The House of Seven Corpses

A creepy, fun little low-budgeter about a hideous walking dead man stalking the cast and crew of an in-production horror movie filming at spooky old Beale Manor. I watched it over and over as a kid and it never failed to spook and entertain me. A good renter for horror buffs on an idle Thursday evening.......

I saw this Schockley horror film a half of dozen times since the 1970's and although anyone who seen it would have to admit it very flawed, it to me was a lot of fun to watch! It is an old school type of horror film,doesn't go to far with the blood and gore and relies on spooky atmosphere, music, and sound effects! And man was that atmosphere spooky, especially the opening score! In my own personal opinion, the opening score was one of the spookiest ever in a horror film, and I have seen many! The music from the chorus, the creepy looking house and paintings, the sound effects, and showing how each Beale family member died make that intro very, very, scary! If the rest of the film was as good as the introduction this film would have been a classic, but they didn't seem to want it to be that way! But, for some reason, I still love this film and hope someday they make a remake of it, with the same atmosphere, music, sound effects and creepy mansion, this time focusing on the Beale Family and what lead to their demise!

...but I've seen better too.

The story here is predictable--a film crew trying to film a horror movie in a place where murders occurred. Three guesses what happens. This isn't a total bomb--the cast is fairly good with pros John Ireland, Faith Domergue and John Carradine giving the best performances. It's reasonably well-made--for a low budget film. Just don't expect any nudity, swearing, blood OR gore (the film has a very mild PG rating). I was never totally bored--it's OK viewing on a quiet night. I saw it on video--it was a HORRIBLE print--very dark and some scenes were impossible to see. Still I didn't hate it and it does have a cool ending which surprised me--basically nothing happens up till then so it catches you off guard. Worth seeing but only if you're a horror film completest.

In THE HOUSE OF SEVEN CORPSES, a film crew attempts to shoot a horror movie involving seven mysterious deaths. They happen to be filming in the very house where the actual deaths occurred.

Uh oh!

A book of spells is found, and they decide to use it in their movie. Big mistake! Bad things start happening almost immediately: A cat is mutilated, turning into a sock puppet, and the book's mumbo jumbo causes the cold inhabitants of the nearby cemetery to stir!

This all culminates in the best part of the movie when a ghoul goes on a killing rampage. The last 20 minutes are pretty good, but the rest is a grueling slog.

John Ireland stars as the cranky director, Faith Domergue is the cranky actress, and John Carradine plays the cranky old caretaker.

Recommended, strictly for the macabre finale...

I saw this fun retro horror film when it was brought back to the big screen last year. I liked the story and characters, it was an awesome movie to see for Halloween! I thought Tommy was cute, I wish his character had been elaborated on further. Enjoyable movie, I'd recommend it!