Don't Go In The House

"Don't Go In The House" is a 1980 film directed by Joseph Ellison. This was pretty much his only directing job apart from a film called "Joey", made in 1986. It was largely unseen and never made much of an impact compared to his first film.

"Don't Go In The House" has went on to be a cult classic, and only recently has been released in the UK by the label Arrow Video (under their ArrowDrome guise) after years being stuck in video nasty limbo. Needless to say I snapped it up.

The story is about a man called Donny (Dan Grimaldi), who was physically abused by his mother as a child. She would regularly punish him and try to burn the evil out of him over the kitchen stove. He develops an obsession with fire and grows up to work at the local incinerator. There is an accident at work where a can of aerosol gets into one of the furnaces and explodes, setting someone on fire. Instead of helping the guy out, Donny just watches the guy burn as other people come out to save him. Afterwards, he claims he froze with shock.

After that incident, he goes back to the house he shares with his abusive mother. When he goes to check on her, he finds out she has died in her sleep. At this discovery he becomes totally unhinged. He decides to modify a bedroom into his own furnace, with steel walls and a chain for hanging people on. He then goes on to pick up various women to take home to become victims in his "room of steel", as the trailer likes to call it.

This is where the film gains some notoriety. At that time the horror genre was being attacked by critics and feminine groups for it's depiction of violence pretty much solely against women. Roughly around the same time a film called "Maniac" was released, basically following a serial killer who preys on women and kills them in horrible ways. Critics were saying that the people who made these films were "sick" and "depraved" individuals. These two films were the main examples of that argument. I'm not really here to spark debate as to whether that is true or not (if you have anything to say, feel free to mention in the comments below). 

I liked this film. I can see what critics are getting at with the violence at parts, and is slightly disturbing, but there are a lot of other films from that time period that I would deem more disturbing. "Maniac" being one of them (watch that movie if you get the chance!). The film is pretty short. It could have been an extra 20 minutes at least, the film ends quite abruptly. I would rather let you watch the film to see what I mean, but the ending left me a bit underwhelmed. The running time may have been due to budget constraints, but I suppose for what money they did have, they managed to make a fairly decent, disturbing and effective film. It also has one of my favourite horror trailers ever, and for people wanting to see the film but would rather not buy it, the entire film is on youtube for your enjoyment! The trailers for "Don't Go In The House", and "Maniac", are at the end of this post.

Thanks for reading the blog. I took a bit of time out and I'm not the most prolific of bloggers, but I hope you have enjoyed reading. Feel free to comment below, join the page, or get in on the conversation on twitter or facebook (links are on the right of the page). I actually do a lot on my facebook page so you should check it out!

Thanks again for reading,

Michael.