The Halfway House

Plot synopsis:
During the Second World War, various people converge on the Halfway House, an inn in the Welsh countryside. In Cardiff, the famous orchestra conductor David Davies is advised by his doctor to cancel a tour and rest, otherwise he will live only about three months more. In London, Richard and Jill French argue about the education of their young daughter Joanna. Joanna overhears them agree to divorce. Then Mr. French and Joanna go on vacation. Captain Fortescue is released from Parkmoor Prison; he was court-martialed for stealing the regimental funds. In a Welsh port, merchant captain Harry Meadows and his French wife Alice quarrel about their deceased son, a victim of the U-boats. Black marketeer Oakley departs from London for some fishing, while Margaret and her Irish diplomat fiancé Terence take a train from Bristol.
Oakley and Fortescue meet on the road; it turns out they know each other. Though Fortescu had scanned the countryside thoroughly with his binoculars in vain for the Halfway House, it mysteriously appears. When they reach it, the proprietor Rhys also seems to materialise out of thin air. He tells a puzzled Fortescu he was expected. When Oakley signs the register, he notices a long gap after the last signature, dated 1942, it being 21 June 1943. (The newspapers are exactly a year old.)
Others arrive. The Meadows request separate rooms. Rhys serves a still grieving Alice tea in her room. She is shocked to see no reflection of Rhys in the mirror when he leaves. Mr. French notices his wife's handwriting in the register and suspects that Joanna arranged for them to stay in the same place. Later, Fortescu is sitting outside when he notices that Gwyneth, Rhys's daughter, casts no shadow, though Joanna, standing nearby, does. Joanna arranges a fake near-drowning, with the help of Captain Meadows, to try to reunite her parents; it nearly goes fatally awry. Margaret and Terence quarrel when he is eager to accept a posting in Berlin (Ireland being neutral).
At dinner, Rhys relates that the inn was bombed by an aeroplane exactly a year ago and burnt down. While helping Gwyneth wash the dishes afterward, Davies is told by her that he is "coming our way". He understands.
Then Alice arranges a seance, much to her husband's disapproval. The table moves of its own volition, but the captain turns on the radio, breaking the mood. After Alice storms out, he explains to the others that he wants his son to be allowed to rest in peace. Rhys suggests he tell his wife the same; he does, and the couple reconcile.
Radio broadcasts from 1942 convince everyone that somehow they have gone back in time one year. Rhys explains that they all needed a pause to consider their lives. The air raid proceeds as Rhys described. Richard French's paramount concern for his wife and daughter's safety and Terence's newfound hatred of the Germans reunite them with the women in their lives, while both Fortescue and Oakley repent their criminal ways. The guests leave behind a demolished inn.

Tags: good versus evil, violence, murder, sadist

Review:
The tide turned again in the Bush, Sr. era as politically correct movie makers like Wes Craven cleaned house, ditching gratuitous nudity and sleaze to appeal to the more conservative leaning Gen X American teens.THE HALFWAY HOUSE, made in 2004, is a welcome leap back in time, a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the bad ole days, when horror films were a spit in the eye of the self-proclaimed Moral Majority.Cult mistress Mary Woronov toplines a thoroughly charming and capable cast, who play a motley assortment of delinquents, psychopaths, and cops.
A stableful of budding scream queens light up the screen, eating up the pulp dialog and brightening many an adolescent boy's silver dreams by generously flaunting their bodies.With its gleefully perverse jabs at Catholicism, including one prop gag that will have Legion of Decency crusaders reaching for their heart pills, this film is not for Bible Belt soccer moms or unreformed altar boys, but fans of 80s B classics like "REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS" or "NIGHT OF THE DEMONS" will be rolling in the aisles.Low budget, set mainly in one location with judicious breaks throughout, the film delivers some cool sets and nicely done Lovecraftian EFX.
But frame for frame, it delivers more entertainment value than most Hollywood movies made for thirty times the budget..
I've seen a lot of bad movies but this one is total crap.
The girls are pretty,the lesbian scenes are pretty, the special effects are bad, the acting is bad, the whole movie is bad.
People don't waste your money on this, there are lots of good horror movies you can buy.
So many horror films these days are such a disappointment, but man was I surprised by this little low budget gem!
They should have had Hall write more of their films.Anyway, I managed to catch a screening of "The Halfway House" at the North Hollywood Film Fest.
It seems like a tribute to all the fun exploitation horror movies I loved in my youth, filled with sexy juvenile delinquents (played by much older girls), weird characters, and a Lovecraftian monster.
Pseudo-Lovecraftian garbage with very little gore, a few tits (but NO full-frontal), horrible acting - oh Christ, I give up - the list of negatives about this film is just way too long and encompasses just about every aspect of this piece of trash.The super-condensed version (because that's all this crap deserves): Girls are disappearing around an all-girl halfway house and being fed to a monster that lives in the basement by the head nun.
The police and one of the missing girls' sisters gets involved in the "investigation"...In case you haven't already gathered- I pretty much hated this "film".
Posing as a modern exploit film but not having the balls to take the concept all the way - THE HALFWAY HOUSE is a let-down all the way through.
I am a video store owner and I urge all video stores to stock this movie, especially if you have customers who like the classic Hammer or Castle films, as well as John Waters.
In these times of religious extremism (in the U.S.), it's good to see a movie deal with the real issues of spirituality and the sanctity of religious symbols, most importantly in regard to the very,very personal pleasure of prayer.
I have seen some pretty poor movies in my time, but this takes the biscuit, it is truly terrible ...
the plot is dreadful, the acting is diabolical, the monster is laughable, everything about The Halfway House is awful !!!I am not sure, either, exactly what this movie is supposed to be, or what it is trying to be.
If it's supposed to be a horror movie it fails spectacularly, I only jumped once in the entire film and that was in a part that I think was supposed to be funny !!!If it is supposed to be titillating, it also fails spectacularly.
I'm not going to complain about seeing numerous half naked women, even if only 2 of them were remotely good looking, but what was the point of most of the nudity if not to titillate and entertain, it certainly did neither !!!In summary, it was like a cheap porn movie without the porn !!!.
Nasty Nuns, One-Eyed Monsters and Cherry Pie. Fans of "USA Up All Night" will love "Halfway House" for two reasons:1.
This campy tale about a home for wayward girls who constantly go missing has everything that those classic films of the 70s and 80s do - There's sex, violence and monsters aplenty along with enough smart, brassy dialog to fill another three films.2.
"Halfway House" is written and directed by Kenneth Hall who was no stranger to the classic late night movie show.
Hall wrote "Puppetmaster" and "Nightmare Sisters" as well as directing such choice fare such as "Linnea Quigley's Horror Workout" and "Evil Spawn"."Halfway House" takes a refreshing approach to the Women-In-Prison genre with a story about Larissa (Janet Tracy Keijser) who is searching for her sister when she goes missing after a jog by the ominous house.
Larissa seduces a well-meaning but horny cop (Shawn Savage as Sgt. Dick Sheen  HA!) into helping her infiltrate the house as a delinquent teen.
Once inside, our Nancy Drew runs afoul of Sister Cecelia (Mary Warnov in wonderfully subtle performance) and her handyman Lutkus (the hilarious Cleve Hall, Kenneth's brother) along with a slew of sexed-up, bitchy 'inmates', who constantly try to escape the house without much success, for what lurks in the basement isn't very pretty and apparently very hungry.Hall is in fine form here, recapturing much of what was so great about spending Friday nights glued to your TV.
And like wine, he's aged well and brings a fearless sense of thematics to "Halfway House", making it a must for repeat viewings.I caught a screening of "Halfway House" at the Valley Film Festival last year and was blown away by this independent movie's tenacity to please a crowd.
Hall spoke afterward, proving he may be L.A.'s answer to John Waters  smart, irreverent and completely charming, it's no wonder that his films have endured all this time.
Yeah this is Pretty Bad. I saw some of this movie last night on SHowtime, and it's def nothing to jump around about.
It's nothing more than a C class horror movie with a predictable plot, sprinkled with lesbian love.
I actually caught this movie back at the Valley Film Festival and thought it was great.
Sure it's in the vein of Skinamax, but unlike most of the drab late night flicks, Halfway House is DAMN amusing.I was combing the shelves of my video store and saw it.
That is if Lucas and ILM were making a exploitation boobie creature feature.The acting is rock solid for a movie that takes itself tongue in cheek.
At least the movie does not take itself seriously, making it watchable if taken as camp, but I estimate that only one out of every ten (or even twenty) people will find this entertaining.After her sister disappears one afternoon, Larissa Morgan turns to the cops for help.
She suspects something to do with, Sister Cecilia's halfway house for troubled girls, and comes up with a twisted plan to get some answers.
Everything goes bananas; we get silly sex scenes, extreme profanity, sadistic morons, and a hungry alien in the cellar.The Halfway House is junk, but it is not the worst movie out there.
**SPOILERS** Ridicules as well as insulting soft-core porno horror movie that has Catholic Nun Sister Cecelia ,Mary Moronov, who became secretly involved in the Black Arts through the Satanic book of the dead Necronomicon.
Sister Cecelia ends up conjuring up this creature from another dimension who looks like the rubber octopus in "Bride of the Monster" with a ferocious set of teeth.Working behind the back of Father Fogerty (Joseph Tatnen), who runs the halfway house for runaway girls where she's assigned to, Sister Cecelia together with the halfway house's creepy handy-man Lutkus, Cleve Hall, secretly have the girls fed to this creature.
So that the blessed couple would produce a race of half-human half-octopus-like off-springs to take over and rule the world.Father Fogerty himself is anything but innocent in the movie having a faddish of not only reading and looking at the photos of girly magazines where young, and well endowed, women get spanked.
That's were Father Fogerty gets the idea of disciplining the girls at his halfway house by spanking them silly in the privacy of his office for any infraction that they commit.After jogger Annie Morgan, Ashley Rgea, is reported missing by her older sister Larissa, Janet Tracy Keijser, she with the help of police Sgt. Dick Sheen, Shawn Savage,goes undercover at the halfway house where Annie was last seen jogging.
It's also suspected that a number of other girls reported missing over the last few months also disappeared there.Getting to know what's really happening at the halfway house by getting very friendly with one of the runaway girls Cherry Pie, Stephanie Leighs, Larissa plans to get the goods on both Sister Cecelia and her accomplice in crime Lutku.Larissa ends up getting caught by the Satanic trio when Cherry Pie was too slow to inform her that Sister Cecelia was coming as the two were about to escape from the place.
Down in the basement of the halfway house Sister Cecelia, in a witch-like outfit, is about to bring out of the dungeon the one-eyed octopus-like creature to devour Cherry Pie for lunch only to have Father Fogerty pop up.
Fogerty does this by reciting passage's from the bible only to have his hand, holding a crucifix, cut off with a pair of shears by LutkusComing back from the dead Sgt. Sheen, with a two foot long knife protruding from his chest, takes out Lutkus where the creature for some strange reason attacks Sister Cecelia now dressed up like some kind of Demonic Wizard.
The creature ends up swallowing her down whole like actor Robert Shaw was in the movie "Jaws" with Larissa, also like in the movie "Jaws", throwing a plastic container of gasoline into it's mouth and blowing the creature to kingdom come.The movie "The Halfway House" is not only dopey with bad acting and a lot of it's story not making any sense at all it's not even intentionally or unintentionally funny.
The usual ruffians and lesbians populate 'The Halfway House' as well as the strict nun, perverted handyman and porn loving, butt smacking priest.
'House' doesn't let a thing like story dampen the fun of catfights and lesbo loving.
a good Sunday movie if you are hungover from the night before, great for zombie-ing out to on an overcast afternoon.i found myself wondering if these actors have made it in Hollywood, or whether they still are waitressing.
gore, comedy (not intentional), and tits!To be honest I didn't see the first part of the film as I was working down a mine at the time.
I have watched this film several times, own the nun and girl dolls and have a huge poster on my roof that can be seen from space.
I must give off the impression that I'm the kind of guy who would enjoy a woman's prison movie set in a Catholic Halfway House with copious amounts of nudity and a horny one-eyed monster.
So do you."The Halfway House" is a shameless exploitation flick with a little Catholic bashing thrown in.
She goes undercover in the Halfway House to get to the bottom of it.
The Halfway House has plenty of bad girls that want to get naked.
The house is run by a priest who likes to give out spankings to the misbehaving delinquents and Sister Woronov who applies her own demonic discipline to the unruly ladies.Yeah, it's all here.
The thing about "The Halfway House" is that it's sleazy, but not overly so, (at least by my standards).
She got naked a couple of times and those were good times.Overall, I was very pleased with "The Halfway House".
Just don't expect a serious monster/horror movie.
The monster in the basement is just another excuse to get more naked women into the movie.
The absence of full frontal nudity is a disappointment, of course, and this is why I have only awarded 9 points out of ten.Apart from the let-down when the briefs were not ripped off the quivering tasty bodies of the lovely young victims, I imagine that having to swallow the victims' panties might, possibly, have given the Creature indigestion.
The Halfway House starts with Annie Morgan (Ashley Fires) getting kidnapped as she goes about her business, if that wasn't bad enough her kidnapper ties her to some sort of sacrificial alter before ripping her clothes off & letting some demonic creature eat her, I guess it just wasn't her day.
Annie's sister Larissa (Janet Tracy Keijser) becomes worried about her & goes to the police, Sergeant Dick Sheen (Shawn Savage) fees there is a connection between Annie's mysterious disappearance & reports of several other young women going missing from the 'Mary Magdalan halfway house for troubled girls' situated in the same area where Annie was last seen but can't convince his boss Inspector Hinds (Michael Gaglio) so Larissa volunteers to go undercover unofficially in an attempt to try & find her sister, simple eh?
It's not long before she unearths sinister secrets at the halfway house...Co-executive produced, written & directed by Kenneth J.
Hall I thought The Halfway House was total complete & utter crap, it's as simple & straight forward as that.
The script feels like an exploitative WIP (women in prison) film with a touch of a 50's monster film thrown in there for good measure, the problem is it's never really that sleazy, the females are rather unattractive & the monster appears for all of 4 minutes.
Answers on a postcard please...Director Hall was obviously working on a low budget but I still don't think that's an excuse for turning in such a crap film.
The acting isn't so hot, sorry.The Halfway House is just another totally forgettable, dull rubbishy no budget straight-to-video horror film that fails to inspire or impress in any way.
I just picked up the unrated directors cut of Halfway House and I wasn't disappointed.This is a fun, campy movie, sort of in the same spirit as The Hazing, only instead of Brad Dourif we get Mary Woronov, and instead of a demon we get a Lovecraftian "old one" in all it's practical FX goofiness, no bad CGI monster in this baby, this is old time monster cheesiness!
And it all takes pace at a halfway house for wayward girls so there is a sort of WIP buzz also going on You want gore?
Best character name: Cherry Pie If you like campy, cheesy horror, with gore and boobs and monsters that don't come out of a computer then give this baby a shot..
"The Halfway House" is a rather great guilty pleasure.**SPOILERS**After her sister goes missing, Larissa Morgan, (Janet Tracy Keijser) decides to go looking for her at the local halfway house, run by Sister Cecelia, (Mary Moronov) a highly religious nun.
Thinking the best way to get information is to go undercover in the house, she and Sgt. Dick Sheen, (Shawn Savage) she is snuck in and made a member of the house with the other women there, 'Cherry Pie' Polowski, (Stephanie Leighs) Eddie, (Monica Shere) Angelina, (Athena Demos) Sheila, (Tomi X.) and Shelby, (Saye Yabandeh) and begins looking into the house's past.
Discovering a dark secret in the house, she races to save the others from the horrible truth present.The Good News: Rarely has there been a film more concentrated on having fun.
Highly recommended for those that enjoy this kind of film, while those that like it a bit more serious are expected to exercise caution with this one.Rated R: Nudity, Graphic Language, several sex scenes of both sexes and Graphic Violence.
The Halfway House.
Larissa(Janet Tracy Keijser, who has a smokin' body)is looking for her missing sister who went out jogging one day and got fed to something in a basement thanks to a demented handyman who kidnapped her.
She calls on Sgt. Dick Sheen(Shawn Savage)to assist her in going undercover within a Catholic half way house for troubled girls ran with an iron fist by evil nun, Sister Cecelia(Mary Woronov).
Father Fogerty(Joseph Tatner)loves to paddle his girls who misbehave while Larissa(who is snooping for possible leads regarding not only her own missing sister but other girls as well)finds porno mags and a sex doll in his office cabinet.
She also helps out a quiet, sad lesbian, "Cherry Pie" Polowski(Stephanie Leighs)who lost her tough sista lover to the same monster that ate Larissa's sister, who gets picked on by a group of nasty girls who blame her for losing privileges.
Also, Cecilia went to Miskatonic University and working there was none other than the handyman, Lutkus(Cleve Hall)who now is employed at the half way house, often peeping at the girls taking showers.
The monster is crap, but I think it's looking extremely fake was intentional.
The film isn't nothing to write home about, but Woronov is as fun as always in an unusual part.
Their search takes them to the Mary Magdalen Halfway House for Troubled Girls, where Larrisa goes undercover.
This is just like a B-movie love song to grind-house films of the '70's and '80's.
You have your women in prison film atmosphere, a return to trashy '80's schlockfests, throw in some HP Lovecraft, Andy Warhol find and B-movie mainstay Mary Woronov, rampant nudity, and cheap practical effects.
But though it's gratuitous, it's also kind of annoying - like watching a porno with anything of interest edited out.So to sum up - the clear intended audience of this movie is the male (or lesbian) horror comedy fan that has no concern about low budget or bad production values.