The House of Seven Corpses

A movie crew shoots its latest satanic flick at a house which had experienced seven actual murders. John Carradine plays the grim grounds keeper who warns of the impending dangers. This felt very much in the spirit of the superior CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS, I thought. And like that film we have to sit through a lot of exposition until we get to the ghoulish mayhem at the very end. There isn't much to recommend for most of the first three quarters, unless you like watching people shoot movies. But I always get a kick out of seeing Carradine wandering about in any horror film. Also starring in this movie is an older Faith Domergue (50's sci-fi beauty) which is interesting. And it's funny watching John Ireland playing the part of the most insufferably arrogant director any underpaid actor would ever want to work for. ** out of ****

I am honestly confused by most of these reviews and comments. There is nothing really THAT BAD about this film. It plays like an extended version of an episode of "Night Gallery." There is obvious comparisons to "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things" and other genre films but this film really doesn't belong in those categories. I am a fan of the 70's horror genre and did not expect much when I sat down to re-watch this film after twenty years. (DID NOT EXPECT MUCH-GOT THAT!) I would not call it boring or confusing. Too many people enjoy writing overly critical reviews of movies that were never intended to be masterpieces. Too many reviewers also feel the need to compare all movies to each other rather than seeing them for what they are really worth individually. In all of it's "stiffness" this film is still more entertaining than the CGI crap Hollywood dumps on the public in 2008!

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.

Attempting to shoot a horror movie on a cursed location where the real life murders they're emulating occurred, a film crew accidentally conjures a deformed being that slowly begins killing them off one-by-one.

A slightly disappointing but overall quite creepy effort, this one really could've been great with the fixing of a few minor details. The main issue at hand here is the remarkably slow-paced offering, as there's just hardly anything going on but the movie shoot for the entire running time in the first hour, leaving this to rely on it's other efforts to work but basically doesn't even get started with it's killing until the hour mark or even making any mention of the killer until then and it causes the film to go along quite slowly. This is the most disturbing feature since the rest of the film is quite nice, with a large Victorian house serving as the basis for both the film and the movie being shot there giving off an incredible atmosphere, the slow-building set-up making for a chilly time and the rampage by the decomposing corpse being quite bloody and enjoyable, but overall it's just really hurt by it's slow set-up.

Rated R: Violence and Language.