Don't Go in the House
Tags: dark, cruelty, murder, cult, violence, flashback, insanity, revenge, sadist

Plot synopsis:
Donald "Donny" Kohler is obsessed with fire and human combustion, an obsession that stems from the severe abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother, who would hold his bare arms over a gas stove in an effort to "burn the evil out of him". When his mother dies, he sets out to avenge himself on every woman who bears a resemblance to her with the aid of steel chains, a flamethrower, and a steel-paneled bedroom crematorium.
Donny's first victim is florist Kathy Jordan (Johanna Brushay). Befriending the harmless-looking man, Kathy escorts Donny back to his mother's house, where he knocks her unconscious, strips her naked, and chains her arms and legs to the ceiling and floor of the steel room. Ignoring Kathy's screaming pleas for mercy, he burns her to death with his flamethrower. Over the next few days, Donny murders two other women by immolating them. Donny also burns his mother's corpse, and dresses it up in her bedroom along with the other three dead women.
During his killing spree, Donny hears voices in his mind which call him "the master of the flame" and urge him to punish "evil". Donny's only friend is Bobby Tuttle (Robert Osth) a co-worker who phones the house one day asking why Donny has been absent from work for nearly a week. Donny lies and claims that his mother is sick and needs attention. When Donny attempts to pick up another victim, he cannot go through with it, and begins to feel remorse for his actions. Donny goes to a church, where he tells Father Gerritty (Ralph D. Bowman) about the abuse his mother inflicted upon him, and about his urges to kill. Father Gerritty persuades Donny to try to move on with his life, and put the past to rest.
In an attempt to stop killing, Donny decides to accept an invitation by Bobby to accompany him on a double-date to a disco club, despite Donny's lack of social skills. After traveling to a men's clothing store and purchasing a new outfit, Donny shows up at the disco as expected, but is shy and awkward with his date. When the woman attempts to take Donny to the dance floor and inadvertently holds his arm over a table's lighted candle, the memories of the childhood abuse come back, and Donny sets her hair on fire.
Fleeing from the disco, Donny runs into two drunken girls on the street, and he invites them back to his house. Bobby attempts to find Donny, and runs into Father Gerritty on his way to Donny's house. When no one answers the front door, Bobby and Father Gerrity break it down and rescue the two women. Donny dons his incinerator outfit and sets Father Gerrity ablaze with his flamethrower, but Bobby manages to smother the flames and rescue the priest.
Donny takes refuge inside his mother's bedroom with the burned corpses. The voices in his head express their disappointment with him. Donny hallucinates the charred corpses coming to life. He tries to fight them with the flamethrower but sets the house on fire. He dies in the fire.
The final scene portrays a young boy being beaten by his mother. The boy hears the same whispering voices that Donny did, and they tell him that they are here to "help" him.

Review: "Don't Go in the House" is an obscure early 80's horror film that seems to be forgotten by many horror fans.The film is well-made and slickly directed by Joseph Ellison,a talented musician and a screenwriter.Donny Kohler is a tormented young man.His mother tortured him by holding his bare arms over a gas burning stove.He grows up to be a psycho who delights in burning young women with a flamethrower inside his steel paneled bedroom crematorium.The film is filled with truly sick atmosphere and there is one of the most sadistic burning killings ever captured on screen.The underlying theme of child abuse is also taboo-breaking."Don't Go in the House" is often trashed by some politically correct people-still it beats most of the crap being put out today.Highly recommended..
I mean sure, it has obvious signs of a low budget production, a little bit of a strong focus on a sub-theme layered somewhere in the movie and a bit of ambiguity, but everything else from the mundane spoken lines, the acting (especially with Mr.Grimaldi...hey, every big career has to start small) the synthesized music and disturbing imagery that you could rarely find in horror movies were memorably effective.I can understand how some people just don't think it's scary in general and I'm not worried about that at all, but what confuses me is when people give it a bad grade for being 'sick' and 'perverse'.
All disturbed men who performed terrible acts of cruelty and murder due to the horrors of their personal traumatized lives, and you don't find it horrifying, scary, disturbing and/or unique to witness the fictional account of such a man who let his squelched mind wander too far on a positive gamut at all??If you cannot deal with the aspects talked about in this movie then watch something else and don't complain about how sick a horror movie is.
In the movie, a deranged serial killer Donny was burned as a kid by his dominating mother which made him insane.
So, this means that Donny must go out, lure women back to his house, and....the rest is a spoiler.While Don't Go In The House does have exploitative qualities about it, what sets it aside from typical "graphic" blood-spurting slashers like Maniac and The Prowler is its concentration and attention it gives to the inner turmoil of the lead character rather than focusing on his brutal actions.
Granted, there are certain moments that are a bit hokey, but most of the movie is brilliantly embedded in reality due to solid convincing dialogue, the non-disappearance of daily routine like that pesky thing called "work", and actions that are perfectly in sync with intense situations that the victims find themselves in (especially the first one).Don't Go In The House doesn't have too much fat either - every scene serves a clear purpose and doesn't seem to be drawn out to meet its feature length running time.
A movie highly inspired by "Psycho" tells the story of Donny, a traumatized man that hates women because as a child he was abused by his mother; she burned his hands (scene is shown in a flashback).A grown-up Donny keeps his mother's corpse in the 2nd.
The movie is not a completely rip-off of "Psycho" mainly because of it's slasher elements and late 70's influences in the genre.The actor who played Donny did a good job and the other cast members were OK for a movie of this kind.6/10.
The first time I saw this film I said to myself "Now where have I heard about someone burning fetching young ladies to death in an asbestos insulated room before?" and the answer is Herman Mudgett, aka H.H. Holmes, Chicago's twisted "Torture Doctor" who murdered anywhere between 20 and 200 people in a self-designed townhouse on 63rd Street during the 1890s.
The most famous of which was an asbestos lined room with gas jets where he would confine victims and watch them being burnt to cinders for kicks.It is perhaps from those basic elements that the brain trust responsible for DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE found their inspiration for a story about a steel mill worker who goes on a killing spree after his mother -- who cruelly abused him as a child -- drops dead in her sitting chair.
Character actor Dan Grimaldi is very well cast as Donny Koehler, a mommy obsessed loser and budding psychopath still bearing the scars of his childhood trauma where mom attempted to "burn the evil out" of his soul by holding his bare arms over a lit gas stove, which of course created a Freudian fascination with fire, his relationship with women, his mistrust of authority figures and religion.
By contrast this film is set within dank, claustrophobic interiors, specifically the wonderfully creepy, empty and rapidly dilapidating house that Donny grew up in, which is photographed from an interesting vantage point to make it look all the more isolated from the rest of the world.
And reflects the filmmakers' disdain for the whole disco era subculture.Aside from the young florist no characters in this story are sympathetic, there are no good guys and even the local minister ends up a charred reminder of how the community failed Donny by turning a blind eye to his mother's cruelty.
DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE is a relatively un-talked about film that falls squarely in the slasher genre - though our lead psycho never actually "slashes" anyone...preferring instead to burn 'em up with a military-style flame-thrower.
Comparisons can be drawn to such other mother-obsessed horror films like PSYCHO, PIECES, and MANIAC - as our main-man is all whacked-out due to the treatment he received as a young lad at the hands of his over-bearing momma.Donny (who reminds me of a cross between Mike Damone and a young Dustin Hoffman...) is a quiet kinda guy whose mother just died.
Here Donny has built a special room where victims are stripped naked, doused with gasoline, and set ablaze by the flamethrower that Donny just happens to have."Don't Go in the House" is about on a par with William Lustigs' "Maniac", in its portrayal of an unbalanced person with vivid memories of child abuse, and who has turned to murder as an adult.
Fortunately, for fans of such films, the characters in this kind of fare rarely followed the advice given in the film's title, which is why they invariably ended up meeting horrible demises.The women who choose to go in the house in 'Don't Go In The House' wind up hanging from hooks in a metal lined room where they get toasted by a flamethrower-wielding psycho; bet they wished they had listened now!Obviously inspired by Hitchcock's Psycho, but also resembling William Lustig's Maniac, another mean spirited effort from the same year, this vicious piece of sleaze stars Dan Grimaldi as Donny Kohler, an incinerator worker who lives at home with his loathsome mother, who physically abused him as a child, burning his arms whenever he was naughty.
This sadistic treatment has resulted in Donny being a rather psychologically disturbed individual: the guy hears voices in his head, who give him all kinds of strange advice, and he also suffers from weird hallucinations.When Donny's mother suddenly dies, he neglects to report the death to the authorities, deciding instead to seek some rather overdue revenge by burning her corpse to a crisp.
He then proceeds to prepare his own home-incinerator by lining the walls of a room with sheets of metal, and goes in search of gullible women who he can lure back to his place...'Don't Go In The House' is a genuinely unsettling tale with a mile-wide misogynistic streak running through its centre, making it perfect midnight viewing for those who enjoy their horror exploitative, grim and unrelentingly nasty.
And let's not forget the hilarious scene in which Donny goes clothes shopping for a disco outfit, which will appeal to those who love a bit of camp with their horror.Considered disturbing enough to be included on the official UK DPP 'video nasties' list during the 80s, this is actually one of the better films to be vilified by the British government and press, and is well worth getting your hands on (although make sure you get an uncut copy for maximum effect)..
This is a warped and sick movie about a guy who burns women alive because his mother did this to him when he was bad.
It is a very low budget and grainy pic with Dan Grimaldi starring as Donny Kohler, a guy who was burned by his mother as a kid and so now takes to burning women in a metal room in his house.
If you can get past the weak acting and terrible cinematography (dang thing looks like it was shot by my grandmother and she was color blind and always wore sunglasses), then you're in for a crazy ride as long suffering Donald seeks vengeance against the female race for years of abuse at the hands of his mean old mother.
The scene when Kohler goes out with his friend and ends up attacking his date is well thought out story-wise; however, it could have been acted and directed much better There is a few scene's like this.The director, Joseph Ellison, who co-scripted the story with writer Joe Masefield and Ellen Hammill, does create a good film with a variable pace and flow, which helps to create atmosphere and keep the viewers interested.
****SPOILERS**** The film "Don't go in the House" is more of a statement against child abuse then the slasher or in this case burner horror movie that its comes at first across as.
Now all grown up and crazy as ever Don gets his chance to get even with his mom, who just passed away, and the world for what she as well as it, in his sick mind, did to him.Searching out pretty women who's cars broke down or who need a lift home Don kidnaps them and later hangs then on meat hooks in his house and with a flame thrower, that he bought at the local Army/Navy surplus store, burns them alive.
But in the end it's Don's many victims who untimely end up getting the best of him in what turned out to be a "Bonfire of the Insanities".Newcomer Dan Girlamdi looking like a young Dustin Hoffman does an excellent job as the crazed and as well abused, by his mom, Don Kohler who despite his addiction to murder & violence still invokes sympathy from the audience.
Another film in the horror genre that takes part of it's influence from both Ed Gein and Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), Don't Go in the House, originally titled - more appropriately - The Burning (this was altered due to the release of a slasher-camp film), it focuses on a troubled man who has been perpetually abused by his dominating mother.
After a burning incident in an incinerator that Donny Kohler (Dan Grimaldi) witnesses at work, he returns home to find that his mother has passed away.
The central character goes around killing women for such a transparent reason that I'm either assuming the screenwriter dropped out of school at the age of 14 or the screenwriter assumes the collective movie-going audience has the IQ of an action figure found in the bargain bin at Toys R Us.The movie has sick, twisted hallucination sequences that can only be described as "obscene;" and anyone that knows me will tell you that it's often a cold day in hell before I think something's down right obscene.In short, avoid this movie.
The film's plot concerns incinerator worker Donald Kohler (Dan Grimaldi), who was brutally burned by his mother as punishment as a child.
After his mother unexpectedly dies, Donald begins bringing women back to his home and burning them alive, in a twisted scheme of revenge against his deceased mother.I believe that this film intended to be a grim shocker, showing how the effects of past child abuse have driven a seemingly normal man over the edge.
What makes it of particular interest to me, and one of the reasons it was banned, is that it deals with the effects of child abuse, my vocation for some 11 years.Sopranos fans may enjoy seeing Dan Grimaldi (Pasquale 'Patsy' Parisi) in his first film role.
It was an obsession born from the abuse suffered at the hands of his mother.Donny (Grimaldi) is plagued by voices, nightmares, and paranoia/schizophrenic hallucinations after the death of his mother, and he acts as the punisher of his mother through the women he picks up.Donnie goes deeper and deeper into psychosis until he finally flips.The movie ends with another mother slapping the hell out of her son, and we can only expect similar consequences when he grows up..
"Don't Go in the House" is a rather dull and lifeless exploitation film.**SPOILERS**Returning home from work, Donny Kohler, (Dan Grimaldi) is horrified to learn that his mother has died.
Really spooky movie, director Ellison really shows a grow up man (Dan Grimaldi I think his name is) who is not actually grown up at all, he still has fiendish childlike ideas and this time he has 'his friends' with him (voices in his head folks!) I was amazed, disappointed, and excited all at once.
Nevertheless, this is a good grimy effort from the days when sleazy horror films were the order of the day.The plot basically concerns a social misfit, Donny, who lures a succession of young women back to his house, where he chains them up and sets fire to them.
Mom, do you ever get that burning feeling?Two kinds of movies I love are Slashers and unintentionally hilarious films.
Don't Go in the House (1979)** (out of 4) Donny Kohler (Dan Grimaldi) is a troubled man suffering from various mental issues due to the abuse by his mother when he was a child.
After the mother dies the man's mental state takes a turn for the worse and his obsession with fire leads to him kidnapping various women and burning them.DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE has quite a bit in common with Bill Lustig's MANIAC, although that film was released after this one.
Came out one year after Halloween(1979) with the title like Don't Go in the House you might expect it to be a slasher movie but turned out it a psychological horror movie and a damn good one.The movie follow a disturbed man that very afraid of fire due to a sadistic act of his mother when he was young.After his mother die he start to hear a strange voice encourage him to get revenge on other woman by using the thing he afraid the most.There are some slasher elements in this movie like he always wearing a mask while killing with his weapon of choice is a flamethrower.The violence in this movie hit me hard cause it more easy to kill people with a knife but to torch them to dead it extremely painful and disturbing.There also some creepy moment that make me jump a couple of time by the perfect timing sound effect.I gotta say i enjoy the first half of this movie more but the awesome ending make up for it.
The story goes like this, set during one cold winter in a coastal New Jersey town, twenty-something Donald Koher is a disturbed young man who works at the local incinary factory where he lives in a big house with his mother who severely abused him as a child by roasting his arms over the gas burner stove.
Donny builds a metal-plated flame-proof room in the house, lures a series of women into his home where he ties them up in the fire room, strips them of their clothing, douses them with kerosene, and then blasts them with a flamethrower, then he dresses up their charred corpses like his mother and talks to them, and they (in his disturbed mind) talk back (i.e. Norman Bates with a flamethrower.)Sick as it seems, it's not all that vile as it sounds.
Guy stuff.One of many '80s horror films with the word "Don't" in the title, DGITH looks at things from the loony's point of view, even making you feel a little sorry for Donald when you see what a vile old harridan his mother was.
Of course, when he's onto horribly burning his third victim alive, your sympathy towards him does tend to wobble a bit.Nowhere near as shocking as it would want you to believe, DGITH is actually a very sombre, low key affair with a pretty good central performance from Dan Grimaldi (Patsy Parisi from The Sopranos), and a surprisingly effective first death scene.
Don't Go in the House has one outrageously sick murder scene which makes the film easily to the hall of (sh/f)ame of the all time B level horror films.The story is about a sick man Donny (Dan Grimaldi), who was tormented by his even more sick mother when he was a child.
After the far more superior horror titles "Psycho" and "Deranged" (that are, admittedly, inspired by one and the same real-life killer, namely Ed Gein), "Don't go in the House" is another sick low-budget film that entirely revolves on a mommy's boy with severe mental issues who turns to gruesomely killing women after the death of his mum.
Now, and with his mother's decomposing corpse still around, Donny lures young women to his ominous dark house where he then chains them up and burns them alive with a flamethrower!
I'm sure Don't Go In The House wasn't a very good film back in its time and it certainly isn't one by today's standards, but it is a reminder of how much more interesting and worthwhile horror movies were before they became like pornography.Donny Kohler (Dan Grimaldi) is a sick, sick man.
That's a much more nuanced take on evil than you generally get from any film, let alone a low-budget horror movie from 1979.Don't Go In The House isn't much as entertainment goes.