A
disturbed gothic novelist named Lauren
Cochran (Robin Groves) who suffers from
agoraphobia moves into an isolated house
of her dreams to concentrate on her
writing but has no idea what had happened
there and is very haunted by prostitutes
of the undead and the house was once a
borthel for them as she hears strange
sounds coming from there along with her
typing errors which she was certain that
she never made and it also taps strange
messages too. Not only that, she
remembers her nightmares while sleeping
in the house which she always forgets
after she wakes up.
She encounters bloody deaths from people
she knows caused by forces of ghosts as
well as being terrorised by a couple
locals around the area but however one of
the ghosts named Florinda Costello
(Gloria Grahame) seems to help her when
she's in danger.
But one thing is for sure her dark
dreaming for her story ideas becomes a
realistic nightmare.
The discussions in the beginning are a
little rough between Lauren Cochran and Dr. Webb as patient and counsellor.
There's another scene with her speaking
to him on the phone and getting
aggressive which looked not too bad.
There's a good shot on Lauren feeling herself and then some ghosts are circling around her
and staring at her with a nice close up
shot on her screaming in hysterics
A good camera shot on her walking up a staircase looking a little
frightened and asking if anyone is there.
We also have a nice shot of her on a
house roof looking frightened and crying
emotionally while Dr. Webb tries
to go on the roof and take her hand
making the moments looking suspenseful.
There's a good shot on her running to a door handle and crying
emotionally.
We have a good moment between Lauren and Frank Beasley with her trying
to talk to him about a possible haunting
in the house and then he tries to molest
her with a good distant shot on Florinda Costello watching and then cheesy
shots on Frank being
mysteriously thrown around as well as him
running away into a pond and then
zombielike hands pulling him down.
There's a good moment with Lauren having a discussion with a supporting character Abner Welles and him looking at
her fascinating like and then getting
crazy with her along with a good runaway
by her trying to get into her car and him
jumping on top of him. We also spot a
good shot on him driving and Florinda walking across the road with
him running her over and her repeatingly
doing this as it psychs you out a bit.
A good struggling moment between Lauren trying to get away from the grasps of
Abner although at times it looks a bit
corny. However there's a nice haunting
moment again by Florinda cackling.
We spot a good discussion between Mark Felton and Col. Lebrun with good close up shots on both of them
especially on Lebrun in bed
telling him a dark secret and then a good
flashback sequence which involved younger people in the film shooting
people to death in a house with nice
creepy shots on all of this as well as a
good close up shot on young Abner bashing
someone several times with a metal
object.
A nice peaceful looking conversation
between Florinda and Lauren by telling her not to stay at the
house as it no longer needs her.
We spot a good shot on Lauren screaming and crying along with a misty
looking shot on some windows with a
vehicle crashing in and catching on fire.
Bottom line is that this film was sometimes too
dark to see and very low budgeted too.
Sometimes it seemed effective but other
times trying too hard to be scary and
hauntinglike. I found this to be a ripoff
cross between The Amityville
Horror and The Sentinel.
There are some effective flashback
moments like a murderous shooting in the
house as well as the odd struggling
moments with the crazyness happening to
the lead actress.
Most of the story is very bland with
pointless dialogues that doesn't pick up
the pace at all.
You're taking a bit of a risk watching
this flick if you're in the mood for a
scary haunted house film as this one
sinks like the Titanic and is just saved
from bombing due to the odd interesting
flashback scene's.
The acting is fairly bad in
this film although most of the actors
tried their best. Lead actress Robin
Groves (Lauren Cochran) was one of the people who
tried but was sometimes low on energy
with her words but knew how to cry
emotionally but she is no Jamie Lee
Curtis in which it looked like
that's who she was trying to portray. She does well acting stubborn in a certain scene as well.
Christopher Loomis (Mark Felton) who plays her
boyfriend was the worst one of them all
as he seemed to just read his line and
barely got into character at all.
Gloria Grahame (Florinda Costello) had the right looks and
attitude to play a ghost in the film
acting spooky but yet sympathetic during
other moments of the story. I found her
to be the best actress throughout the
movie.
John Carradine (Col. Lebrun) often had brief
supporting roles during this time period
till his death and this was one of them
but had a few more scene's than he
normally does. He of course pulls his
character well by acting someone who is
sick with his growly voice.
Robin Groves opens
up her robe and exposes her breasts while
feeling herself.
A sharp object is stabbed
through a person's eye
A sharp dagger like object is stabbed in
a person's head
We hear alot of badly
composed orchestral music mainly a toned
out violin playing here and there but yet
there's some good rusty and metal
clanging noise during a flashback moment
on a murderous scene composed by Jack
Melken and George Kim Scholes. |
