House of the Damned (1963)

just watch it!

Absolutely the worst movie.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Ron Foster ("Private Lessons") and Merry Anders ("Women of the Prehistoric Planet") play Scott and Nancy Campbell, a married couple hired by their friend, a lawyer named Joe Schiller (Richard Crane, "The Alligator People"), to do an architectural survey on a country estate. Soon after they arrive, they experience some strange, moderately disconcerting experiences. Knowing full well that the old crone (Georgia Schmidt) who owned the place (who's now confined to an institution) would have loathed police interference, they attempt to do their own sleuthing.This fairly lightweight, routine "old dark house" type horror film ultimately doesn't deliver much in the way of actual horror. It's certainly well made, with some excellent black & white cinematography and camera work. (The Cinema Scope aspect ratio of 2.35:1 does help a lot.) The performances are all quite engaging and the script by Harry Spalding ("Chosen Survivors") features some mildly amusing lines. The "castle" itself is an appropriate setting, adding to the atmosphere that producer & director Maury Dexter ("The Mini-Skirt Mob", "Hell's Belles") is able to create.Foster and Anders make for a personable main couple, with fine support from Crane, Erika Peters ("The Atomic Brain", "Mr. Sardonicus") and the prolific Dal McKennon ('Daniel Boone', "Lady and the Tramp"). A very young Richard Kiel ("Eegah", "The Spy Who Loved Me") makes an appearance as a mute giant."House of the Damned" is watchable enough, but it never does live up to that title.Six out of 10.

Director Maury Dexter's films are, it seems, generally not much appreciated, but personally I found just about every one, with the exception of Young Guns of Texas, to be thoroughly engaging little support features that were often a cut well above the main attraction. House of the Damned came about mid-way through his early sixties output,and was beautifully lit and photographed in the particularly pleasing combination of black and white with the added benefit of CinemaScope. This is no film for horror fans. It is an atmospheric drama with a sad,low-key ending. Solid cast with popular leading man of the times Ron Foster, and Merry Anders, always a joy to watch, and especially good in Dexter's Police Nurse. House of the Damned rated X for over 16's only, topped the bill at the Rialto Theatre Coventry Street in London's west-end. A limited release in the capital's suburbs saw it supporting another Fox entry Witchcraft. Dexter's output was unpretentious but consistently entertaining, and it would be nice if the Fox Archive people were to release some, if not all of his films in their correct theatrical release ratio. Maury Dexter's contribution to the illustrious history of 20th Century-Fox may be small but it is certainly worthy of recognition.

"House of the Damned" is a short (barely over one hour) and definitely not-so spooky haunted house chiller from the early 60's that remains extremely slow-paced and never really reaches any atmospheric highlights. There are no famous names in the cast or crew list, so maybe if this were a Hammer or William Castle production; it might have been a bit more appealing. It's actually not even a full-blooded haunted house movie, as none of the menace ever comes out from the house. Usually in this sort of films, like for example "The Haunting", the house is introduced almost like one of the main characters, but here it's just a piece of decor. An architect and his wife are sent up to a remote house on a hill after the previous tenant mysteriously vanished without leaving a message. The owner and his attractive foreign wife come to meet the couple the next day and, for a short while, the script resembles more of a melodramatic soap opera instead of a supernatural thriller. Perhaps the "Damned" in the title refers to the poor suckers, like me, who were tricked into watching this dull nonsense and expected something good. Eventually there does appear to be something wrong with the house; namely unknown residents with hairy hands that like to steal keys. Then, suddenly and out of the blue, the architect couple also discovers that the place once was inhabited by a crazy old lady who now resides in a sanatorium. Whatever twist the screenplay attempts to bring forward, it's totally useless. The ambiance simply isn't as compelling as it should be. Nothing to recommend here. Even Disney's "The Haunted Mansion" is at least a dozen times more disturbing than this. The climax, which comes abrupt and totally random, is too insane for words and left me staring at a black screen for certainly five whole minutes after the finishing of the closing credits! What the hell was that? Was I too stoned, drunk, temporarily unconscious or did I REALLY witness this ending? It's the most nonsensical, random, unworldly, grotesque, irrelevant and deranged twist-ending ever! The Oscar for dementia inarguably goes to "House of the Damned".

"House of the Damned" is a fairly unknown little chiller from 1963 that provides some undeniably creepy moments and yet ultimately reveals itself as a marginal entertainment at best. In it, we are introduced to Scott and Nancy Campbell, a likable, attractive couple that has been hired to do an architectural survey of Rochester Castle, a deserted, San Simeon-like affair in the California mountains. But is the pile REALLY deserted? Anyway, this film offers us some surprisingly fine acting by Ronald Foster and Merry Anders as our perplexed couple, as well as interesting direction by Maury Dexter (I know, I know...who?) and some nice B&W lensing in 'Scope, well captured on the crisp-looking DVD that I just watched. There is at least a quartet of scenes that should manage to drip some ice water down most viewers' spines: a half-seen, legless creature creeping through the dark of night; the face of a strange woman peering from behind a bedroom grille; the first lumbering appearance of Richard "Jaws" Kiel; and the sight of a headless person sitting in a chair, hands aflutter. But ultimately, the picture is done in by its denouement; an overly mundane explanation for the film's previously bizarre events that some may find sweet, others ridiculous and still others laughable. This ending kind of reduces the film to the level of prosaic piffle; at least, it proved a disappointment to this viewer. Still, with a running time that just barely exceeds 60 minutes, "House of the Damned" never wears out its welcome, does hold the viewer's attention, and should even prove just fine for the kiddies. It's worth a look, I suppose.