Hey everyone… Jonathan Moody here. Back again for another review of a movie that I did not pick. Yes that is right. Once again we had a special guest host who got to pick the movie. That guest was Dustin Hubbard. Dustin had been on the show a few times. First season was Season 3 when we were able to get guests from all over I had asked to come on and talk, “Arcade” with me. Since then I believe (I could be wrong) he’s been on every season since then. I thought who better to get on the show as a guest with Dustin than our own buddy Cameron Scott. Cameron had also been on a few episodes he was not a stranger to this podcast. Dustin wanted to show us a film I had never seen but was a bit interested in checking out… The 1988 paranormal flick, “GhostHouse”! Check out the latest Indie Film Cafe episode to check it out!
What was this movie about you may ask… well I will tell you that it does involve ghosts (well demons really) and a house. So the title was pretty appropriate. Aside from that though here’s what IMDB has to say about it:
A father who works in a funeral house has a nasty habit of stealing things of the dead and he gifts his daughter a stolen doll which turns out to be demonic and one night both father and mother are brutally murdered by an unseen entity while the daughter is locked in the basement along with the creepy doll. After this incident, the story moves twenty years ahead and a radio operator picks up a signal of people screaming. The operator somehow manages to track down the location where these screaming occurred and travels there with his girlfriend and the young couple arrive to the place where the screaming took place, which is the same house where the killings took place because of the demonic doll.
That’s pretty much the gist of the movie. Honestly it’s not the most complicated movie in the world or anything. The two characters meet three characters who are at the house. There was something to do with them actually hearing the screams before they happen. I tell ya those radios can be very dangerous. Thank God this is an internet radio or we could have been in some serious troubles with demons.
The film was directed by the great Umberto Lenzi. Some of his films included Cannibal Ferox, Nightmare City, and Eaten Alive. Its on a great double feature set with Witchery from Scream Factory; Paul will tell you how to get it later. The Writers are: Sheila Goldberg, who wrote Choke Canyon, Body Count, and Zombie 5: Killing Birds; Cynthia McGavin, who only did Ghosthouse; and Umberto Lenzi.
The actors include Lara Wendel , who was in Little Girl In Blue Velvet, Ring of Darkness, and Tenebrae; Greg Rhodes, who was in Final Exam, Deadly Manor, and Almost Hollywood; Mary Sellers, who was in Stagefright, The Crawlers, and The Room Next Door; and Donald O’Brien, who was in 2020 Texas Gladiators, The Panther Squad, and Frankenstein 2000.
The film looked pretty well done. I mean it is Lenzi’s movie. But the overacting was a bit too much for my tastes. It’s an Italian horror film but I think of all the Italian horror films I’ve seen this one was sort of more on the stinky side of it all. The Special FX and the music were really great. The music score by Piero Montanari was pretty impressive. I just think the film itself with the acting left a lot to be desired.
However all in all it was a movie that I think anyone should have the opportunity to check out. Whether you buy it on Blu Ray or watch it on a streaming site. You should definitely give it a try and see what you think. I’m just getting in to an Italian horror so I don’t know what’s great and what’s not just yet. All I can base everything on is my own taste.
With all that being said, here are the scores. Now I will tell you I was the harshest of them all, basing mostly on the acting, as I explained: so I gave it an 8 on the Stinkometer. If I could I would probably change that at some point. Cameron was the special guest and he gave it a 4. And Dustin who picked the movie and hosted the show obviously picked it because he loved the movie and gave it a 2.5. Making it a total Stink Score of 14.5, that’s a Stinky Average of 4.8. That puts it up on the Ladder of Stink with… Fire City: End of Days and Savage Beach. Actually, that’s not too bad a group of movies to be connected with.
Well that’s it for my end of the blog here. I’ll be back in a week or so (Maybe less) to talk what’s next for March’s podcasts. Paul will be up next to tell you where you all can see this movie or be able to buy it. Take it away Moo-Cow….
Here is the O-fficial trailer! You can check it out for free on Youtube (although it might be abridged). You can git yer hooves on the double feature with Firehouse from Amazon on either DVD, Blu ray, or VHS, or Oldies.com for the DVD. It is also on Prime. Or get the Ghousthouse and Witchery double feature Blu ray from Shout Factory. You can find the flick by itself, or double up with an-udder flick, on Ebay. Ebay also has an original poster too, and you can order it from Movie Poster Shop.com. The Italian poster (La Casa) can be gotten from Ebay as well. And if you want the Japanese poster, well you can get that too! Cult Collectibles has the Ghosthouse tee shirt, and also a nifty mug. of course, since Rifftrax covered Ghosthouse you can get their funny comments from them as well. And if you dug the moosic in the film, HERE is the full soundtrack!
The Indie Film Cafe Movie Reviews! 