Bloodbath at the House of Death

Plot synopsis:
The film opens in 1975 at a place called Headstone Manor, which is being used as a "businessman's weekend retreat and girls' summer camp". A few minutes into the film, a group of satanic monks enter the house and kill 18 of its occupants.
In 1983, Doctor Lucas Mandeville (Kenny Everett) and Doctor Barbara Coyle (Pamela Stephenson) are sent to investigate radioactive readings in the area that have been traced to Headstone Manor, now known by locals as the House of Death.
Along with several other scientists, Mandeville and Coyle set up their equipment in the house, while the Sinister Man (Vincent Price), a 700-year-old Satanic priest, prepares a rite in the nearby woods to purge the house of its unwanted guests.
During this time, Mandeville reveals that he was once a successful German surgeon named Ludwig Manheim, who was reduced to "smart-arse paranormal research crap" after a humiliation in the past. Coyle also encounters a poltergeist, and the two engage in sexual intercourse.
Several satanic clones of Mandeville, Coyle and the other scientists enter house, and begin killing off the originals and taking their place. When Coyle is about to be killed, she is rescued by the poltergeist and saved. The satanic monks then take off in a spaceship, revealing that these monks are aliens using the house for their activities on Earth. The film ends with the spaceship soaring into the skies, with an E.T. voice groaning: "Oh, shit! Not again!".

Tags: paranormal, violence, satire, murder

Review:
Eight scientists (including Kenny and, more plausibly, Dr Pamela Stephenson) investigate an old house where, 18 years earlier, 18 people were killed there in one night.
It pretty much also marked the end of John Stephen Hill's acting career though he is better mapped as he went on to immerse himself in his Jesuit faith.The film is a bit hit and miss, like Everett's TV shows - lots of scenes that don't really work, interspersed with occasional moments of genius.
Kenny Everett is the star of this film, pulling from characters developed from his various video shows to create his main character, with a good backup of other actors making up the rest of the group.
The slapstick comedy (played seriously) comes frequently right from the start of the film but then tends to fall a little flat in the second half, but is still very enjoyable if you're a fan of Everett.
Favoured not for it's technical merit, but for the absolute dedication to Kenny's unique style of comedy - where no joke was either too obvious or too tasteless to be included.Some of these jokes are supremely tasteless, for example the young woman who offers her bared breasts to the mad monk as he threatens her with a knife: "You want these, don't you?" and then she screams "Oh my god, did you say "To take away?!".Vincent Price has a very good time as the very Sinister Man.I was lucky to see this on the big screen here in Australia and I also considered myself lucky to have bought an ex-rental VHS years ago.
I loved seeing snippets of Kenny in Australia promoting the film - and enjoyed learning the background story of how this magnificent purposefully B grade film sadly missed getting the exposure and wide success which it truly deserved.Twenty five years after the limited cinematic release the world has a second chance to embrace "Bloodbath At The House Of Death" as one of the all-time great kitsch cult classics..
Been a few years since I've seen it, and I still look for my chance!Kenny Everett (sadly missed) brought his own brand of humour to the screen and it is seen best in this film.
Supported well (by Vincent Price to name but one), he pulls a somewhat limited script out of the satanical ashes and keeps you laughing, not to mention groaning.A comedy of the time, this film is more of a cult "do you remember?" than a film for anyone, but it's worth a look..
Starring horror icon Vincent Price & comedy legend Kenny Everett this camp British horror comedy is a hugely mixed bag.It tells the story of a group of scientists and experts in their field who investigate the mysterious Blood House where 18 people were savagely murdered in one night.When the jokes are on point the movie is really enjoyable, sadly too many jokes fall flat and leave the movie more of a bust than it should have been.
With Price & Everett this should have by all rights been a cult classic.To it's credit the film has a lot of imagination, from original death scenes to some fantastic satirical humour!However for every laugh there are three or four poor jokes ranging from silly to cringe inducing.A harmless effort and ahead of it's time, but comes across a bit rushed.The Good:Price and Everett are excellentVery inventive killsSome great gagsWell scoredThe Bad:Not as funny as it should have been Things I Learnt From This Movie:Kenny Everett should have broke Hollywood.
This completely bizarre horror-comedy is notable for a few reasons; mostly due to the fact that it features a late performance from the great Vincent Price and because it stars British comedian Kenny Everett.
The film does manage a few moments of hilarity, however, most notably the discussions about the deaths at the central location in a local pub and a great scene that sees Kenny Everett's doctor operating on a patient.
The house is also inhabited by a group of satanic monks that won't sleep until they have purged the house of its unwelcome guests.As you would expect; the film is at it's strongest during the scenes that include the great Vincent Price, but this is also one of the problems as there aren't enough of them.
I don't know if director Ray Cameron simply couldn't afford to have Price in the film more, but Bloodbath at the House of Death would have been a better film if he could.
Kenny Everett manages to keep things ticking over when Price isn't around, however, and the comedian does well in providing the film with most of its laughs.
Bloodbath at the House of Death is a strange beast, it has the feel of a Dario Argento Film in places with the P.O.V kills and the tripped out camera work!
Play "spot-the-movie" in this comedy which features allusions to Carrie, Close Encounters, The Invisible man, Jaws, Rocky Horror Picture Show and many more.
Starring ex-Radio One disc-jockey turned TV superstar Kenny Everett in his one-and-only feature film role, plus a host of other familiar faces from British TV during the 70s and 80s, the film is a laugh-free zone from start to finish, the puerile script by seasoned TV gag-writer Barry Cryer featuring lame jokes that make even his worst material for Russ Abbot and Jim Davidson look like comedy genius by comparison, and the performances ranging from the perfunctory (Vincent Price) to the downright abysmal (Everett's TV co-star Cleo Rocos).Given star Everett's trademark zaniness, Bloodbath at the House of Death could (and should) have been a hilarious exercise in excess, the move to the big screen allowing the star to be crazier, bawdier and more outrageous than ever before, and yet there is a frustratingly restrained feel about the whole film; true, there are a few surprisingly graphic deaths involving some cartoonish gore (which even earned the film an 18 certificate!), but the majority of the gags are tired, dumb, predictable and irritatingly scatter-shot, desperately parodying everything from Jaws and the Exorcist to ET and Star Wars in the fruitless search for laughs..
Someone in the early eighties thought it might be a good idea for him to branch out into films and follow in the likes of Frankie Howerd and do a spoof movie.A roll call of named stars from the era assembled for the gig, Pamela Stephenson, Vincent Price, Gareth Hunt, Don Warrington, Cleo Rocos and etc etc, names that certainly to Brits taking an interest in entertainment in the late 70s and early 80s were familiar with.
And this before we get to Everett who is off the scale with his inane sense of what makes a good joke work on film.Fans of Everett definitely will get something from this, while those who keep filing into current day theatres to watch Scary Movie 23, they also will find spoofing a thing of fine art.
But when the funniest thing in the film is Vincent Price saying a swear word, then you know it's not really worth your time.
Bloodbath at the House of Death did have a lot of potential, a talented cast and writer and a great title being the starting points.
It is not without redeeming merits though, the film is not badly made, Vincent Price while underused looks and sounds as though he is thoroughly enjoying himself and the Can Opener and toilet scenes are very effective.
And Bloodbath at the House of Death showed great distaste, the toilet humour is utterly infantile and the innuendos are incredibly smutty making the worst Carry On movie(the later entries had a lot of smut) seem tame.
Vincent Price plays the Sinister Man in this Totally Bizarre British Spoof.
Horror deity Vincent Price is my favorite actor, and the credited name of his character in "Bloodbath at the House of Death" - 'Sinister Man' - more or less describes the roles this great man played with brilliance throughout his fantastic career.
"Bloodbath at the House of Death" (1984) is a title that is impossible not to love for a fan of Horror and Cult-cinema, and while the film is neither a particular highlight nor exactly a bloodbath, it is an enjoyably bizarre spoof that Price-fans should give a try, even though the master's role is regrettably small.
The film stars British Comedian Kanny Everett; I don't really know the man's other work, but as it seems, he was a funny guy.In 1975, Headstone Manor was the site of the grisly murders of 18 people.
Some years later, a couple of Scientists including Dr. Lukas Manderville (Kenny Everett) and Dr. Barbara Coyle (Pamela Stephenson) gather at the the rural mansion, which is now known as the 'House of Death' in order to investigate strange phenomena..."Bloodbath at the House of Death" parodies Gothic Horror and Occult Horror films as well as Slashers.
Fans of weirdness and bizarre humor should still like this, however, as it doesn't get a lot more grotesque than "Bloodbath at the House of Death".
"Bloodbath at the House of Death" isn't a particular highlight and certainly no Comedy masterpiece, but overall, it is a fun flick for my fellow Vincent Price fans and lovers of bizarre humor.
Vincent Price, for example, as a 700 year old cult leader who swears a lot; Kenny Everett as a paranormal investigator who was formerly a brilliant surgeon in Germany until he accidentally dropped his monocle into a patient's insides during an operation; Pamela Stephenson as a lisping scientist who ends up getting the best sex of her life from a randy poltergeist; and Graham Stark as a blind man who inadvertently destroys everything in his path wherever he goes.
On paper it sounds almost funny, but in reality sadly it never gets that far in fact, this pitiful film is buried irretrievably several feet below rock bottom.Following the massacre of 18 people at a creepy country manor, a number of scientists visit the house in question several years later to investigate high levels of radioactivity at the site.
Meanwhile, a number of local villagers led by a700 year old cultist (Vincent Price) march upon the house and attempt to 'cleanse' it of the unwelcome outsiders.The plot itself doesn't hang together for a second and there's little point wasting another word trying to describe it.
I found it funny and a bit horrific as a child, but as an adult I was left to wonder what the heck I saw in it all that time ago.The plot seems to go out of it's way to attempt to spoof your typical also-ran horror movie.
It's attempt to spoof the B-grade horror movie results in this film turning itself into an even *worse* horror film - at which Bloodbath at the House of Death largely succeeds.
Vincent Price is the only star I know in this movie, as always, playing someone sinister.
Incidentally, Vincent Price only appears in it as "The Sinister Man" in sequences spoofing his own earlier performance in Roger Corman's classic Poe-inspired chiller THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (1964) and gets unceremoniously told to "Piss Off" – a retort he swiftly returns – by a fellow female fanatic irritated by his condescending comments in one of the film's biggest laugh-out-loud moments.Apart from that one, a great number of movies are spoofed: CITY OF THE DEAD (1960; the burning Satanists), THE HAUNTING (1963; gay longings in a haunted house), THE EXORCIST (1973; an unrelated victim gets her head turned 360 degrees and subsequently beheaded by a can opener, not to mention a newspaper bearing the side-splitting headline – "Exorcist: 'I Blew It!'" – in connection with the opening mass murder sequence!), THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE (1973; ditto), JAWS (1975; another hilarious bit has Everett playing John Williams' classic theme on the violin while on the toilet – whereas the audience is all the time being led to believe that something ominous is about to take place!), THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975; Everett is revealed to be a misunderstood and crippled Nazi scientist); CARRIE (1976; Everett's lisping bespectacled female companion recalls her repressed childhood days at the mercy of her religious fanatic – and confessional-wearing – mother!), STAR WARS (1977; another victim is unaccountably felled by a light-sabre!), ALIEN (1979; Everett exhibits all of John Hurt's chest-busting symptoms only to relieve his discomfort by letting out a loud hearty belch!), THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (1979; the water taps produce blood), Friday THE 13TH (1980; the afore-mentioned prologue bloodbath takes place on Thursday 12th"give or take a day"!), AN American WEREWOLF IN London (1981; the inhospitable pub punters are first stunned into silence by Everett's appearance on the scene with his fly wide open and then get together in a sing-a-long about the old ghastly happenings when none of them get to agree on the number of victims), etc.
Everett and Stephenson (so much fun here) join these other 4 other scientists (including a hunky American that I liked and an English hottie) at this manor where 18 people were bludgeoned to death, by strange circumstances.
This movie is a lot of fun where Stephenson and the late Everett are so watchable, here's a comedy that's a winner.
"Bloodbath at the House of Death" – every horror fan will undeniably fall in love with the title alone already – is a slapstick horror comedy/spoof starring the BBC radio presenter Kenny Everett and the legendary horror acting legend Vincent Price.
"Bloodbath at the House of Death" is far from brilliant, sometimes hardly even funny, but I would definitely say this is an underrated attempt that understandably got overlooked in the massive horror/comedy offer of the early 80's.
The script, co-written by director Ray Cameron, makes fun of great and obvious classics such as "Alien", "E.T.", "Poltergeist", Carrie" and "The Shining", but also holds more subtle jokes and references in store to reward the attentive horror freaks.
Six scientists arrive at the creepy Headstone Manor to investigate a strange phenomena which was the site of a mysterious massacre years earlier where 18 guests were killed in one night.It turns out that the house is the place of a satanic cult lead by a minister monk who plans to kill the scientists who are inhabiting this house of Satan.....This film sounded like such a good idea on paper.
Kenny Everett, one of the funniest comedians of the eighties, joined by other well known British actors, written by Barry Cryer, and featuring Vincent Price.
Virtually everything goes wrong, bar one joke involving a musical instrument and a toilet.The story is poor, and the script is just one long list of unfunny innuendos that even a below average Carry on Film would be ashamed of.The cast do their best with the material, but it doesn't work, and the whole thing falls flat.This had so much potential too.
With virtually no story to speak of it's left to the loosely connected little comedy sketches that try to spoof & mock various horror films including The Haunting (1963), Carrie (1976), Alien (1979), The Shining (1980), An Emerican Werewolf in London (1981), The Entity (1982), E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), all the teen slashers that were big business back then & even references Star Wars (1977) with little success is has to be said.
The main problem for me was that Bloodbath at the House of Death is just painfully unfunny, sure it comes down to personal preference but I thought the humour, jokes & gags were just lame.
Why not kill the scientists rather than try to scare them away?Bloodbath at the House of Death really does feel like a five minute comedy show sketch drawn out to feature film length, not one of British horror's finest moments.The film is reasonably well made & spoofs various scenes in films like the pub scene in An American Werewolf in London, the chest-burster scene in Alien, the rape scene in The Entity & even has a character decapitated by a Stars Wars style Light Saber.
Horror legend Vincent Price is wasted in what turned out to be his last British horror film.Bloodbath at the House of Death make the Scary Movie series seem like classics, I'm sorry but I just didn't find any of it funny & it ended up disappointing as both a horror film & a comedy.
Not only is it the only movie starring the unique and sadly missed Kenny Everett, but it also boasts a host of British talent of the era, a fruity performance from Vincent Price (who is clearly having a ball) and a script co-authored by the wondrous Barry Cryer (who I happen to think is an unsung genius.
The extent of its failure can be measured by the fact that the funniest part of it is, by far, Vincent Price, and none of the British comedy talent.
Kenny Everett was apparently some great British comedian, but I never heard of him before seeing this movie.
Always been a Kenny fan and to have him in the same film as Vincent Price and Not the Nine O'clock News' Pamela Stephenson had such great potential.
It doesn't work as a horror film or a zany comedy and some of the gags just aren't funny and go on for far too long (to my shame I missed the 'Do you like my mole?' joke until I'd watched it for the second time.
Mediocre spoof of Horror and sci-fi features Vincent Price in a minor role as a Satanic Warlock who gathers up his town of worshipers to disrupt an obnoxious group of paranormal researchers visiting a supposed haunted house where a series of bloody murders took place.
I'm sure Vincent Price fans will have a good time seeing him swear, gleefully theatrical, parodying his image.
I think the film's biggest misstep is not featuring Price as the central character, even though Kenny Everett has some shining moments.