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The Haunted House of Horror
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - 88 Films Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (30th January 2025). |
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The Film
 When "the epitome of Swinging London himself" Chris (Beach Blanket Bingo's Frankie Avalon) throws a bummer of a party, young Richard (The Ballad of Tam Lin's Julian Barnes) suggests an alternative in a ghost hunt at an abandoned manor house just outside town on the night of the full moon. The party is a fractious bunch: Chris' on-again-off-again girlfriend Sheila (Tower of Evil's Jill Haworth) is more interested in cozying up to a ghost than him, Gary (Just for Fun's Mark Wynter) is juggling nice girl Dorothy (The Trygon Factor's Carol Dilworth) and old flame Sylvia (Gina Warwick) - who herself is being stalked by a married, older lover Bob (The Vengeance of She's George Sewell) who has trailed them from the party to the house – with the help of buddy Henry (The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires' Robin Stewart), and Peter (Man About the House's Richard O'Sullivan) seems embarrassed to be seen with pudgy Madge (The Sex Thief's Veronica Doran). Richard reveals that the old house belonged to a family and that one of the members went crazy and slaughtered everyone else before killing himself twenty years ago, and that the house is reputed not to be haunted by the victims but by the killer. After a séance, Sylvia decides to leave and hitch her way back to the city while the rest of the group splits up for some candlelit ghost hunting. When they discover Gary hacked and slashed to death, Chris finds it far easier to believe that one of them is a psychopath rather than a ghost being the culprit since the only way in or out of the house was bolted shut and a search of the house reveals no other living persons. The group makes a pact to move the body and get rid of anything that can connect them to the house. As the days go by, all of them struggle with fear, guilt, and the suspicion that one of them is a murderer as Inspector Bradley (Kind Hearts and Coronets's Dennis Price) and Sergeant Pelley (All Coppers Are...'s Clifford Earl), who previously arrested them on a drugs charge that was dismissed for lack of evidence, start investigating Gary's disappearance. Sylvia is ignorant of the nature of Gary's disappearance until the police question her after Bob also disappears while attempting to cover their tracks. Unable to deal with the ongoing suspicion, the group makes the fateful decision to return to the house and retrace their steps hoping to expose the killer on a night that just happens to be another full moon. While The Haunted House of Horror sounds like an irresistible concoction on paper, being a Tigon/American International co-production with Avalon running out his AIP contract, the hybrid of proto-giallo/slasher and AIP youth-oriented movie comes across as more "beach party in a haunted house" with gore than the likes of middle-aged but still atmospheric Tigon's The Curse of the Crimson Altar shot in the same Grimsdyke House location (which looks like an old house there and an overbright movie set here). The rest of the film is choppy, intercutting between an ineffectual police investigation and some barely developed tension between the young suspects – possibly heavily-trimmed as well due to rewrites and reshoots by Tigon editor Gerry Levy who also penned the godawful song "Responsibility" sung by Gary and his bachelor party buddies early on, for which Tigon rewarded him with The Body Stealers – before the climax which actually manages some effective chills before Avalon signs off. The most interesting part of the film is its attempt to depict the leisurely lives of its young characters, working in Carnaby Street boutiques, living in garret apartments surrounded by evidence of artistic ambitions, visiting galleries, and frequenting nightclubs (Avalon's character seems to be a diplomat's kid or a trust fund baby, Haworth seems posh, Warwick's apartment is being paid for by her sugar daddy, and Wynter still lives at home). Feature film debut director Michael Armstrong fared no better writing and directing Mark of the Devil which was taken over by actor/producer Adrian Hoven. His last feature directing credit Screamtime was actually a trio of short films Armstrong wrote and directed with a new framing device, and the best of those shorts "Dream House" would be horribly remade as the feature Psychosis. Even without the reshoots, some of the Armstong's staging is awkward and static but there is enough of a sense of what might have been that it is unfortunate Armstrong could not have reworked the concept in a way that did not infringe on the Tigon/AIP property, but the published screenplay might be worth checking out. 
Video
The Haunted House of Horror was released stateside as "Horror House" with a running time of seventy-nine minutes, not only trimming violence and shortening for pacing but radically restructuring the film so it opens with the kids arriving at the house and includes some of the earlier scenes as flashbacks later in the film. None of the video companies who had deals with AIP's subsequent library owners Filmways and Orion released the film on VHS or laserdisc, and the Vampix U.K. pre-cert did not make the bootleg rounds. When MGM acquired the AIP library through Orion, they ditched the U.S. version and instead prepared an HD master of the U.K. cut which made the rounds on cable and streaming services but the De Wolfe music library licensing could not be cleared so it remains unreleased on physical media stateside. Region 2-capable viewers could see the film initially on a non-anamorphic, letterboxed transfer that appeared on Anchor Bay's coffin-cased The Tigon Collection in 2005 which was followed in 2011 by an anamorphic upgrade from Odeon. Like their Blu-ray of Blood on Satan's Claw, Odeon-successor Screenbound's 2019 region free Blu-ray from a new 4K master sadly went out-of-print quickly. 88 Films' 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen Blu-ray comes from the same new master which is relatively faithful in terms of color to the older master but said colors are richer, giving the sixties clothing and sets an eye-straining quality while the blood pops more than before – especially evident in the reveal of Gary's corpse hanging through a hole in the ceiling and the steady stream of blood to the floor below – and there is more of a sense of realistic decripitude in the Grimsdyke location interiors and exteriors. Light levels seem a bit better judged from shot-to-shot – it takes longer for it to become apparent who is approaching Richard with a candle in the dark than on DVD – for the sake of mood but the house still seems overlit more often than not. It is also no more apparent than on DVD that the first shot is a sustained freeze frame presumably because of the camera wobble of the subsequent handheld movement and that more shots than just a close-up of Avalon in the climax were punched in with optical enlargements to emphasize or vary the coverage of a scene going by the sudden increases in grain and slight fuzziness. 
Audio
Anchor Bay's DVD featured DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 surround upmixes of the mono track while Screenbound and 88 Films have stuck to the original mono track in lossless LPCM 2.0. Dialogue is clear for the most part, including some post-sync - Armstrong in the extras notes some added or altered lines to support the Levy-added suplot - as is the scoring for better or worse (a few cues from the haunted house wandering sound a bit Scooby Doo). Optional English HoH subtitles are also included. 
Extras
As with some of 88 Films' other Tigon Blu-rays, they have not included the commentary included on earlier releases with writer/director Armstrong. Instead we have a new audio commentary by film critics Kim Newman and Sean Hogan who discuss Armstrong's concept and its basis in the Psycho model – Armstrong reportedly wrote it as a teenager but shelved it when he saw the Hitchcock film only to pull it out when Tony Tenser asked if he had any horror ideas – while being part of a cycle of late sixties/early seventies British proto-slasher/giallo films, as well as providing some information on Armstrong's more prolific screenwriting career and some of its highlights. They distinguish the Armstrong footage from the Levy reshoots while also noting some of the Levy footage works in establishing the Swinging London location while also pointing out the strong aspects of Armstrong's less-experienced direction. They also note that the film is surprisingly played straight and serious for a film made by a younger director, and they are surprised that the reshoots did not throw in a few more murders. They also cover Armstrong's fallout with AIP's Louis "Deke" Hayward who thought he was inexperienced and imposed Avalon, Haworth, and other changes upon the film (as well as turning down Armstrong's first choice for the lead in a pre-fame David Bowie). Also included is a new audio commentary by film journalists Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson who ponder what could have been based on Armstrong's descriptions but also question whether the first time director fully realized what he intended. Thompson notes the resemblance between much of the haunted house wanderings and The Headless Ghost whiel Howarth offers a more concise rundown of the film's troubled shoot including the AIP meddling including grafting Karloff onto a film for the youth market, unused scenes written by Hayward and shot by Tenser, and Levy's input. They also go more into detail about the Karloff addition, noting that Hayward wanted him to play both the detective and a red herring even though he was in a wheelchair, and then kept the wheelchair when Price was cast only to junk the footage in favor of Levy's rewrites (they also do note that Armstrong did rewrites as well but they were not used).  Ported from the Screenbound release is "The Making of The Haunted House of Horror" (91:14) featuring Armstrong, actors Wynter, Dilworth, and Doran, editor Peter Pitt (The Saint), dubbing editor Howard Lanning (Maurice), camera operator James Devis (Moonraker), production secretary Jeanette Ferber (The Omen), and hairdresser Ross Carver (Inseminoid). In place of the Anchor Bay commentary track, Armstrong provides an account of his early amateur filmmaking experience, his theater training, putting on plays, and getting together money and a name cast for the 16mm production "The Initiate" only for the BBFC to refuse to grant it a certificate along with his contingency comedy film. When he requested a meeting with the BBFC's John Trevelyan, the censor recommended him to Tenser who not only liked his script "The Dark" but let him direct it. He details the early changes he agreed to and the later interference of AIP's Hayward and scenes he refused to shoot as well as his attempts to patch the film together in a satisfactory manner. Wynter recalls being excited to work with Karloff while Doran recalls her long friendship with Armstrong and Dilworth discusses the location house's haunted reputation. In the newer "House of Horrors - Micheal Armstrong on The Haunted House of Horror" (32:01), Armstrong covers much of the same ground but is sometimes a bit more candid than on the documentary above (possibly an editorial choice of the makers), noting more than once that he was paid to accept the blame on his inexperience as a director for Tenser budgeting for six weeks but only giving him four and Hayward being fired for intervening in a production without permission. He also remarks that Haworth was "drugged" throughout the production. "Helping to Cut The Haunted House of Horror" (3:52) is an interview with assistant editor Jonathan Morris (Carla's Song) which may be an extract from a longer interview or at least one of a number of short interviews shot at the same time for specific titles. He discusses working with Levy and states that the sex scene between Winter and Warwick was purposefully destroyed by Rank themselves with a razor blade as they thought it was pornography. "A Party to The Haunted House of Horror" (3:59) is an interview with "party guest" Mel Churcher (Lust for a Vampire) who only appeared in the opening party sequence and recalls that this was a period when she did a lot of such bits as a mod extra. The disc also includes the Haunted House of Horror U.K. theatrical trailer (2:24) and the "Horror House" U.S. theatrical trailer (1:51), as well as a stills gallery. 
Packaging
The disc comes with a reversible sleeve featuring new artwork by Sean Longmore & original poster while the first pressing includes a limited edition slipcover and booklet notes by director Michael Armstrong (not supplied for review).
Overall
Haunted House of Horror is a mess due to intervention throughout the entire development, shooting, and editing process but enough it is still an entertaining piece of the Tigon library and enough of "what could've been" survives the interference.
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