Don't Go in the House (1980)

Masterful Movie

An Exercise In Nonsense

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Donald Kohler is having one of those days. First he sees one of his workmates seriously burned by an exploding aerosol can in an incinerator, then his boss calls him a faggot for standing there and not helping, and then he gets home to find his mother dead. Unlucky.Donald is far from downhearted though. After crying for a while, he starts hearing voices. Voices which tell him he can do things he wasn't able to before. He can stay up late, he can play his music loud, he can turn his basement into a fireproof death chamber and burn girls alive with a flamethrower. You know? 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. Although Psycho is a massive influence, it also looks as if in turn, DGITH managed to influence William Lustig's Maniac (also set in New York), most notably during the dream/paranoia sequences. A lot better than I expected. 6/10

A pyromaniac snaps after the death of his abusively religious mother and begins kidnapping women to burn up and add to his macabre collection. He lives in a huge mansion and is able to hide his secret, however he wants to have friends and goes out to a disco with a co-worker, only to reveal his psychopathic urges. This movie was made during the Disco craze, so the soundtrack featured a ton of great retro disco songs, the two most prominent being 'Shocked by Boogie Lightning' and 'Late Night Surrender'. The acting was all relatively good, and the plot is original; rather than your typical ax-wielding slasher, Donald the pyromaniac puts on a huge Safe-Suit and kills with a flamethrower. It's a pretty good movie, great to watch on a Friday night or at a party.

The title here is VERY apt... unless you fancy being tied up before burnt to a crisp. Yes, it's yet another Norman Bates clone, who talks to his mother even though she's a corpse in the corner and is a pyromaniac to boot, too. Not to worry though... she'll soon have some company. You'd think they'd be some kind of care in the community fallback to people like this, but nope... government cutbacks strike again. Mind you though, it IS hard to fathom why no many girls would go home with someone who displays no social skills whatsoever. It's gotta be the shirt.The first murder is exactly what you'd want... shocking and merciless. Savour it... they'll only be two more in the duration, and both are off camera. What a swizz. Instead, we have to put up with such meaningless passages such as our bats**t crazy friend shopping for clothes to wear at a disco, or 'listening' to the evil voices in his head (which are barely audible). The final couple of scenes are a comeback of sorts, but they deserve to belong to a better movie. If a film feels overlong at 80 minutes, then its got a problem. 4/10

This depressing little flick may fool slasher fans because of the words "Don't Go" in the title, but ultimately what we get here is a rather subdued, nearly gore-less character study of a very sick individual with serious mommy issues. While this will certainly turn away those looking for a charnal blood-fest, I'd like to point out that there are a multitude of other options from the era which fit that niche, and while Don't Go In The House isn't a classic, the understated approach differentiates this film from the splatter smörgåsbord surrounding it and actually makes it a bit memorable as a result.Of course, there's nothing new on the table here, and the Psycho references are far too numerous to be unintentional. But the moody and morose tone is well-developed and unsettling, which is the least we can expect from a film about a man who burns naked women to death with a flamethrower.Despite its relative simplicity, the plot is a bit too convoluted for its own good, throwing in extraneous characters that distract from the core focus, and at times presenting our insane leading man as too pathetic to be frightening. But there's a lot of rather interesting subtext going on, and the movie is ambiguous enough in its motives to make the viewer do some thinking of their own. We have to decide if the voices telling our central character to kill are in his own mind, or the manifestation of some malevolent spirit latching onto a weak individual driven to madness by the death of his mother.This relationship, too, offers many facets in the brief flashback glimpses we get, and those who relish in deep character development will have an entertaining time psychoanalyzing the motivations of a man who was cruelly abused by his mother, yet so devoted to her in her declining health that her demise sets him off on a murderous mini-rampage.Scenes that would have been deemed meaningless in most horror films are fleshed out here in vivid detail, and even simple errands like buying a suit to impress some ladies out on the town become excellent scenarios in which to develop the loneliness and despair within our homicidal host. It's a testament to the quality of the performance that we almost feel sorry for the hapless lad, despite the fact that we watched him talk to the charred corpses of his victims moments before.The film also has its fair share of silliness, which does derail the morbid momentum at times, and the untested supporting actors provide a bit of unintentional laughter with their ineptitude. Dan Grimaldi seems to handle the material with grace, and his performance is much more nuanced than we normally get from B-movie psychos. Still, it's hard not to laugh when his initial excitement about his mother's passing drives him to blast an awful disco record at maximum volume and jump up and down on chair cushions like a disturbed chimpanzee (yes, I'm totally serious).To the film-makers' credit, the gruesome nature of Grimaldi's torturous implement of execution isn't used in an exploitative way. We only get one horrific glimpse at the fate that awaits the women who ignore the titular warning, but it's enough. The film's lone sadistic murder scene is uncomfortable to watch and rendered with an unflinching eye, and because the later killings are not shown in graphic detail, this sequence is given additional impact. The film-makers' not opting for a reoccurring series of grisly burnings is a wise choice, and our focus remains on the struggle for sanity and companionship that drives Grimaldi's heinous deeds. As a result, the film doesn't dehumanize its victims, or desensitize the viewer, and this scene is destined to haunt you long after you've forgotten about the rest of the film.While the idea for the climax would be more vividly essayed in Maniac this same year, there is something rather chilling about the simplicity with which it is tackled here, and the excellent and very realistic burn make-up adds immeasurably to this sensation. I won't spoil the creepy and ambiguous fade-to-black scene for you, but after the hopelessly bleak aura of the preceding 80 minutes, the film strikes a grim final chord that carries the tone of dread into the final credits, further cementing the impression that the people responsible for this movie had a different mindset than most of the low-budget film-makers who launched the splatter genre into its golden age.The entire film doesn't sustain the intensity of its best parts, and this is certainly not mandatory viewing by any means. But Don't Go In The House doesn't reach too far outside of its limitations, and the film's vision is presented in an effective and satisfying way. This is a sick one, to be sure, but impressive nonetheless.