What the hell is the deal with murdering psychopaths and their dominating mothers? After the far more superior horror titles "Psycho" and "Deranged" (that are, admittedly, inspired by one and the same real-life killer, namely Ed Gein), "Don't go in the House" is another sick low-budget film that entirely revolves on a mommy's boy with severe mental issues who turns to gruesomely killing women after the death of his mum. As a child, Donny's mother punished him by holding his bare arms over a burning stove. Now, and with his mother's decomposing corpse still around, Donny lures young women to his ominous dark house where he then chains them up and burns them alive with a flamethrower! Yikes!! "Don't Go In The House" is inane and shamelessly exploitative 80's horror with a mean-spirited attitude towards women and a minimum of credibility. Still, if you like aggressive and misanthropic horror (the kind they hardly make anymore nowadays), you might be very interested in seeing this sick puppy! The best way to describe it is as a crossover between the uncanny storyline of "Psycho" and the ill-natured grossness of "I Spit on your Grave". The extended sequence in which florist girl Kathy Jordan is killed in Donny's basement is very disturbing and easily one of the most repulsive things I've ever seen. There's few other gore but trust me, this one particular sequence is more than enough of that. Too bad that this film has the most painfully bad and illogical structure ever! The first half hour, which also contains the aforementioned burning sequence, is very compelling, atmospheric and in one word great! You almost get the impression that you're watching an overlooked horror gem but then suddenly the dreadfully boring middle section kicks in. Nothing really happens for about an hour and even the killings aren't shown on screen anymore. And then finally, the totally ridiculous climax (involving a weird hallucination-sequence) pretty much ruins the entire film. It's a damn shame. Enter at your own risk...
Review of Don't Go in the House
