User reviews

Real estate plus murder. I'm a great fan of kooky combinations in my slasher cinema, so Open House automatically had a leg up for me, being a tale of Adrienne Barbeau menaced both by an ass-hole rival and a serial killer taking out her various contemporaries. By and large though, it operates just a click or two above the majority of late 80's slasher trash, which is to say that no one outside of slasher geeks should feel any compulsion to check it out, but those who do may well value it above say, Iced or Fatal Pulse. Standard plotting, we have a lady estate agent amongst the murders of her comrades, attached to a radio psychiatrist troubled after a suicide but possessor perhaps of a link to the villainous culprit. There are murders, house selling, radio scenes and so forth, building to a fairly effective climax and interesting motive boasting a modicum of legitimate social interest. Mostly this is standard trash, but it holds together a little better than a lot of its era. For one, the kills are nicely spaced throughout the film, there are a fair number and the film allots a good length to several, allowing for a nice build up of suspense and at times a fun helping of minor sleaze (yessum, there be boobs). Not much gore in this party, but there are a few after the event corpses and some OK bloodshed, moreover the kills are generally competently and even amusingly constructed, making for a fairly worthy ride. Acting is typically variable but important parties do OK, Barbeau gives her all as well as brief nudity, a strong and likable turn. Joseph Bottoms isn't up to much as her boyfriend but he hardly embarrasses himself, while Barry Hope is effectively seedy as the ass-hole of the piece. There isn't much to impress here, with the few genuinely good ideas a little ill used and a vague sense of boredom often sliding in between active moments but somehow things tend to pull through, nothing too much in the way of flair or incompetence but the bright spots here and there are rather cool. All in all this is another of those films that are only at all worth watching for serious slasher geeks and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else, but for those who have to see it it surely won't make you want to gouge your eyes out in the same manner as some of its fellows.

(Some Spoilers) Dull as dishwater slasher flick that has this deranged homeless man Harry, Darwyn Swalve, out murdering real-estate agent all over the city of L.A because of the high prices that they charge for their proprieties. Looking like an extra from a Clint Eastwood "Spaghetti Western" Harry who's been living in abandoned houses eating dog food get's very upset where his quite lifestyle as a squatter is interrupted. This happens when a number of real-estate agents invaded his space in an attempt to sell the houses, that he's staying at to their potential clients.

Joseph Bottome stars in this bottom-of-the-barrel horror movie as radio talk-show host Dr. David Kelly the handsome and popular host psychologist of the KDRX survival line. DR. Kelly is being sued by the family of one of his callers,Tracy, who ended up blowing her brains out while on the air with the doc who couldn't do anything to help her survive her ordeal of taking to him.

The real-estate killer gets to talk with Dr. Kelly on the air about his adventures and the police try to get the doc to get his phone number and address, by keeping him on the line, but he refuses to in order not to hurt his rating by having potential callers not call in in fear of being monitored by the LADP.

Kelly also is having a hot and heavy affair with a real-estate manager and agent the busty Lisa Grant, Adrienne Barbeau, who's office of sellers are Harry's main victims in he movie. Harry also gets to murder Lisa's main competition in the housing business the chubby and outrageous Barney Resnick, Barry Hope, who threatened to put Lisa out of business by any means possible even if he has to kill her.

Getting Berney alone and with his pants down Harry slices his head off while he's being entertained by one of his clients, a hooker, whom he leaves dead and hanging together with the headless Barney. The movie ends with the deranged Harry taking Lisa hostage and having Dr. Kelly try to come to her rescue only to have Det. Shapiro (Robert Miano), looking like e hasn't slept in a week, pop out of nowhere and blow Harry's brains out. Harry quickly come back to life minus the gay matter between his ears and gets himself killed for the second time in the movie by being thrown from a balcony and landing on the ground as a dozen members of the LAPD, M16 cocked and ready, come on the scene.

Nothing in the movie "Opean House" worked with the tension laughable to almost non-existent. Even the hot sex scenes between Dr. Kelly and Lisa didn't save the movie since there were far too few,only two, of them and and sexy Adrienne Barbeau was a bit too underexposed, with not enough light and too much clothes on, in all of them.

Harry the killer in the movie was also a bit to comical to be taken seriously in trying to make a point, to Dr. Kelly on the phone and in person, about the high rents and real-estate prices in the country and how people like himself find it almost impossible to find a decent place to live in. You can sympathize with Harry's concern about the high cost of living but be very critical of him in how he crazily went on in correcting it.

Open House (1987)

* (out of 4)

There's no question that by the time 1987 came along the slasher genre was on its last legs. The majority of the big guys were still being released to theaters but with smaller box office takes and the majority of trash was heading straight to VHS. Just about every holiday and scenario were used just as long as innocent people were slaughtered and the psycho in OPEN HOUSE is after real estate agents who are charging too much for houses.

One agent (Adrienne Barbeau) fears that she might be on the psycho's list so her DJ boyfriend (Joseph Bottoms) starts working with the police to try and capture the nut before more are slaughtered.

There's no doubt that this is a horrid movie made by people with no intent on making a good movie. It's clear they were just trying to throw something (anything) together in order to take a few more breathes away from the genre that was clearly dying. There's not a single ounce of suspense to be found in any of the killings and the majority of the performances are downright bad. The screenplay is beyond a joke as we get some horrid dialogue but we also get a terrifically insane ending where the DJ, a radio psychiatrist, tries to get the killer to discuss his emotional pain!!!

This film, on a technical level, certainly deserves the rarely given BOMB rating but I just can't do it because this thing is so incredibly bad that you'll probably find yourself laughing at most of it. Take one example where a man and woman lock themselves in a double door bathroom trying to keep the killer away. The killer can't get through door one so he then goes around to door two. The duo never try to escape and when the killer finally gets in he neither try to defend themselves and instead one just sits by while the other is killed waiting for their turn. The murders are all extremely silly including one where the killer takes the handle from a toilet plunger and puts razors on it.

Fans of Barbeau will probably want to check this out since you'll at least get to see her naked. She's actually pretty good in the film as you can tell she's at least giving some effort. Bottoms is downright hilarious during certain moments as is Rudy Ramos as that guy who is usually screaming when it's not really necessary.

OPEN HOUSE has a silly plot, silly murders, bad acting, bad special effects and all of this badness is what makes it worth sitting through at least once for fans of the genre. There's no question that it's a horrid movie but thankfully it's bad enough to where you can at least laugh at it and the final five-minutes are so brain dead, jaw-dropping insane that you'll be wishing there was a sequel.

At first I thought that this one was supposed to be somewhat of a comedy/horror when I had seen the body in the bathtub with the lady just standing there screaming over and over again but as the film proceeded on, it got more and more flat. The plot was silly with a man upset that the prices of real estate have gone up so now he dicides to call up some radio psyciatrist and babble out his fury because he has nothing better to do. Then the law gets involved and tries desperatly to make us feel that they really care who the caller is and go out of their way to track this guy down. One suspect after another are accused. This movie is terrible and the slow moving love scenes of Adrian B. and her husband are boring and made me just fast forward the movie. Avoid it!

Written and directed by Indian exploitation film-maker Jag Mundhra, Open House stars Joseph Bottoms as radio psychologist Dr. David Kelley, who suspects that one of his crazier callers might be the serial killer currently targeting Los Angeles' female real estate agents. Adrienne Barbeau co-stars as Kelley's girlfriend, a successful realtor destined to come face-to-face with the sniggering, dog-food eating lunatic before the closing credits roll.

In keeping with its real estate theme, one viewing of this silly late-'80s slasher is definitely more than enough: it's extremely dated, lacks original features, and is missing the 'wow factor' so sorely needed in such an overcrowded market. The direction is flat, the storyline drags, there is very little in the way of genuine suspense, and the gore is limited to a couple of unconvincing severed fingers (which are chopped off with a makeshift weapon constructed from a sink plunger and some razor blades!) and a decapitated head.

4.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 5 for the obligatory female nudity (which comes from a busty dominatrix who takes a nude swim, and Barbeau, who gives fans a brief glimpse of her ample rack), the hilariously camp radio station employee (just in case you're in any doubt about his sexuality, he wears a pink shirt), the bizarre kitten stroking scene, and sexy Christina Gallegos as doomed realtor Pilar Hernandez, who gets the shock of her life when she bumps into the killer.

Like too often the case with 80's slasher flicks, sadly, is the VHS cover of "Open House" a lot cooler than the film itself. The cover image shows the front of a house of which the open door is replaced with a sinister tombstone. If only Jed Mundhra's screenplay was equally sinister and creative! But oh well, my standards for late 80's slashers are generally quite low, and this flick could still be a lot worse. Many of my fellow reviewers around here pretend that "Open House" is the worst bottom-of-the-barrel slasher of the entire 1980's, but then I guess they haven't seen the decade's much bigger turds like "Blood Lake", "Appointment with Fear", "Deadly Games", "Dreamaniac", "Cardiac Arrest", "Sledgehammer", "Hollow Gate" or "The Stay Awake". There you go, all this just to say that "Open House" is bad but not hopeless and actually quite endurable. There are a number of redeeming elements in this flick, like good-looking babes (if you dig typically 80's scream-queens that is), a handful of cheesy gore highlights (chopped off head in the pool) and a pretty amusing (albeit not at all petrifying) psycho-killer. The killer remains off-screen for most of the running time, but you can quickly derive that he is an obese pervert with a couple of awkward fetishes. He inappropriately giggles the entire time and eats cans of dog food! Not the relatively tasty-looking kind of dog food, mind you, but the sort of disgusting industrial junk that I personally wouldn't even feed to sewer rats. For ridiculous reasons that are neatly revealed during the climax, our sick killer targets real estate agents in the wealthier neighborhoods of Los Angeles. He primarily goes for pretty and vulnerable female agents, but if they happen to be accompanied by male customers or lovers, he doesn't hesitate to waste them as well. The killer also regularly calls radio psychologist David Kelley to rant on the air, and then learns that Dr. Kelley's girlfriend is also a real estate agent… "Open House" completely lacks suspense and coherence, and too many plot aspects already featured in other movies. The interaction between a maniac and a radio DJ, for instance, is something that I've seen in other movies before. And yet, horror flicks with Adrienne Barbeau are somehow always worthwhile – those who have seen "The Fog" will definitely agree with me – and all the death sequences are rather nasty. Also, some of the houses that these poor real estate agents are trying to sale are really terrific! There's one a house with the most impressive and astounding pool/swimming pond that I ever saw.

This movie was the slowest and most boring so called horror that I have ever seen. I would include a comment on the plot but there was none. I do not recommend this movie unless you are prepared for the biggest waste of money and time of your life.

A deranged homeless man stalks and murders pretty and nubile female realtors.Radio host Dr.David(Timothy "Hunter's Blood" Bottoms)receives calls from maniac.His girlfriend Lisa(Adrienne Barbeau)works in real estate and she becomes the next target of serial killer."Open House" by recently deceased Jag Mundhra is a watchable albeit very silly slasher flick.The gore is almost non-existent apart from severed head and chopped fingers.Adrienne Barbeau's performance is actually quite good and it's nice to see small cameo of Tifanny Bolling.The final revelation of the Open House killer is quite disappointing as is the climax.Still watching "Open House" is a perfect way to slash some useless time.6 real estate murders out of 10.

Horrible, horrible, horrible. The only redeeming quality I could salvage from this achingly slow and sloppily made excuse for a bad horror movie was telling people how awful it is and summing up the plot for them: "It's about a guy who goes around killing people with razorblades glued to a stick because he's angry about the price of real estate." As an aspiring filmmaker, I'm not sure whether I should cry over the film and time that was wasted making this atrocity, or rejoice over the fact that someone, somewhere, has a money tree and is willing to lend it to anyone with a 50¢ script and the desire to film it.

(to find out the only abomination of a film that could beat this one as the worst film I've ever seen, check out my review for "Hundstage" [Dog Days])

I assume that they made "Open House" with the sole aim of appealing to teenage boys, although it doesn't have as much nudity as I hoped for. While the plot has a weirdo killing people in houses for sale, I mostly derived that realty must be one of the most unpleasant jobs. Not because of anything that happens in the movie (there's nothing to take seriously here), but because I would hate to have a job where I have to bend the truth all the time, with no guarantee of success. When I think of realty, I think of "Glengarry Glen Ross" and Annette Bening's character in "American Beauty".

Anyway, "Open House" is nothing special, but still kind of fun to watch. I've always wondered if Adrienne Barbeau's hairdo qualifies as an afro.

PS: Jag Mundhra is now making a movie about Sonia Gandhi.

It's 1987, Where More Slasher And blood Splatter Movies Countine To Getting Made By Different Studio Companies And One Of These Slasher Films Called "OPEN HOUSE" With Adrienne Barbeau The Star Of John Carpenter's "THE FOG" And "GEORGE A ROMERO'S CREEPSHOW" Stars And Plays One Of The Real Estate Agents Who Later And Her Other Real Estate Agents Find Themselves Being Graphicily Killed And Murdered By a Disgrace Homeless Psychopath Who Hates Them Real Estate Agents Because He Thinks They Don't Deserve To Live And Move On With There Lives While They Are Destroying Other People By Auctioning There Houses After They Move Out Or Being Forced To Move Out So He Sets Out On a Brutal Rampage To Kill These Real Estate Agents And Teach Them a Lesson, And There is Only Two People Who Can Stop Him is a Radio Talk Show Psychologist And a Obsessed Detective Who is Welling To Bring Down This Killer. Three Stars For 1987 Open House is a Cult Slasher Classic Movie Of It's Time.

Now, let me see if I have this correct, a lunatic serial killer is going around murdering estate agents....okay...what's wrong with that scenario, I can live with that.

What next, a slasher with tax inspectors butchered? Traffic wardens sliced to death? Are we supposed to feel any sympathy for empty headed and shallow, money obsessed property people? Er...no.

Sadly, joking aside, it's just not a very well made film with poor acting and crude effects, the climatic scene is particularly silly. You can almost see the director shouting, 'action' to the stuntman as he falls through the glass of the window.

As another reviewer quite rightly said, after starring in 'The Fog,' this was the nadir of Adrienne Barbeau's career. Therefore I was happy to see that she had rekindled it by becoming the voice of Catwoman in the Batman animated series, while watching the extras on the live action Catwoman film. NB: not quite the awful film it's made out to be, by the way.

This however is a bad film, think a poor episode of 'Kojak' or 'Streets of San Francisco,' and you will get an idea of what is on offer here.

Lisa Grant (Adrienne Barbeau) is a real estate agent who finds herself in jeopardy of getting killed by a deranged maniac who kills people in her profession who he feels make house prices too high. As motives go, this is pretty damn retarded. Lisa's boyfriend happens to be a talk show host whom the killer keeps calling on-air. At first I was positive this was supposed to be a comedy or satire of some kind, but as the endless minutes drone on and on, I realized that it wasn't and the film was just grossly incompetent in every way, shape, and form. I'm just surprised that something this horrid wasn't directed by Jeff Lieberman (yea, email me some hate mail again, Jeff you hack) Anyway, back to the film, poor, poor Barbeau, you can pinpoint EXACTLY when her film career went down in flames and it all started here.

My Grade: F

Where I saw it: The Movie Channel

A psycho is killing real estate agents in California...and the problem is? Radio psychologist David Kelly (Sam Bottoms) gets wrapped up in this mess because the killer keeps calling his show and he is dating potential target Lisa Grant (Adrienne Barbeau), the town's top real estate agent. This is really by the numbers but does showcase some lovely 80s houses if you have a fetish for that sort of stuff (lots of sharp angles, neon, and brown exteriors). Director Jag Mundhra doesn't really stage anything too effective, opting instead to think some blood and nudity (even from Mrs. Barbeau) will cover up what is lacking. The killer's reasoning is hilarious but at least he wasn't a cheap twist using a character we have come to know. B-star Tiffany (THE CANDY SNATCHERS) Bolling pops up briefly as a real estate lady.

The sheer amount of non-sense in this film is just unbearable. The characters just 'happen' to know things, the main villain can freely walk in everywhere (and I mean everywhere!), he has great detective skills and seems like he can even teleport. You get every cliché you can think of - killer with some psycho issues that are never really explain, the tough detective cop who shoots first and asks questions later, the main hero's girlfriend who's there to show some skin and get kidnapped at the end, some (in this case very tame) murders (even though this is supposed to be a slasher), the helpful buddy friends, etc. I couldn't wait for it to end. It was unwatchable.

I personally loved this movie. i'd put in a subcategory i'm working on that doesn't really exist yet that i call New Age horror, and i'm compiling a little list of movies that i'd categorize under New Age Horror because it's probably my favorite aesthetic in a horror movie. the list mostly consists of films from the 80s and 90s but there are a few recent ones like It Follows, and there's stuff from the 70s as well. pretty much the qualification for New Age horror is the soundtrack has to mostly be new age music. and one might say this film mostly has a smooth jazz style soundtrack, and you're not wrong. but fun little new age fact. in the late 7os/early 80s there was a little record label called Windham Hill which was more or less the first new age record label, or at least the biggest new age record label. now in those days new age (and even these days of your record store has a new age section like mine does...shout out to bullmoose) you'll notice a lot of soft jazz among the new age albums. that's because windham hill mostly put out music considered soft jazz, which was sorta lumped into the new age category. so the New Age genre has a range of Enya all the way to Pat Metheny. so when people think of New Age they normally think of Enya and more relaxing/spiritual/celtic type stuff but soft jazz also is a close close relative to New Age. there was another new age label called Natasha which kinda went neck and neck with Windham Hill...pretty much of you were a big soft jazz/new age artist you were probably on one of the two. Narmada had a little bit more of some hard smooth jazz artists, my favorite being the album across Currents by Richard Souther, which is my favorite smooth jazz album of all time. the soundtrack to Open House very much resembles the sounds of Cross Currents, which is a new age jazz album, and so i'd lump Open Housr into the new age horror category. ok.

so, here's why i think that this especially works for this film. the kills mostly take place in stylish houses in the Cali area that are for sale. another key thing about new age horror is it should follow a particular aesthetic visual, and the contemporary houses that are being utilized for the kills certainly make this one of the strongest contenders for a new age slasher. it really nails the aesthetic perfectly. the music compliments it nicely cause ultimately what you're hearing is muzak that you sort of attribute to such things like real estate and liberal talk radio.

the other part of this movie revolves around a talk radio show host, a therapist, who is wrapped up in all of this, along with his real estate agent girlfriend. i really like these two characters. they're fairly well acted. adrienne barbeau especially was a delight in this films. i really appreciated the two leafs' relationship, and we should strive for a similar relationship with our significant others.

some of the kills were pretty awesome. i think the movie does sort of reach a little bit of a slow point once you are an hr into the movie. it certainly was flawed in that regard. the ending was...okay. i'd say it was solid for the kinda movie it is. it wasn't shocking, there wasn't any twists (which more less, thank god. cause sometimes those twists can really ruin a movie) it wasn't particularly smartly done, one might argue it was stupidly done. i'd say it was lukewarm, good enough, "i'll take it". i think if you do not appreciate the new age horror genre, you will probably hate this movie. i personally love this movie. i'd say that realistically, with all that has been said in this review, it's really an 8. but in my heart this movie is a 10 cause i just loved the music, the style, just everything aesthetically about this movie. i am also really into contemporary architecture and really appreciate it in a horror movie.

if your curious about what else i would consider new age horror. here's a little list: The Guardian The Unborn Death Spa Safe(not really horror but it is about a cult) Body Melt The Nest The Day Time Ended Body Count Demons 2

those are ones that i've seen where i've made note of the scores and the imagery. there's a lot more that i've watched before i started taking note of it. The Guardian is especially interesting because it's a William Friedkinfklm in features music by Brian Eno and a Roger Eno. but if that sounds cool definitely check out Open House. i saw it on youtube. check out these other movies. if you have any other new age horror recommendations let me know. i don't know if there's a way to do that on here but whatever

Rare-Slashers-Rated-2 described this one pretty well. The early scenes, even though they weren't especially effective, of someone killing themself in a phone both while on line to a radio program, and of the discovery of a very bloody bathroom might lead one to believe the rest of the movie will carry on in that way, but not so. There are a lot of tedious scenes and the soundtrack at times sounds like a very poor TV movie.

The revelation of the killer is disappointing. The killer also gives a rather lengthy speech, yawn.

Still, Adrienne Barbeau fans might like to check it out.