Bloodbath at the House of Death is a comedy horror film produced in 1983, starring the British comedian Kenny Everett and featuring Vincent Price. It is an over-the-top spoof loosely inspired by The Amityville Horror and other horror films from the same period.
Synopsis
The film opens in 1975 at a place called Headstone Manor, which is being used as a "businessman's weekend retreat and girls' summer camp". A few minutes into the film, a group of satanic monks enter the house and kill 18 of its occupants (the 19th, played by Cleo Rocos, being the sole survivor). The murders were committed using the following methods:
- Two were axed to death.
- Two had their throats slit.
- One man was hanged.
- Two girls were struck by lightning.
- One man watching underwent spontaneous human combustion and blew up.
- Four were stabbed to death.
- Six were frozen to death in the Manor's freezer.
In 1983, Doctor Lucas Mandeville (Kenny Everett) and Doctor Barbara Coyle (Pamela Stephenson Connolly) are sent to investigate radioactive readings in the area that have been traced to Headstone Manor, now known by locals as the House of Death.
Along with several other scientists, Mandeville and Coyle set up their equipment in the house, while the Sinister Man (Vincent Price), a 700-year-old Satanic priest, prepares a rite in the nearby woods to purge the house of its unwanted guests.
During this time, Mandeville reveals that he was once a successful German surgeon named Ludwig Manheim, who was reduced to "smart-arse paranormal research crap" after a humiliation in the past. Coyle also encounters a poltergeist, and the two engage in sexual intercourse.
Several satanic clones of Mandeville, Coyle and the other scientists have entered the house, and begin killing off the originals and taking their place. When Coyle is about to be killed, she is rescued by the poltergeist and saved. The satanic monks then take off in a spaceship, revealing that these monks are aliens using the house for their activities on Earth. The film ends with the spaceship soaring into the skies, with an E.T. voice groaning: "Oh, shit! Not again!"
Filming
The film was shot entirely on location at Potters Bar in Hertfordshire, England.[1]
Release
The book based on the film
The film was released in the United Kingdom by Thorn EMI, and was considered by critics to be very poor. Martyn Auty wrote: "Presumably intended as high camp; looks like low-grade Carry On."[2] It was given an 18 certificate in the United Kingdom.
The film was released on DVD in the United Kingdom in July 2008, with a re-rating to a 15 certificate.[3]
A novelization of the film was also published, which named Marcel Wave (one of Kenny Everett's TV characters) as the resident who underwent spontaneous combustion.
References to other films
- The dark settings and ominous music are inspired by the Hammer Horror films of the 1960s, while the amount of blood used parodies the slasher films popular at the time.
- When Mandeville is playing the double bass in the toilet, he is playing the theme from the film Jaws.
- Sheila Finch's childhood flashback pastiches Carrie.
See also
References
- ^ Bloodbath at the House of Death (1984)
- ^ Halliwell's Film Guide.
- ^ Bloodbath at the House of Death (1983) - Britmovie - British Film Forum
External links
