SGM Month of Halloween Horror Movie for Oct. 17

"House of the Damned" (1963)

Themes: Victims trapped in a house; dirty slimy freaks
Synopsis (from the back of the box): A perfect romantic getaway turns into a hellish nightmare in this suspense-filled thriller! Architect Scott Campbell and his wife Nancy join another couple, Joseph and Loy Schiller, for what promises to be a pleasant stay at an empty castle set on a seculded California hillside. Soon, however, tension mounts as terrifying things begin happening: A group of ghoulish circus performers who once inhabited the castle become increasingly hostile towards their "guests," turning their mini-vacation into a life-and-death challenge of wits!

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What the fridge! That's Richard "Jaws" Kiel, looking like The Great Khali as a circus freak giant!

"House of the Damned" is a movie that's little over an hour in length, but in that hour you get a decent film out of a tired premise: People get stranged in a house where Sp-sp-sp-spoo-oo-oo-ooky shit^TM happens. The selling point of this film, like the superior "Freaks," by Tod Browning, before it, is that "House of the Damned" included in its cast actual "freaks," mostly in the category of the exploited handicapped.

Political correctness would prohibit a film like this being made today. Despite the overall message that films like "House" and "Freaks" present - that the handicapped overcome their disabilities to overcome their antagonists - Hollywood would balk at employing the actual handicapped in roles that, well, they're born to play. However, you let an actor or actress who is generally able-bodied play the mentally disturbed, crippled, or retarded, and it's OSCAR TIME, BAYBEE!

Pffft! Fuck Hollywood, man, as Ice Cube once said so eloquently.

Rating: 2 count