The House That Would Not Die (1977)

Dreadfully Boring

A Brilliant Conflict

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Within the context of 1970s made for TV horror (a category unto itself among horror fans), The House That Would Not Die has never attained the status of "classic," as have Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (a classic among horror movies as a whole, whether TV or theatrical) and The Night Stalker; nor the cult following of Gargoyles (1972); nor even the minimal honor of a DVD release, as bestowed upon of one of the lesser-known 70s TV supernatural thrillers, Horror At 30,000 Feet (a comparably good, overlooked TB horror in its own right). Nonetheless, House That Would Not Die is a decent little TV ghost story which happened to air before any of the aforementioned. It does not pretend to have a complex plot, and the story is anything but original. That's not the point, though. The movies goes for a comfortable, familiar kind of supernatural suspense and achieves it. The actors are solid and earnest, all of them taking their tasks seriously, and the production design includes liberal use of ghost- induced wind effects, all of which elevates the simple story. But because it is not as compelling as the other movies noted above, nor the 1981 made for TV classic, The Dark Night Of The Scarecrow, which perhaps marked the end of the cycle of greats TV horrors of the decade prior, House That Would Not Die usually goes unmentioned even among fans of that period. You can find House That Would Not Die streaming online, or as of 2015, included in DVD multi-paks of otherwise sub-par horror movies sold on Amazon.

Ruth Bennett (a fine performance by Barbara Stanwyck) and her niece Sara Dunning (a spunky and appealing portrayal by the pretty Kitty Winn) move into an old house that's haunted by the ghosts of the original owners. Director John Llewellyn Moxey, working from a tidy script by Henry Farrell, relates the engrossing story at a steady pace, does a solid job of creating and sustaining a spooky atmosphere, and maintains an intriguing air of mystery throughout. Moreover, there's a strong central theme about the need for closure. The sound acting by the sturdy cast holds the movie together: Stanwyck and Winn display a pleasing chemistry in the lead roles, Richard Egan has a few stand-out creepy scenes in which his character Pat McDougal gets possessed by a malevolent spirit, Michael Anderson Jr. does well as the amiable and helpful Stan Whitman, and Doreen Lang contributes a nice turn as sensitive medium Sylvia Wall. Laurence Rosenthal's shivery score hits the spine-tingling spot. Worth a watch.

The House That Would Not Die is a solid TV-film that could have been stronger had screenwriters stuck closer to Barbara Michael's excellent supernatural suspense novel, "Ammie, Come Home." Michael's story is set in Washington, D.C.; Ruth, a Department of Commerce official, has lived in a Georgetown row house for some years after inheriting it from a distant cousin. There is no ghostly presence until Ruth's niece Sara moves in with her to attend a nearby university. Sara first hears a voice in the night calling "Ammie, come home," but aunt & niece decide it's a neighbor calling a lost pet. When Ruth meets one of Sara's professors, the adventurous son of a famous Washington hostess (a character based on Marjorie Merriwether Post), the ghostly presences intensify & become violent. By using entries in the family Bible and searching old newspapers & archives, the 4 major characters (Ruth, the professor--who becomes her love interest--Sara & her boyfriend) piece together the tragic tale of the house's original builder & his daughter, Amanda. During the Revolution, Amanda's father was a royalist but Amanda fell in love with a young officer in the American army. When her father discovered they were about to elope, he killed them & buried the bodies in the basement of his house. He lived there as a recluse until he was killed when the house burned. Relatives (Ruth's ancestors) inherited the land & built a new house, never knowing what had happened. After young Sara moved in, the spirits of Amanda & her father began to re-enact their tragedy endlessly. It is the disembodied voice of Amanda's lover calling, "Ammie, come home."Why the writers moved the film to Amish country in Pennsylvania is a mystery, unless they figured in 1970 Washington had enough problems & didn't need any more ghosts. Having Ruth occupy the house only as the film begins robs the novel's story line of a major point: that Ruth had lived there for some years with no sign of supernatural activity. The sudden appearance of a voice crying in the night is, in the novel, an unexpected, vaguely ominous occurrence,which Ruth & Sara assume is a neighbor. That there are neighbors in Georgetown highlights a second point in the novel that is weakened by the shift to Pennsylvania: a setting in highly civilized, urbane Georgetown makes supernatural events seem even more incongruous with everyday life than the film's rural setting in Pennsylvania, where the house's isolation, like Hill House in "The Haunting," seems to invite every ghost within shouting distance. (Why are these houses always 'way out in the country?) Despite inferior adaptation from the novel, performances & production values in The House That Would Not Die are exceptional in every way. Stanwyck & Egan are physically perfect for the characters described in "Ammie, Come Home." As the at-times-possessed Sara, Wynn must portray not only that modern young woman but the long-dead Amanda too, and she does a very solid job. Her boyfriend is portrayed by Michael Anderson Jr., who does not resemble the tall, slim, dark character in Michael's novel, but plays the role well. All things considered, this is a worthwhile TV-film that will repay a viewing. But don't deny yourself the chance to read the book.

I've had the chance to view many of the movies I saw as a youth and have found that many of them have not withstood the test of time. This is not the case with "The House That Would Not Die" I saw this movie of the week when I was ten years old and can remember enjoying it. The next time I saw it was when I was 17 and again I enjoyed it. Twenty-two years later, in 1992 I was able to record it when it was shown on TBS. I found the movie very enjoyable. Especially considering the fact that it was made for TV. The only visual effects applied was that of character overlay. If only I could see and compare this with another movie of my youth - The Norliss Tapes (1973).