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Don’t Go In The House - Don’t Go In The House (Blu Ray) [Severin - 2022]

Don’t Go In The House is a late 1970’s example of the psycho fed grind-housing horror, which is grimly moody, and at points starkly creepy- though not really gory or too gruelling. The film found itself on the UK Video Nasty list in the 80s, going on to become fairly notorious for its naked woman strung up and flamed scene- and while it feels a little tame by today's standards, it’s an effective enough study in bleakly gritty descent into madness. Here from Severin is a recent region A double-disc Blu Ray release of the film, taking in three cuts of the film, two commentary tracks & a great selection of other extras.

Don’t Go In The House (aka The Burning, Pyromaniac, Burning Death of Horror) appeared in the year 1979. It was directed by Manhattan-born Joseph Ellison, with his only other credit being 1986 Joey- which is seemingly a drama/ musical set in a high school picture with lots of Do-whop music in. Don’t Go in The House is a competent enough slice of grindhouse fare- with a great rundown and dark wooden panelled mansion house, some neatly grim-to-lightly creepy atmospherics, and some largely good-to-passable acting.

The film focuses on Donny Kohler (Dan Grimald) a largely subdued and strange mummies boy, who works in a waste incinerating plant. After having a bad day at work, not helping one of his colleagues who is on fire- he heads home to the large and rundown mansion he lives with his mother. He prepares her soup, taking it upstairs to where she sits in her bedroom- 
she doesn’t respond, so she shakes- seeing she’s gone blue and is dead. This pushes the rather troubled Donny over the edge, and in flashback, we see that his mother burnt his arms over the stove as a child. These two things trigger Donny to create his own oven room- where he brings back women, strips them off, and strings them up before roasting them alive and after they’ve cooled down dresses them up in his mothers' clothes, who is slowly but surely rotting in her room.

There’s no doubt the film is very much influenced by both the Ed Kein case, and Hitchcock's Psycho- which was of course based on the case. Donny, just like Kien has a pick-up truck, he’s shy and awkward. And he, of course, dresses up his dead mother, and the women in his mother's clothes. So as a result, when I first saw the film say fifteen years back, I found it somewhat underwhelming feeling it came off like a light disco edged rip off of the original Psycho. Now rewatching the film again, I must say I was pleasantly surprised by what I found- yes, there is no doubt of its influences- but there is enough here to make it stand up on its own, beyond just another Psycho replica. First off Grimald, who later on found stardom with Law & Order, and The Sopranos- is chilling effectively as the becoming more unhinged Donny- moving between subtle creepy & nervous, to ranting & shouting at the voice of his dead mother & victims’ mad man. The house setting is great, with its grand though foreboding blend of dark wooden panel walls, peeling wallpaper, and the faded grandeur of its decades before furniture/house dressing. The metal panel lined roasting room is starkly grim- the women are stripped, then hung by the wrists- while Donny dons a baggy white fire suit, before engulfing his victims with a flame thrower. 

We have a passable enough supporting cast, with Robert Carnegie playing Bobby his Mad comic reading & wife cheating only friend at work. There’s Ralph D. Bowman, as local priest Father Gerritty- who tries to help Donny when things really start to unfold. The selection of female victims are are largely believable enough. On the whole, it's a grim, icky macabre, at points quite unnerving/ unsettling going crazy horror film. Yes, it doesn’t deliver on the gore side of thing, but if you're in the mood for bleakly cloying & ghoulishly unnerving psychodrama- this will most certainly do the job.
 


Moving onto the discs themselves- and the first disc, which is seemingly an Arrow Video produced disc. This takes in two versions of the film the released version, and a longer TV cut which was titled The Burning. Otherwise, we get a new commentary track from Director Joe Ellison, Producer Ellen Hammill and Severin’s David Gregory. And this is a very chatty & jumping around track- though there’s a lot of interesting reminiscing and info here. They begin by talking about how the film was originally going to be called The Burning Man, and how/ why the title changed. They discuss the great deal they got on the cameras & equipment for the film, saying that they wanted it to be on 35mm film from the off. How they decided that this would be their first film, they talk about the new print of the film. They discuss how cold it was shooting the film, staying in a motel for the filming & how bad the snow got. They talk about how they found the main house location, and its quirky owners- who at one point were waving around a gun. They chat about how Hitchcock & Psycho influenced the film. Discuss the different cuts of the film, mention the actors in smaller roles, personal items in set dressing, and much more- a most worth a play track.  Otherwise, on the extras front on this disc we get House keeping- which runs just shy of the twenty-one-minute mark and finds an interview with Co-Producer Matthew Mallinson and Co-Writer Joseph R. Masefield. There’s We Went to The House- which looks at the film's location in 2021 and runs just over the nineteen-minute mark. 
On the archive side of things, we get a commentary track from Dan Grimaldi, and a nine-minute on-screen interview with the actor from 2005.

 

On the second disc, we have the extended Integral cut- which is the one I watched. Also on this disc, we get a good selection of extras. First, off we have a commentary track from the always great Stephen Thrower- who of course wrote the bible on cult American horror Nightmare USA, in the book he spends a whole chapter discussing Don’t Go in The House and its director- so he’s the prime person to do to a track for the film. He starts off discussing why the title was changed from the more fitting Burning, talks about other don’t films from the ’70s giving a potted history of these. He gives interesting actor bios as they appear. He talks about the accusations of misogynistic levelled at the film, and why he thinks it isn't. He gives an in-depth bio of the director, including facts like he was a sax player in a want to be James Brown band, and he started his career in the film business at a dubbing company. He gives location details & history. Later on, he talks about the effects/ make-up, and who was behind them. He discusses the film's original screener for buyers- those that were interested, and those they went with & why. He comments in detail on certain scenes like when the lead goes to buy a suit to go to the club in, giving quirky facts about the actor that played the salesman, how long the real shop was a gent's outfitters and the scene's subtle humour. He discusses the score & who created it, once again giving an interesting bio, and much, much more. It’s a great and very well researched track, and you can really hear Thrower's passion for the film- easily a track you could play multiple times.    Otherwise, on this disc, we get Minds on Fire — a video essay by The Reprobate's David Flint, this runs just shy of the fifteen-minute mark. It finds Mr Flint talking about the more disturbing and nihilistic brand of horror that appears in the late ’70s/ early 80s, and where the film to hand fits in with these films. There’s a twenty-eight-minute on-screen interview with the film's director. There’s Grindhouse All-Stars- which runs thirty-four minutes, and finds interviews with the likes Matt Cimber, Joseph Ellison, Roy Frumkes and Jeff Lieberman talking about grindhouse film in general. There’s an open matt version of the flamethrower scene, and a Don’t trailer reel.

 

It's great to see Severin giving such a thoroughly extras packed release of this decidedly grim and stark psycho horror,that is very much the epitome of 1970’s bleakness. Don’t Go in The House is certainly not a fun time but any means, but if you are looking for troubling & affectingly glum 70’s horror it’s perfectly primmed, and what better way than enjoy it than on this two-disc Severin release of the film.

Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5

Roger Batty
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