An axe touches a ketchup smeared face, as gently as a kiss, and we're supposed to believe that someone is being brutally murdered. The same shot is replayed twice with the sound of something hitting something, and we're supposed to believe that it's murder. Well it is indeed. Murder of 90 minutes of my time especially as similar repeats of dialog occur to represent a tinny echo.
When this axed in head turns up in the most predictable of places, your first reaction will most likely be, I knew that was going to happen. This is a retread of the oldest murder mystery/horror movie gimmick in the book, a series of relative forced to stay at an old mansion after the head of the family dies, and a series of gruesome murders begins to occur. John Carradine is the patriarch, heard reciting his will, then seen in snippets of quick flashbacks as the film unfolds.
Even one of the family member's dogs isn't immune from a gruesome end, heard yelping then found in the cement pond. Such veteran actors as Merry Anders, Faith Domergue, Jeff Morrow and Richard Davalos take their spots here in hopes of meeting their monthly bills while hoping this will quickly sneak into obscurity. But it has snuck out like a rat out of its nest, infesting DVD machines like mine.
With clichés like the servants names (Igor and Elga!), this is laughable with or without sardonic Elvira narration, especially sets of the mansion that look like something out of the original "Dating Game", dialog that takes B movie clichés down to a Z and slow spoken dialog that requires Lucy's chocolate factory supervisor to pop in and shout, "Speed it up a little!" The writers put their foot in their own mouths when one of the couples are brutally electrocuted after the husband turns off the lamp (while the wife is embracing him) and another one of the characters comments, "What a stench!", to which I couldn't at all disagree.
It's obvious that Faith Domergue was hoping for a Lana Turner look with her wig, but she ends up looking like Barbara Bush. There are so many other ridiculous elements in this film, and they are fun to just point out and laugh at. Viewing this through the lens of camp comedy is really the only way to get through it.
When this axed in head turns up in the most predictable of places, your first reaction will most likely be, I knew that was going to happen. This is a retread of the oldest murder mystery/horror movie gimmick in the book, a series of relative forced to stay at an old mansion after the head of the family dies, and a series of gruesome murders begins to occur. John Carradine is the patriarch, heard reciting his will, then seen in snippets of quick flashbacks as the film unfolds.
Even one of the family member's dogs isn't immune from a gruesome end, heard yelping then found in the cement pond. Such veteran actors as Merry Anders, Faith Domergue, Jeff Morrow and Richard Davalos take their spots here in hopes of meeting their monthly bills while hoping this will quickly sneak into obscurity. But it has snuck out like a rat out of its nest, infesting DVD machines like mine.
With clichés like the servants names (Igor and Elga!), this is laughable with or without sardonic Elvira narration, especially sets of the mansion that look like something out of the original "Dating Game", dialog that takes B movie clichés down to a Z and slow spoken dialog that requires Lucy's chocolate factory supervisor to pop in and shout, "Speed it up a little!" The writers put their foot in their own mouths when one of the couples are brutally electrocuted after the husband turns off the lamp (while the wife is embracing him) and another one of the characters comments, "What a stench!", to which I couldn't at all disagree.
It's obvious that Faith Domergue was hoping for a Lana Turner look with her wig, but she ends up looking like Barbara Bush. There are so many other ridiculous elements in this film, and they are fun to just point out and laugh at. Viewing this through the lens of camp comedy is really the only way to get through it.