A pop singer suffers a nervous breakdown and decides to vacation out in the country, but not before recovering from a fall onstage at the last performance. He takes the attending nurse from the hospital he was recuperating at as a personal nurse, as they slowly fall in love at this remote mansion set in the outskirts of a small town.
The film begins in a rather humorous vain, as a couple decide to 'make out' on the lawn, at which point a hose extends out like a serpent to spray them down, like one would dogs.
The House is indeed alive with some presence, using the resident cameras as veritable eyes; so when the crooner and his love interest move in, they become the subject of rumors throughout the small town, apparently, there were some rather tragic deaths in the house's history, but when the local librarian comes to deliver some interesting documentation, she is invariably crushed to death at the front gates, like the great giant metal teeth of a hell mouth, followed by the manager {with a cutting reflection}, and even intermittent lover Tanya {"there's nothing like a hot blood shower to help get the cobwebs out"...} goes insane.
It is a sort of 'coming home' for Sheila, with the incessant sensation of deja-vu. Sheila reveals that she has no recollection of her existence prior to seven, but "The Rag Lady" knows*, a classic characterization of the 'crazy cat lady' type who lives in a shack filled with garbage... and cats. But she apparently knows too much for The House's liking, divulging her own involvement in its history, gets a scalding dip for her trouble.
The House also does not seem to like the fact that Gary and Lisa are to be married, and refuses to let them out, complete with locking doors, windows, freezing air conditioning, suffocating heat, slammed gates, breathing walls, and the serpentine hose. ∞
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* Played by none other than Joan Bennett, who is recognized as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard of Dark Shadows, in quite a role reversal, displaying quite a range.
The film begins in a rather humorous vain, as a couple decide to 'make out' on the lawn, at which point a hose extends out like a serpent to spray them down, like one would dogs.
The House is indeed alive with some presence, using the resident cameras as veritable eyes; so when the crooner and his love interest move in, they become the subject of rumors throughout the small town, apparently, there were some rather tragic deaths in the house's history, but when the local librarian comes to deliver some interesting documentation, she is invariably crushed to death at the front gates, like the great giant metal teeth of a hell mouth, followed by the manager {with a cutting reflection}, and even intermittent lover Tanya {"there's nothing like a hot blood shower to help get the cobwebs out"...} goes insane.
It is a sort of 'coming home' for Sheila, with the incessant sensation of deja-vu. Sheila reveals that she has no recollection of her existence prior to seven, but "The Rag Lady" knows*, a classic characterization of the 'crazy cat lady' type who lives in a shack filled with garbage... and cats. But she apparently knows too much for The House's liking, divulging her own involvement in its history, gets a scalding dip for her trouble.
The House also does not seem to like the fact that Gary and Lisa are to be married, and refuses to let them out, complete with locking doors, windows, freezing air conditioning, suffocating heat, slammed gates, breathing walls, and the serpentine hose. ∞
_____________
* Played by none other than Joan Bennett, who is recognized as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard of Dark Shadows, in quite a role reversal, displaying quite a range.