Pros: I always like seeing Susan George on screen.
Cons: The ghosts are ridiculous as is the whole concept itself.
The Bottom Line: This movie is one of the worst of its kind. It's stupifyingly awful in its presentation, and to make it all worse, it's a completely awkward watch.
Wow, I seem to recall having this idea before. If memory serves me correctly, and it always does, I do remember sitting in my friend's basement during our good old high school days, passing the dutchie and watching "Titus" with Anthony Hopkins; then proposing the question: "You know what would make a damn fine movie? Crossing 'Legend of Hell House' with 'Samurai Reincarnation.'" Seemed like a good idea to me at the time, and I'll take me friend's laughter and amazement as sheer agreement. Well it's several years later, and obviously at the time I did not realize that "The House Where Evil Dwells," which contains samurais and a haunted house, exists. I don't know if I would have come to this conclusion back then, but I can tell you now, as an adult, that I hate "The House Where Evil Dwells."
The samurai part of the movie they actually kind of pull off at first. The movie opens with a pretty fantastic scene of a samurai coming home to find his wife in the arms of his student. The man bursts into the house, samurai sword drawn, and moves in to attack the student. A sword fight breaks out, all done completely in slow motion, with limbs being cut off and throats cut. The samurai murders both the wife and the student, then kneels down to take his own life. The end of the film ends with a similar sword fight. These scenes are pretty entertaining, and pretty bloody. But they only make up 10 minutes of the film. The rest of it is probably the worst haunted house movie that I've ever seen, made even worse by the fact that it is supposed to be serious. If they had gone into "Fantasy Mission Force" territory, that would have been one thing, because that was a comedy.
The main action is set in the present, where married couple Ted and Laura (Edward Albert and Susan George) move to Japan with their daughter Amy Barrett (who made a short career of playing characters named Amy). Ted is there to write a short story based in Japan, but it doesn't appear as if he's going to get a lot of work done. The house they have moved into is the same house of the the samurai murder/suicide over a century ago. The movie makes the ultimate tragic mistake of having the three ghosts appear in green transparency all throughout the film. So it's a haunted house, Disneyworld style. Still, I guess it's nice to know that over time the three ghosts have forgiven one another for the sake of haunting new tenants.
I guess it would seem like an original idea to actually see the ghosts doing some of their haunting, but there's a reason why we normally don't. It looks ridiculous. Oh sure, it worked in "The Frighteners." Yes, a comedy. In one of this film's scenes, the family is all sitting at the dinner table, and we see the spirit of the female ghost walk in. We also see her pick up a dish and toss it on the table, causing it to break. The family of course reacts in shock, but all I could do was laugh and feel as if I was watching "Japan's Funniest Haunted Videos." Another absurd scene has one of the ghosts holding a sword up against Ted's neck while he's writing. The ghost then plunges the sword right on the table, for Ted to clearly see. Still, throughout the rest of the film, Ted sticks to his guns and wants to finish writing his story in the house. Flying dishes is one thing, but mysterious swords appearing? Ted, baby, finish your story in a hotel.
But obviously these ghosts aren't just there to throw objects around the room while wearing make-up similar to Count Chocula. Frequently, the ghosts possess Ted and Laura at random moments. They do this when either Ted or Laura stands perfectly still, that way the ghosts knows where to stand or sit, making it very easy for the editor of the film. Basically they enter the body much like in "Ghost." When that happens, characters say things they normally wouldn't say and do things that, dear god, I hope they wouldn't do. Laura begins to have an affair with Alex (Doug McClure) the family friend, while Ted reacts violently when his daughter won't finish her soup (she sees a ghostly face in it). No possessions happen to the daughter, but she does end up falling down a tree while being chased by giant crabs, who can apparently open doors very easily, and also moan in Japanese. The strings that we can clearly see on the crabs may help them with the door part.
So Laura is sleeping with Alex, thus cheating on Ted. Do you think you know what's going to happen? Do you think that the movie will come full circle? These have got to be the most worthless ghosts on the face of the movie planet. How completely non-frightening do you have to be to where your whole motivation is that you possess new owners of the house only so you can re-enact your vengeful samurai sword fight from the past. Towards the end of the film, the ghosts are banished from the house by a monk who lives nearby. His only order is that when someone else enters the house, the ghosts will return. That means there's a hilarious shot of the ghosts outside beating on the walls, and then when the door is opened by Ted to let Alex in, all three of the ghosts run inside, like they are kittens who had been out in the rain all night.
What I hated the absolute most about this film is just how awkward I felt while watching it. It happened when Ted forced the soup down Amy's mouth while Laura screamed at him, then while Laura gets possessed and tells Ted how much she could satisfy Alex. Watching this movie was just a horrible horrible experience. It was awkwardness on a level of someone passing gas in the middle of a funeral, then we find out that the person who farted had been having an affair with the corpse's wife. I do not want to be in that room! That's how I felt during this movie. I never ever want to be in the same room when this movie is playing on a tv. Seriously, I remember watching it in my room, then suddenly feeling the need to go upstairs and sleep on the couch.
MGM has released it on DVD with only a trailer as an extra, but it seems like it's DVD release may just be to cash in on the current American Japanese horror remake craze. Look at the damn box cover to this thing. It's a direct rip off of any number of covers to "The Grudge." The original posterart had that great 80's painted vibe going on for it. In it, the shadow of a Samurai creeps behind the wall of the married couple in their bathroom. Except the shadow looks a little more like a Japanese parade float if you ask me. But nevermind the poster; I really hated this movie, hated nearly every inch of it. The only thing it's got going for it is the samurai showdown at the beginning, but when I think more and more about it, while not on the influence of drugs, blending a samurai story and a haunted house film really must be more tough than I thought. Look at how much this more screwed up.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.