House of the Damned is only an hour long, but somehow it manages to make that hour feel like about five hours and also manages one of the most spectacularly bad endings that I have ever seen. The plot is just your average haunted house premise, and sees an architect and his wife go to stay in a house that turns out to be haunted. The film actually gets off to a promising start when we are introduced to the characters, but things go downhill once the house itself is introduced; it's just an average place in California. I've come to expect more creepy residences from haunted house films! Once it starts proper, it soon gets very boring also and most of the film is taken up by pointless drama without a scare in sight, which is very boring indeed. To the film's credit, it does look very nice and the crisp black and white picture is easy on the eyes. Nothing really happens during the main bulk of the film and I have to say that I am very glad the film is only an hour long. The ending itself is just unbelievably stupid and makes practically no sense at all. It seems like a desperate attempt by the writer to introduce some shock value, but it doesn't work. Overall, this really is a rubbish film and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
Review of House of the Damned
