Bloodbath at the House of Death

This movie is a classic - it must be, I have been living in Russia and seen 2 copies for sale (legal of course) on DVD (converted from VHS). I still laugh just thinking about it!!! It is so corny but clever. I VAS ZE VORLDS GREATEST!!!! The music to jaws on the bass and the toilet / Hall scene. Making love with a ghost .. . then "I guess I will never see you again" The scene in the pub. The two gay men in the car.. . The song. . . . . Its just great. the thing I notice the most is there is no swearing!!! its just clever This movie is one you can watch many times and as you see it more often, you start to pick up more and more subtle things.

This is a comedy in the tradition of Airport (Flying High) and Police Squad (or The Naked Gun), where a group of scientists are gathered to investigate the goings on at a haunted house in the country woods of Britain. Kenny Everett is the star of this film, pulling from characters developed from his various video shows to create his main character, with a good backup of other actors making up the rest of the group. The slapstick comedy (played seriously) comes frequently right from the start of the film but then tends to fall a little flat in the second half, but is still very enjoyable if you're a fan of Everett. Vincent Price's name might be a surprise for such a film, but he plays his role with the usual strength he carries. Pamela Stephenson has a memorable scene which re-energises the film, while subtle humour in other scenes carry it to the end. Check it out if you enjoy British humour.

Play "spot-the-movie" in this comedy which features allusions to Carrie, Close Encounters, The Invisible man, Jaws, Rocky Horror Picture Show and many more. Sing the inventory of killings at the "House of Death" to "The 12 Days of Christmas". Don't expect a great plot or serious social commentary because this spoof isn't that kind of film. If you just want to veg out and relax you can try to guess who will die next -- and how.

Bloodbath at the House of Death is a strange beast, it has the feel of a Dario Argento Film in places with the P.O.V kills and the tripped out camera work! Others it's a bawdy seaside postcode with the kind of sight gag that made Kenny Everett a household name.

As such it sits between two stools occupying a strange place in terms of Genre cinema, is it a comedy, a horror or a thriller. To be honest I doubt the cast crew or writers new at the time either!

Vincent Price for the love of all that is holy what are you doing in this??? It's a far cry from Dr Phibes and theatre of Blood! Did it amuse me, yeah! Did it scare me, only the special effects. The kills are good the ending feels akin to trapping your head in a door repeatedly but overall an interesting diversion. Not without merit but it is hugely silly!

Bloodbath at the House of Death did have a lot of potential, a talented cast and writer and a great title being the starting points. But the execution undermines this, so in the end Bloodbath at the House of Death is a failure. It is not without redeeming merits though, the film is not badly made, Vincent Price while underused looks and sounds as though he is thoroughly enjoying himself and the Can Opener and toilet scenes are very effective. However, I just didn't find Bloodbath at the House of Death all that funny or horrifying. I do love comedy and I don't mind it when it is stupid and rude, but I've never liked it all that much when it's distasteful. And Bloodbath at the House of Death showed great distaste, the toilet humour is utterly infantile and the innuendos are incredibly smutty making the worst Carry On movie(the later entries had a lot of smut) seem tame. The dialogue is similarly unfunny, crude and somewhat stilted too, I even questioned whether Bary Cryer actually had anything to do with the writing at all. The story is very thin structurally and doesn't make any sense at all. I got the parodies but with two exceptions they seemed randomly strung together(and that is pretty much what the story was) and were too predictable and badly written to have any kind of impact. The ET parody was also rendered cheaply. The direction was leaden, and the entire cast were wasted. Only Price was good and even he deserved much better. Kenny Everett was very talented and evidently does try very hard but the quality of the humour here disallowed him to do anything interesting or fun with what he has. The rest of the cast don't make any kind of impression. All in all, a embarrassing failure for all involved. 3/10 Bethany Cox