House of Terrors (1965) - Mondo Macabro

[Vincent Dawn]

n/a

[DukeTogo84]

Hello folks of the cinema world.

This one is one sale NOW!

https://mondomacabro.bigcartel.com/p...d-case-edition

We gotta try and get this one to sell out fast!! We need more Toei films!

[DukeTogo84]

Sold out!

[McCrutchy]

I watched this tonight and thought it was very good, although it does borrow rather shamelessly from The Haunting, right down to copying one of the Wise film's signature special effects. This film also has the "hunch-iest" hunchback I've ever seen--the guy is almost facing the floor at times--to the point where he makes Quasimodo look like he's had a spinal fusion by comparison. I was slightly surprised how graphic the film got for 1965, with no actual nudity (which had only just started in Japanese films), but plenty of sexualized violence, some bloodletting and a few otherwise gruesome shots, much of which would still have been uncommon in mainstream American and British cinema for the next few years.

With wonderful black and white cinemascope photography, it's a bit of a shame that the master here is probably a bit older, with some shots looking slightly soft and a surprising amount of speckles. Otherwise, the picture and sound quality is very good. I'm not much for horror or haunted house stories, so I found the plot, especially the bit about

[Show spoiler]"Judy" and the house being home to White people during the occupation

, a bit thin. However, the acting was pretty good across the board and I was occupied by drooling over the beautiful Yûko Kusunoki (Yoshie), so I don't regret anything. I am curious to see what a new 4K scan could do for the film, but for now, the Mondo Macabro disc is great to have. Hopefully Mondo can continue to release as many Japanese films as possible. I am on a tear watching Japanese stuff and while I don't favor genre films as much as many seem to, I do seem to prefer Japanese films to Euro ones at present.

[ravenus]

^I mostly concur with your views, this was a fun bonkers haunted house flick. The plot was a little thin, but I enjoyed the roiling melodrama between the main characters - the father-in-law guy was amazing in his DGAF-ness.

Visually, it was fine enough for me but I found the audio somewhat shrill and abrasive - scenes where people are shouting or the score is blaring had me turning the volume down.