that was showing the latest movie adaptation of sutter cane ' s book - and slowly changed into a crazed , mutant creature that laughed maniacally as he sat down and watched himself on the silver screen .
in the film ' s frenzied conclusion , first in the hot and humid greenhouse , she kept urging and suspecting that the ghost of quint was causing miles to frighten his schoolmates with vulgar language and behavior , and was teaching him to do and say things . behind miles , she saw an apparition of quint reflected in a window . but miles denied her assertions , screamed at her , and accused her of being mad :
for nearly 90 years , the story has been reinvented on the page and screen . michael apted directed vanessa redgrave in agatha in 1979 ( in which , electroconvulsive therapy given to her affects her brain ) . jared cade , in 1999 , wrote his convincing account , claiming that she disappeared on purpose . andrew norman , in 2006 , preferred the “fugue state” theory . laura thompson , a year later , agreed with christie’s daughter that it was all brought on by shock , and wrote that personally , she preferred that the mystery of the episode stay ravelled .
. all recommended it , but it was a very difficult film for me to track down for a number of years . understandable , what with no name stars , crew , or even easily - recognizable character actors to aid in marketing it , in addition to its very brief running time .
the film is based on the play l’angoisse by celia de vilyars and pierre mills , and it’s safe to say that sewell was rather fond of the story – he’d already filmed it three times , as the medium ( 1934 ) , latin quarter ( 1945 ) and ghost ship ( 1952 ) .
let ' s pull back to consider the whole film . much of it involves the relationship between georges ( daniel auteuil ) and his wife anne ( juliette binoche ) . the tapes breed discord in their marriage . anne suspects georges , rightly , of concealing things from her . he cannot trust her with her his childhood memories . he doesn ' t want them himself . the film recalls an incident during the algerian war when the bodies of hundreds of algerian immigrants were found floating in the seine . among them may have been majid ' s parents , who went to paris to join a demonstration and were never seen again . this tragedy has been all but erased from the french public ' s memory . it doesn ' t want them .
co - star , maurice kaufmann ) , and as
mrs . fisher
in a few of the earliest episodes of the popular sitcom ,
writer / director neil labute ' s disturbing drama ( his debut film , a low - budget independent film ) had as its thematic premise :
let ' s hurt somebody
- a line spoken by corporate ex frat - boy chad ( aaron eckhart ) out to seek premeditated , retributive revenge on women , after he claimed he had broken up with steady girlfriend suzanne ( emily cline ) - and she had packed up , leaving him only a futon and his american gigolo poster . chad expressed his vile hatred of the fair sex :
before sue expired , she vomited blood on one of the hollywood walk of fame stars ( labeled dorothy ) - a powerful statement . the flame of the cigarette lighter of the woman went out (
no more blue tomorrows . you on high now , love
) - although there was a pull - back of the camera revealing it was a filmed scene .
once i read your comments i ' ll know for sure , but right now i fear i ' ve made an error in my reasoning , and that the film has no provable solution at all . as haneke says , no matter what you come up with , there ' s a flaw . and yet nothing in this film is impossible . these are the people , it happened to them . these are the events , they took place . no explanation is satisfactory .
under hypnosis , josh entered his two story house , where he came upon a number of tormented spirits , including the doll girls ( kelly devoto and corbett ruck ) and a whistling ghost dad ( lary crews ) . he retrieved dalton from the demon ' s lair ( located behind a red door ) , where dalton was found chained down , and the two awakened back in the ' real world ' after successfully fleeing from the fork - tongued demon and the old woman , who both had vanished .
running just 56 minutes , the film is clearly low budget stuff , but unusually entertaining with its oddly involved story that has flashbacks within flashbacks . sewell directs with efficiency – there’s no room for anything fancy in a quickie production like this . most of the action takes place in a single location with a minimal cast .
as i say , i really admire the narrative cleverness of the movie ; it’s a pity this storytelling skill isn’t matched by some of the other elements—in particular , by the unbelievably dumb portrayal of a possible underpinning for psychic phenomena .
after 11 days , agatha was discovered . a musician recognised her at a spa hotel , then called the swan hydropathic in harrogate , where she was living under an assumed name , using cash from a money belt to pay for her new life : just as in the film , when suspicions are aroused in the motel by amy’s odd behaviour and a similar cash belt . christie called herself by the surname of her husband’s mistress – neele . in the film , amy dunne , played by the british actress rosamund pike , uses that same mistress’s first name – nancy .
most often , though , the reason was logistic . although the encyclopedia takes the broadest possible view of film noir , there were some movies that were either too obscure or too tangential to the theme to merit the use of precious page space : 800 + large - format pages - - nearly 700 , 000 words - - may seem a lot but , when you ' re trying to cover in excess of 3 , 000 movies , you soon learn to appreciate the constraints .
a young house - hunting couple ( ronald hines , colette wilde ) , driving through the english countryside , arrive at a quaint , attractive cottage , which is available for sale at an incredible bargain . when queried , the caretaker ( jane hylton ) casually mentions a haunting in its recent history , and relates the story of the previous residents . in flashback , we are introduced to a similarly young , married couple ( maurice kaufmann , nanette newman ) , who encounter a ghost , when their home begins experiencing electrical problems .
the first three quarters of the film was basically a flashback to explain events occurring before the opening scene . it was narrated ( in voice - over ) by the dogged and determined chief police inspector walter uhl ( paul giamatti ) to describe why he was arresting stage performer eisenheim ( edward norton ) ( aka eduard abramovich ) .
the exciting premise of the film was that the cop , a possible murderer , might kill her next , and she was mugged on the street and roughed up . with sexual tension building , she became engaged in a torrid , risky sexual liaison with the married ( but estranged ) cop after a date , although she was nervous about malloy being the killer of angela ( and others ) , thinking that he was lying about the basement - sex incident and other aspects of his life .
by john brosnan , the cameraman recalled that ,
. . . i had quite a lot of freedom , and i was able to influence the style of
[ the method of entering a dream state was by injection , using portable technology cases . one of the film ' s major premises was that each person was required to have a totem - to help identify if one was in the dream world or in the real world . cobb ' s totem was his wife ' s spinning top , which would keep spinning around if he was in a dream world . ]
director michael bay ' s futuristic action - adventure thriller faced major legal problems when the producers of the low - budget independent film parts : the clonus horror ( 1979 ) filed a legal suit in 2005 ( settled out of court in 2006 ) claiming that the dreamworks / warner bros . production was an unauthorized , cloned , scene - by - scene remake . it also combined elements of thx 1138 ( 1971 ) , logan ' s run ( 1976 ) , and blade runner ( 1982 ) .
, currently coming it at a 6 . 6 / 10 , is his highest rated horror film on imdb . taking that into consideration i was hoping this would rise above the rest of his work . the good news is that it does . the not - so - good news it that it doesn ' t by all that much .
dr . newman :
simon , this is the 29th of july . the year is 2002 . and your wife , whose name is anna , is waiting outside .
( the doctor left off four crucial additional words , revealed in the film ' s ending . ) ( spoiler : simon had died and was not resuscitated ! )
the unfaithful husband who wants a divorce . the clever , well - known wife , beloved by the public . the strange , misleading clues . a money belt stuffed full of cash . headline news . thousands of volunteers helping with the search . the sudden reappearance and the public thanks from the loving couple… and the lingering uncertainty about what really happened . that’s the plot of david fincher’s american film thriller gone girl . oddly enough , it’s also what happened to agatha christie in real life , in 1926 .
just as dunne leaves clues with people , so christie made some similar moves . she alerted readers of the times that relatives of mrs neele could reach her there .
and then in the film ' s most memorable and frightening moment , he took her in his arms to kiss her , and then drew away from her unresponsive lips . in a tight closeup shot of her face , he looked into the blank , dark , expressionless and staring eyes of his fiancée , realizing with a look of utter fright , shock , and fear that she was now one of
them
- her body had been invaded and snatched by the clones . he knew instantly that this was not becky , his sweetheart of a moment ago , but a treacherous imposter and victim . she confirmed the truth , and traitorously screamed to the pod - people searchers :
, has been adapted countless times for the stage , television , cinema and even as a ballet , an opera ( by benjamin britten in 1954 ) and a graphic novel ( by guido crepax in 1989 ) . among the many film versions , however , most agree that
the specter of mark ( peter dyneley ) emerges from a shadowy corner . . .
necessarily influenced these other films - - doubtful , since it was very low - profile - - but it is kind of neat that it was ahead of the curve .
finding no ordinary causes for either the faulty power , or the silent , mysterious man they think they see in their home , they end up enlisting the aid of a parapsychologist ( colin gordon ) , who overcomes their initial skepticism with rational - sounding scientific explanations , rather than the mystical hokum they were expecting . eventually , he brings in a genuine psychic ( molly urquhart ) , in an attempt to solve the mystery of the apparition . this leads to a further flashback , showing the ghost to be a rather brilliant electrical engineer ( peter dyneley ) , embroiled in research in his backyard workshop , whose adulterous wife schemes with her lover to murder him in a staged ' accident ' . . . but things don ' t quite go according to plan . . .
according to jared cade , this was an alibi for her amnesia , “two years previously she had written a book in which a woman fakes amnesia” , he says . she sent that letter to her brother - in - law , saying she was going on holiday to yorkshire ; the local chief constable heard that she “feared for her life” . the marriage had become a psychodrama ; after 12 years ( and one child ) , archie had told her he was in love with someone else . after she vanished , he did spend the weekend with friends including the mystery woman , who naturally interested the police .
and the casting of deborah kerr as miss giddens came about .
deborah had one film to do for twentieth century [ fox ] , and so did i : that was the one we both wanted to do and which we had discussed when we met the previous year . i had admired her work in two films with that very underrated actor , robert mitchum -
( 1978 ) - - produced by her first husband , euan lloyd . unfortunately , she died of a heart attack a year later , at the untimely age of 51 .
had a ten - year stretch of small parts on the big and small screens , from the early 1950s to the early 1960s . she ' s in the same segment of
john grant , a scot by birth but a long - term inmate of new jersey , is the author of some sixty books . his nonfiction has included the encyclopedia of walt disney’s animated characters , masters of animation , three pocket books on cinema ( animated movies , sci - fi movies , and noir movies ) , the encyclopedia of fantasy ( with john clute ) , and a series of books on the misuse and misunderstanding of science , begun with discarded science and continued most recently with denying science ; for his writings on popular science he has been described by gregory frost as “the living heir to martin gardner . ”
just before a movie audition for a remake of a film titled on high in blue tomorrows , aging yet privileged la actress nikki grace ( laura dern ) , hoping for a comeback role , was visited in her luxury home by a heavily - accented polish neighbor lady ( grace zabriskie ) . she related two old world folktales about an evil and lost girl . like a bizarre flash - forward , nikki was abruptly told that there was a
brutal f - - king murder
in the film ' s plot , and prophetically told she would get the part in the film :
i definitely hear that you have it . . . actions do have consequences and yet there is the magic .
nikki also was told some hinted foreshadowings about things being non - linear :
i can ' t seem to remember if it ' s today , two days from now , or yesterday ,
and
evil was born .
( 1933 ) , but was more involved in stage work and a stretch as an raf pilot in world war ii , followed by some parts on live television in the u . s . he got his next chance in film with a bit in michael powell and emeric pressburger ' s
a few weeks later , after they returned to their hometown , a sickened howard visited chad at about 1 am , and learned that chad had no regrets about his actions , and that girlfriend suzanne had never left him (
she never left . she ' s always been right there
) - the film ' s plot twist . he boldly and amorally declared why he had devised the game :
because i could .
it seemed that all along , the motivation of the venomous and controlling chad was a subtle hatred of the submissive and vulnerable howard , who was appointed ineffectual team leader ( in retrospect , chad had cleverly sabotaged howard ' s work throughout the film ) . when howard left the building , he vomited on the staircase .
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in the end , no money was stolen , the guns the robbers used were fake toys , and an execution of one hostage had been staged . the only items disturbed in the bank were the contents of the safety deposit box . all of the hostages were released ( with three of the gang members joining them ) , while russell stayed behind to hide .
my throat ' s parched . . . i just want a glass of water
an interview with terry gilliam , director of
the man who killed don quixote .
the next revelation was that josh had experienced
night terrors
and
awful fits of pure fear
when he was eight years old . he had been terrorized , like his son , by an evil spirit - in the guise of an old woman ( the one that opened the film ) . a series of photographs from his boyhood showed the old woman getting closer and closer to him . he was also a
gifted traveler
in his childhood with the ability to venture out of his physical body during a dream state . he had handed down astral - projection abilities to his son . it was recommended that josh , the only one capable of rescuing dalton ' s soul , rediscover his lost abilities and enter
the further .
the film ' s main plot was about the murder of a prominent and wealthy industrialist from chicago named philip colbert ( uncredited jack teter ) who was found beaten to death ( a massive head wound ) in a town alleyway . colbert had come to sparta from the north to build a new factory . his surviving widow leslie ( lee grant ) insisted that detective tibbs stay on the case to find her husband ' s killer , causing ripples of racism in the small town .