Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Coventry At the beginning of the film, you might double-check the DVD cover and re-read the synopsis a couple of times, but no worries. It's NOT "Memoirs of a Geisha" that you purchased; just a movie with an intro that is much more classy and stylish than it has any right to be. Still, the opening is by far the best thing about the entire movie, as it shows how in the year 1840 a Samurai sword master catches his wife committing adultery. He decapitates the two lovers before doing some hara-kiri (ritual suicide through disembowelment). Cut to present day, when the American Ambassador in Japan welcomes a befriended family and drives them up to the same house where the aforementioned slaughter took place nearly one and a half century ago. From then onwards, this becomes a seemingly routine haunted house flick yet the utterly retarded and implausible script still makes it somewhat exceptional. Let's start with the good aspects, namely the original Japanese setting and the presence of the delicious Susan George who is my all-time favorite British horror wench (well, together with Britt Eckland, Linda Hayden and Ingrid Pitt). The bad aspects simply include that the screenplay is incoherent, imbecilic beyond repair and full of supposedly unsettling twists that only evoke laughter. The restless spirits of the house soon begin to entertain themselves by perpetrating into the bodies of the new tenants and causing them to do and say all sorts of crazy stuff. The spirit of the massacred adulterous woman particularly enjoys squeezing into Susan's ravishing booty and transforming her into a lewd seductress! In this "possessed" state, she even lures the American ambassador outside to have sex in the garden of a high society diner party full of prominent guests. So, strictly spoken, it's not really "evil" that dwells in the house; just a trio of sleazy ghosts with dirty minds and far too much free time on their long-dead hands! Obviously these scenes are more comical than frightening, especially since the light-blue and transparent shapes remind you of the cute ghost effects that were later popularized in "Ghostbusters". "The House Where Evil Dwells" is probably the least scary ghost movie ever. Throughout most of the running time, you'll be wondering whether director Kevin Connor (who nevertheless made the excellent horror films "Motel Hell" and "From Beyond the Grave") intentionally wanted to make his movie funny and over-the-top, like "Motel Hell" maybe. But then again, everyone in the cast continues to speak his/her lines with a straight and sincere face, so I guess we are nevertheless supposed to take everything seriously and feel disturbed. "The House Where Evil Dwells" is never suspenseful or even remotely exciting and it doesn't even contain any grisly images apart from the massacre at the beginning. I am fully aware of how shallow it sounds, but the two scenes in which Susan George goes topless are the only true highlights. Well, those and maybe also the invasion of cheesy and ridiculously over-sized spiders (or are they crabs?) in the daughter's bedroom. How totally random and irrelevant was that? If you ever decide to give this movie a chance notwithstanding its bad reputation, make sure you leave your common sense and reasoning at the doorstep.Trivia note for horror buffs: keep an eye open for the demon-mask that was also a pivot piece of scenery in the brilliant Japanese horror classic Onibaba.

Scarecrow-88 Just plain awful haunted house garbage has visiting American family dealing with possession in a Japanese teahouse.A disgruntled Samurai hacks up his adulterous wife and her lover with his sword after coming home to them in sexual embrace. Their bad karma keeps them in a ghostly form of limbo so they try to pit American husband Ted(Edward Albert), British wife Laura(Susan George)and their US American Ambassader pal Alex(Doug McClure)into an ugly re-staging of the events that has imprisoned them hoping to release the chains that bind them. The Japanese ghosts possess the three anytime they wish, often even causing mischief such as disrupting the water flow from the faucet, tossing a Noh mask from the wall, appearing in a bowl of soup, or becoming visible in the form of giant crabs! There's one hilarious scene where giant crabs chase Ted and Laura's daughter Amy(Amy Barrett)up a tree until she falls. Oh, and the scene where one of the ghosts causes Ted to splash a bowl of soup in Amy's face when she won't drink, is priceless. The final scene where possession causes Ted and Alex to duel in a sword fight and martial arts has to be seen to be believed. I especially giggled at the scene where Ted is chasing the female ghost around the room as she vanishes when he draws near..it's quite a cartoonish scene. Oh, and the female ghost somehow almost drowns Ted underwater! There's also a chuckle-inducing sequence where a monk comes to their home to exorcise the ghosts from it..the monk actually chases them from their abode!I don't know how the cast could keep a straight face in such mindless drivel. Embarrassing to ruin such exotic locations..the setting is indeed this film's only real benefit. George does shed her clothes..too bad that's the only positive thing she brings to this horrible exercise. The opening scene which yields the yuk-yuk premise is actually quite a stunning way to open a film..just too bad it opens this one.

Backlash007 ~Spoiler~ The House Where Evil Dwells has an interesting premise, but a bad execution. In 1840 Kyoto, Japan, a samurai returns home to find his wife in bed with another lover. He slaughters them both and then commits harikiri. In present day 1983, Edward Albert and Susan George move into this same house and become the victims of a haunting where the ghosts are trying to recreate the events of 1840. Doug McClure is a family friend living in Japan who got them the house and he takes over the role of the lover. Oddly enough, the film's premise isn't entirely different from the wildly popular Ju-on series. So you have to give it some due, even though Ju-on improves upon the story tenfold. Perhaps Takashi Shimizu was influenced by this film? It has a good set-up and it's different that we actually see the ghosts "jump" into the living to take them over and set the affair in motion. But there comes a point in the middle of the film where I found the whole thing to be absolutely laughable. One of the ghosts manifests itself in the daughter's bowl of soup and makes ridiculous faces at her. She says "Unnnnn...There's an awful face in my soup!" I rewound and watched that scene five times, laughing like a b*stard every time. After this scene, the whole movie becomes campy and full of unintentional humor, mostly coming from the ghosts. For example, the ghosts are exorcised by a monk but come running back into the house when Albert opens the door. Were they just never allowed to open the door after that? That's kind of a cheap exorcism. And when Albert and McClure finally face off, the ghosts are watching them and cheering them on like they were at a wrestling match. It's hysterical. But the best moment, other than the bowl of soup, is when the ghosts possess McClure and Albert. Up until this point they have been brawling, but when the ghosts do their "Quantum Leap" in they start using the worst martial arts in screen history. Old white guys doing swing kicks and karate chops is not graceful when they don't know what they're doing. But it is quite funny. And who can forget those awful crabs! That scene speaks for itself. I can see how this flick could be a guilty pleasure, but watch Ju-on: The Grudge for a better take on a similar plot.

FieCrier In 1840 in Japan, a man has an affair with a woman in her husband's house. A "netsuke" (I think it was called) is prominently featured; it is a small ivory carving of a seated woman and man (or demon?) in a sexual embrace. The husband arrives home just as the adulterous couple have stripped and are getting started and he can observe their shadows through the translucent windows. In slow motion, the husband draws his sword and charges through the wall, swinging his sword wildly and ineffectively. Ultimately, he does chop one of the man's arms off, stabs him in the crotch, and decapitates him. After slashing his wife's throat and getting in a few more strikes on her, he commits hari kari.This is a fairly standard "awful thing happens in a house, and a new family moves in" sort of horror story, but it gets points for the location photography. Beautifully decorated houses, gardens, etc. In a way, this prefigures this year's The Grudge remake, with the Americans moving into a house haunted by Japanese ghosts.An American couple and their daughter arrive in Japan. Their Japanese-speaking American friend who works for the American consulate has arranged for them to rent the house. He actually does tell them the cheap price he got for the house was due to stories of its being haunted. Initially there are just some mild signs of its being haunted, but nothing they particularly note. The couple has sex that night with lots of half-fades and schmaltzy music. The next morning, a zen monk politely and calmly warns them the house is haunted, and they should leave, and he will wait for them to ask for help.The ghosts start appearing, as blueish figures, shoulder-to-shoulder. They are no longer each others' enemies, but it proves evident very quickly that they intend for the new couple and their friend to re-enact their own deaths. The ghosts can step into people's bodies and make them speak or act differently.The husband actually sees the ghosts sometimes, while his wife more often just observes poltergeist behavior. He also sees the female ghost looking as she did when alive (i.e. not blueish and transparent) in other locations through his camera, but she does not show up on the developed film. There's a nice scene where he is photographing some female divers and she shows up there.The wife finds the netsuke, which she keeps with her, and she also buys some Noh masks with her daughter, as well as a demon mask and a devil-god mask. The demon mask looks similar to the mask in Onibaba (1964).I can see how people would see the movie as silly in parts or overall slow, but I guess I was in the proper mood to enjoy it: I liked it.