The Shunned House

H. P. Lovecraft was a morose, effective horror writer. His stories were / are filled with a thick, bleak atmosphere of encroaching shadows and ultimate doom. THE SHUNNED HOUSE takes three such tales -mostly their collective mood- and blends them together in a modern setting.

Fittingly, this all occurs in a crumbling old mansion.

Dueling realities clash, overlap, and bleed together as two investigators experience what lurks in this dark place. Are they simply losing their minds, or is something else going on?

This is a low-low-budget film, so don't expect multi-million dollar special effects. The story is pretty incoherent and disorienting, which actually adds to the overall sense of nightmare and gloom.

No, it's not a masterpiece. There are several slow spots and this can be tedious. However, It does capture the spirit of a good Lovecraft story, and that's worth at least a watch...

The first time I watched this, I had much to drink. See, when I watch the usual low budget crap, I like to be drunk, it is entertaining that way. Well, the story in this film is very complicated and I couldn't follow it. So, I watched it a second time sober, and was most impressed.

What we have here is three stories tied together - this is not an anthology. A novelist and his girlfriend stay in this Shunned House for inspiration for his novel. She isn't too happy to be there, but he finds more than enough inspiration for his work. So, he tells her about the terrible history of the house, and thus we start seeing the other two stories. One is about a woman with a violin who plays beautifully, but has some kind of dark secret - something on the other side of her window. The other story is about a sleepwalker. Then during the second half there is this woman, all bloody, with her eyes covers and her lips sown together. I still can't figure out how she fits in to the rest of the story. However, as the movie goes, all these stories, according the novelist and his girlfriend, start building up, and climax, and of course, there is a twist or two at the end.

The music was brilliantly haunting, the effects were very good for the low budget (it doesn't look like Brain Damage Films usual cheap slasher). This is a serious horror film, not some cheap horny teenagers go smoke dope have sex with each other and get gruesomely murdered one after another. The acting in this film was also very good for the budget range. Hey, better than some of the terrible actors in Hollywood, Sandra Bullock ain't got nothing' on The Shunned House, ROFL. Seriously though, only a total movie snob, obsessed with high tech effects and A-List acting would turn his nose up at this one. I definitely recommend it for all horror fans. 7 out of 10.

I love the literary work of Lovecraft, the man was the master of the macabre but every time someone makes a movie based on his works they have the habit of being really quite bad.

The Shunned House is the worst one yet, and that is really saying something.

Italian made (So they should really have known better) but every kind of amateurish. The writing is so poor I can confidently say I didn't entirely follow quite what in the blue hell was going on.

The story was baffling the delivery was cringe inducingly boring and as much as I looked I can confidently say the movie does not have one single redeeming feature.

I don't give 1 star very often, but this is so very very deserving.

The Good:

Not a sausage

The Bad:

Every square inch of the film

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

I can't take a character seriously if they're named Luigi

The Shunned House (2003) is a terrible film "based" upon the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. I have seen some bad adaptations before but this one takes the cake. Not only did the filmmaker used the basis of The Shunned House for the movie but he also used Music of Eric Zahn and Dreams of the Witchhouse. Sadly none of these show up in the movie. The director should have stuck with one story and made a lame version of that instead of taking from several stories.

The "movie" was shot on digital video, I can deal with that but their was nothing in this one that was the slightest of interest. Blood, gore and nudity was tossed into the picture but it's still bad. People want to throw around the title worst movie ever made. I have nominate this one. It is that horrible. A message to the director, don't try to adapt anymore H.P. Lovecraft. Please!!

Unwatchable, don't even try to watch this abortion.

You might get a few chuckles if you get a bunch of your friends and watch it. That's the only way I would see this one again. Don't say I didn't warn you!

The location is adequately creepy and some performances and scenes are haunting and intriguing (the girl with the violin and the young writer storyline especially).

The rest of the movie, however, feels a bit disjointed and the actors who play the "modern" characters cannot act at all. The general vibe is amateurish. Which is a pity because this movie had a lot of potential and could have been a little rural gothic jewel.