Chad

Undeadcow

False movie 'teaser'... cue obvious setup. Such a dated movie. Look, there are random occult relics/books randomly everywhere! Why does everyone try to read from strange occult books when they find them? Thirty seven minutes in and nothing 'real' has happened... wait there's a dead stuffed animal - “you bastards!.” Oh it's suppose to be a cat. Must resist urge to sleep...
Stupid movie gag is getting stupid...
Around the one hour mark when the zombie parallels the actor fake murdering the two actresses is a nice composition; where was that the first half?
This gray stalking zombie is nicely moody... once he finally shows up. That plus how much of the last third is without dialogue gives it a surreal element. The conclusion is really nice; despite many of the deaths seeming random.

Spiderbite

Well...there always have to be at least one movie that gets zero stars from me in the subset challenge and it appears this one is it. Hopefully I got it out of the way early and don't have anymore.

This movie is horrible. Plain and simple. I found nothing redeeming or interesting about it. Nothing. No nudity. No gore. No good story or characters. No good dialogue or even bad but funny dialogue to make fun of. The acting is horrible but no so bad that you make fun of it. It's just bad.

Terrible movie. I am really glad I got this from Severin on the cheap. Ugh.

TheBigDave

You can add me to the list of people that don't like this movie. I've seen it a couple times, and it never gets better.

I'm usually pretty forgiving when it comes to horror movies. And based on the description, this should be a movie that matches my tastes perfectly. But none of it works. There isn't one redeeming feature. The house isn't spooky, the characters are annoying, the story is boring, and the deaths are lame.

Trevor

I found a few redeeming qualities, and it passed the time well enough.

The opening credits/montage were very well done, imo. I'll admit that the gimmick of it being a horror film taking place while filming a horror film is something I like more than perhaps I should. Those two pluses, and Faith Domergue, got me through the slow first half.

A couple of the zombie/acting parallels were decent.

I think the BD of this may be enroute to me, so perhaps I'll watch the special features later this month.

SterlingBen

Sorry everyone. But at least we all already owned it.

Trevor

I didn't own it until some point betweeen the last two posts, that's when the postman arrived with a package from Severin. More later after I watch this BD, hopefully a much better picture than that Dailymotion stream.

Spiderbite

Don't sweat it man. It was a good excuse to watch it and now I know to put it on ebay.

numbercrunch

I think folks need to understand it was made for 70's TV. Granted it is slow, but the build up to the corpse is good and the last 20 minutes are fun

Spiderbite

That's no excuse. There are plenty of 70's and 80's TV horror movies that are completely watchable.

Undeadcow

This was made for TV? Nice... checklist crisis averted; wasn't sure what made for TV movie to subject myself to otherwise.
You apologize for House of Seven Corpses; but defend Killer Tongue?!? Actually if there was some way to combine these two then there might be a good movie in there...

SterlingBen

Killer Tongue wasn't boring

TheBigDave

Not your fault. On paper, it sounds like a great horror flick. It just turns out to be a weak movie.

Are you sure it was Made For TV? I've never heard that before. And I can't find anywhere else that says it. If it's Made For TV, IMDB will usually list that. And the TV movies from that period are 1.33:1. I'm pretty sure this was a theatrical release.

Trevor

The dvdtalk review (I think) mentions that it was produced by a one-off production company with TV in the name. Also, the director had strong TV ties and never directed another film.

mrcellophane

I assured both of my cats that if they got loose in a haunted house, I would find and protect them, even if it meant forgoing sex with a grumpy, narcissistic director who alternates between insulting and praising me. As soon as the cat appeared, I was afraid that it was fated to die.

The film was slow and not particularly scary. The setup of the Beale family's misfortunes is compelling, but it's mostly dropped from the narrative. And while the film-making aspect could have been fun, it felt too flat. If the film had either made it clear that the film-within-the-film was either a pretentious art film or a campy, subpar affair, there could have been a satiric edge. I did enjoy the performances of John Carradine and Faith Domergue. John Ireland doesn't bring the intensity that he usually does. Also, graveyards shown in perpetual sunlight aren't scary.

Did anyone watch the John Carradine interview included in the Severin BD? It's an interesting watch. Carradine doesn't seem to really want to talk about horror films (or have much to say about the genre), but the interviewer keeps steering the conversation back.

rbrown498

And in an inversion of my usual role, I'm going to semi-champion this film, and I'm super-glad that SterlingBen picked it. Ben, this almost makes up for your choice of Killer Tongue. Almost.

Sorry numbercrunch, but it wasn't made for TV. I've got a mint one-sheet from 1974 (that cost me more than I should have spent on it, but I'm a fan--what can I say?) that proves otherwise.

You are correct, TheBigDave, as noted above.

And you are correct too, Trevor.

I now kind of realize how SterlingBen must have felt when defending Killer Tongue, but I've got to make a stab at it. So far, everyone that's posted here has watched the film under less-than-ideal conditions. Ideal conditions are the way that I first saw it--on local late-night Saturday/early Sunday TV, from a smeary-looking 16mm print, with only occassional commercials (maybe two breaks in the whole film). I knew nothing about it, and suddenly, there it was on the TV, and I was sucked in. That the film was obviously shot on the cheap only heightened the creepiness of discovering it in the dead of night, and the last fifteen minutes or so really WERE, as Undeadcow stated, surreal.

So, when seen under the right circumstances, the film has a way of really getting under the viewer's skin. That odd choral music throughout only serves to make it that much more spooky.

I can't explain exactly what's going on in those last few minutes; there's obviously two ghouls at one point, and one of them may or may not be David, who also may or may not be dead. He does say that he found the house for the film, and he seems awfully fascinated by the Tibetan Book of the Dead. I think there's room for lots of interpretation there, if one chooses to spend some time thinking about the film.

3onameathook

Looks as if I may be one of the few if any that enjoy this film. It has one zombie and hits on the idea that its an occult film. For me I get the same sense of atmosphere that I do with the film Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things. Plus the fact that the zombie is a member of the film crew which as far as I can recall was pretty original back then....or maybe its me

WillieMLF

Hmm.... My wife kept on asking if this was an afterschool special or episode of Scooby Doo (minus the dog). ALYXSTARR's link kept on taking me to the Manchester Morgue movie, but I was eventually able to get the DM link to work.

I really didn't care for this one too much. I kept on trying to figure out if any corpses were going to show up, let alone seven.

I do have this Severin blu, but couldn't find it in time. I'm pretty sure I'll revisit this one when I have a chance to go though the disk extras.

WillieMLF

I agree with the spooky aspect of the choral music. Some of the music seemed almost cartoonish for some scenes, hence the my wife commenting regarding Scooby Doo (the director wearing Shaggy's hat started it all).

Trevor

Watched my new BD of it last night and enjoyed the improved picture. The commentary track was informative and fun. I like the film more it deserves perhaps, but it was a solid 6 or 7/10.

DaveyJoe

The House of Seven Corpses (1974)

This one was a little dull, but not totally without merit. A low budget film crew is making a horror movie at an old Estate where a wealthy family of seven died in mysterious ways. Many films from the 70s were more deliberately paced, but this one definitely could have used a little more excitement during its first hour. The movie mainly revolves around the melodrama of the characters making the movie, and I generally like movies about film-making, so that helped me enjoy the movie even though its at least an hour before anything spooky happens. My favorite character was the ginger production assistant, he doesn't say much, he just shows up and does his job.

There is plenty of behind-the-scenes drama between the cast and crew, including drunken advances, swollen egos, and feline-trauma. John Ireland plays what must be one of the most irritable characters in horror film history. His constant abuse of his cast and crew is amusing and cringe-worthy at the same time. John Carradine plays a creepy caretaker that confusingly switches back and forth between lurking around graveyards, and quietly reading in his study. Who is this guy? I also enjoyed the creepy choral music, and the montages that bookend the film. Once the zombie action starts it really picks up steam, but some of the scenes of potential victims quietly walking toward their doom are drawn out to nearly unbearable lengths.

ross_r

The best part of the movie was the introduction opening credits showing past murders at the house. Then it basically settled down, and took over an hour to pick up with some decent action. Kind of liked that reading verses from Tibetan Book of the Dead raised corpses from the graves which reminded me of Evil Dead.

This was a movie about making a movie. The most interesting part for me was watching the movie rigging from the 70's. The big ass cameras with film, the huge lighting, the reel to reel audio.

DaveyJoe

So what was the deal with David anyway, was he a zombie the entire time? Was he possessed after reading the occult book? If a zombie didn't appear until an hour into the film, what killed the lead actresses' cat?

Trevor

^ A zombeaver.

DaveyJoe