Review of The House of Seven Corpses

WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THE FOLLOWING COMMENTS. I first saw this movie 20 years ago on Superstation WTBS (back when it showed horror stuff all the time) and it scared me to death almost. I really liked it. It had creepy music, a creepy opening title sequence and a better than average walking corpse. A few years before, I had seen a poster for it that showed the Beal Mansion in the background, with a hand coming out of the ground in the foreground and a tagline that read, "Eight Graves, Seven Bodies, One Killer...and He's Already Dead!" I only saw the film that one time as a teenager and remembered it as one of the scariest films I'd ever seen. Twenty years later, I bought the DVD and found the great poster for the film had sadly not been reproduced on the DVD package. Not only that but I also found that the print used for the DVD is brighter than what I saw on TV in the 80s and is in fact, too bright and kills much of the atmosphere. I also found that the storyline plays fast and loose and if you are prone to analysing films, this one does not hold up at all. Characters faint in hallways and are found floating in creeks later for no reason. One guy goes in and out of graves (shutting the lid behind him too) and no one really seems to think it odd enough to ask him about it. Corpses that shuffle along at a snail's pace manage to beat a guy who is running at full speed back to the house (and the guy running had a head-start too). Watching the film, it looks as if there are possibly two killers or maybe one guy transformed into the other but this is not made clear in the film. One of the killings is done before the chants resurrecting the dead occur which supports my two-killer theory. You are just left to wonder about it since the film offers no explanation. All the characters are stereotypes. As a kid I didn't notice but as an adult, I found I didn't care if they got killed off. Most of them were unlikeable anyway so who cares if they die? If you have never seen this film, I would still say it is worth a look. In 1980, I had not seen anything like it but like a lot of things, it doesn't hold up 20 years later. By the way, I remember reading somewhere that Paul Harrison, the film's director had something to do with the old H.R. Puffinstuff Show on Saturday mornings. I kept that in mind while watching it again and frankly, I can almost see the artistic stamp of that old show in this movie. I don't think this film ever got picked up for theatrical distribution and sat around for years before being sold to television. Watching it again, I can now see why. Update: I bought this movie on BluRay and the cleaned up picture helps clarify one mystery that was not made clear when I watched it on TV or DVD. However, that still doesn't eliminate several glaring plot holes, that I suspect were caused by someone cutting out footage that was necessary for understanding the plot, but maybe they figured they could sell it easier if it was shorter in length. I've never read that anywhere and even the commentary on the BluRay doesn't clear up much of the mystery. The only way to know for sure would be to track down a copy of the screenplay, but good luck with that. The movie has a lot going for it but generates way more questions than answers. Even so, I'm glad I got a nice copy on BluRay. Everything from the actors, atmosphere, makeup and music are good, and it makes it even more frustrating that there are so many loose ends left hanging. As a kid I assumed it was cut for TV showings but now I figure they either ran out of money to finish shooting or the film was subjected to harsh edits and the trims were lost to the ages.