Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

GazerRise Fantastic!

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Sam Panico Who better to take on the La Casa franchise - films that are not sequels and are not connected to one another - than the man who made Troll 2, a movie that is not a sequel and is also not about trolls?Yep. Claudio Fragasso (Monster Dog, Rats: Night of Terror) is in control of your movie watching experience and he's brought Troll 2 child actor Michael Stephenson along for another ride through the bottom of the movie making barrel.A priest and his family - right off the bat, you could see that this script has holes you can drive the Landmaster from Damnation Alley through because Catholic priests can't marry - move into a new house. Bad news for them, good news for us - it was built over the graves of twenty dead witches.Their son gets possessed, along with a radio and a meat cleaver. Oh yeah - there's also the ghost of a female serial killer who wants to eat the souls of children.And in another of those "they should have known better" moments, this is all filmed in the same building as Fulci's The Beyond!If you're looking for the madcap moments that Troll 2 has, you won't find them here. This is a more linear and controlled film, except for the crazed performance by David Brandon as Father George, an alcoholic priest whose contact with a demon has made him question his faith. You'll marvel as he wanders down real city streets with real people - not extras - ranting like a maniac! But what do you expect? He watched a serial killer orgasm in the electric chair surrounded by the trapped spirits of her victims!

Bezenby For the three hundredth Italian haunted house horror I've watched in a row, Claudio Fragrasso, director of Troll 2 and part time amok killer robot, brings us an Italian haunted house horror with a bit of the Exorcist thrown in, plus a bit of Poltergiest for good measure. Priest George (David Brandon from Stagefright) loses his faith after attending the execution of a devil worshipping child killer, so you've got your Father Damien there. Later, a family move into what I think was Priest George's house, the father of which is also a priest. This priest is played by the guy out of Metamorphisis and his kid is the kid out of Troll 2! Nice one.Things start going wrong right away, what with toys moving on their own and a door to nowhere attracting the kid's attention, and before you know it, one of the kids has been pulled into another dimension by some vengeful witches and that chick who got the chair at the beginning of the film. What bogged this film down for me and made my mind wander awfully was the amount of screen time devoted to all the priests talking about losing their faith and keeping their faith and so on. It kind of goes on endlessly as they all argue with each other. There's also an awful lot of wandering around the house and a certain scene where a wall melts almost had me nodding off. When the film did decide to do the haunted house bit things were fine, as was some of the make up jobs on the witches and those that get possessed. Some of the acting by the kids was worth a laugh too, but this film is more fog machine heavy than anything Fulci made. You can give this one a miss if you want.Is it just me or was there exactly one synth in Italy for composers to score soundtracks with? Every single soundtrack on these films sounds the same. Next: Cat in the Brain!

FieCrier There's a reason why this claims to be a part of a series it's not: no one would watch it otherwise!A collared priest enters a prison to give last rites to a middle aged female serial killer. Somehow she's stolen a number of stout children's souls, and the priest can see them. He's somehow affected by her evil holy book, which has a picture of Satan and a house in it that look much more recent than all the other pages. He turns into an alcoholic who staggers around town. Apparently he is possessed and also having a crisis of faith.Anyway, another collared priest moves into the house from the book because an older priest gave it to him for him and his family of four. There's a strange giant black swan rocker in the children's room they assume was a gift for the kids. One of the doors has a poorly- bricked and stuccoed wall behind it with a slit that glows. Obviously supernatural bad stuff starts happening soon, but the family for some reason stays. Turns out the older priest knew that the entire family would be in danger, but he thought it would be a good idea anyway for some reason.The movie is filled with terrible editing, terrible dialogue, and terrible plotting. The special effects aren't so good, mainly the house being full of smoke and red light as the cast has sweaty faces. There's a bunch of somewhat spooky zombie witches. A mixture of witches and innocent women had been burned at the stake on the site years ago. What the connection is to the serial killer is anyone's guess.It's a poor mix of The Amityville Horror (haunted house), The Exorcist (exorcists, possession and crisis of faith), and Poltergeist (child taken into other world, stuff flying around). Don't bother! Who would actually believe this as a sequel to Evil Dead?

Zantara Xenophobe This review contains some minor SPOILERS, so do not read it if you do not wish to have some points revealed to you. If you came across this title on this site and were like me, you were probably left scratching your head as to how `Beyond Darkness' could be subtitles `House 5.' This movie was made in 1990 and `House IV' was made in 1992. Well, it seems like someone just slapped the `House' label on to try and hide the fact that nothing else about it is interesting. This is nothing like the other `House' movies (though none of them are alike in any way either) and should not be thought of as part of the series. Instead, think of it as just another boring horror movie that you need to avoid. It was, after all, made by the same writer/director that brought us the universally panned `Troll 2.' To be fair, I believe that this movie has positive intentions. But good intentions do not necessarily make a good movie. The movie begins with a priest hoping to hear a woman about to be executed give her soul to God. This woman, who murdered a bunch of children in a house, is either possessed or is simply crazy. It is hard to make that out. She tries to tempt the priest by telling him to repent his religion to learn more about her evil Satanic ideas. He almost does it, and is thus haunted throughout the rest of the film by this guilt. When the woman is put in the electric chair, the priest sets out for the house in question faster than you can say "The Horror Show." Apparently, the house is on the site of some ancient place where witches were once burned at the stake. While he is on his way there, a second priest is moving into the house with his family, and he was given the house by the local head priest, who knows of the evil and deliberately sends the priest and his family there to stop the evil. Huh? Well, they move in and are visited by evil spirits faster than you can say "Amityville Horror." After the first few spooky happenings, one of which would really freak you out if it happened to you (but doesn't freak you out here), you would think the family would take the hint and get out of there faster than you can say "Poltergeist." But no. Then your conflict, when the ghost of the executed woman and her laughable spirit helpers kidnap the priest's son, would not exist. When the first priest arrives, the two holy men join forces and set about to rid the house of evil faster than you can say "The Exorcist." Yada yada yada.There's plenty more other than a standard plot that makes `Beyond Darkness' a lousy movie. First, the special effects are bad. I tend not to stress this sort of thing, but when a script calls for something that a budget just can't handle, it's time to either change the script or not do the movie at all. Most of the effects here are done in smoke-filled rooms to mask their low quality. This, however, just gets really bothersome. And boring. Another annoyance is the abundance of stereotypes. The entire family is so pious that you see right through their one-dimensional characters. And their acting of these stereotypes is really bad. Rarely do filmmakers find good child actors, and here they scraped the bottom of the desperation barrel. The boy playing the son is so horrid that you really hope the witch goes through with the sacrifice. But the worst thing about the film is how slow it all moves. Not once does the pace ever pick up, especially when the priests are battling the evil. I kid you not, I watched the scenes where the priests are walking through the house in fast forward and they were still moving like snails. Thus the only things that this movie has to offer are good intentions. I can get those from watching `House II,' which, unlike this movie, is fun to watch and in no need of renovation. Zantara's score: 2 out of 10.