Don't Go in the House (1979) User Reviews

It achieves what it sets out to do

[Maciste_Brother · 7/10 · 26 June 2003]

I'll never understand people who complain that a horror movie is too gruesome or horrifying. It's like a person saying he/she didn't like a comedy because it was too funny.

The negativity towards DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE is odd. Yes, there is ONE moment where it's particularly gruesome and lurid but I've seen mainstream movies (LETHAL WEAPON 2 or TOTAL RECALL) where the super violent action was more nauseating to me than an entire film like DGITH. I suspect that a lot it has to do with the fact that DGITH is a low budget movie, with unknowns and made by unknowns, and those suffering from an elitist complex will renege anything if it doesn't look a certain way or stand-up to their (prefab) expectations. The great thing about DGITH is that it doesn't gloss over the violence. The film is grim, dour and depressing, as it SHOULD be.

Another notch against DGITH is that the story follows the depressing actions of the killer, who's the only main character of the film. And like so many horror films with the main character being the killer himself, few people identify with (or what to identify with) the killer, and because of this knee-jerk reaction towards the way the film portrays the killer, many dismissed it without even trying to see it for what it is. Ironically, the film is dismissed for what it is (and isn't) as much as the character it portrays is dismissed in reality for who he is. Oddly enough, I thought his friend was more annoying than the killer himself.

DGITH is not the greatest movie ever made. But it does what it intended to do: it unsettles and it's grim and unpleasant, with its post-Vietnam war tone. There's NO black humour in the film, and a lot of films these days like to include touches of black comedy here and there in serial killer stories. But I'm glad there aren't any touches of black comedy in DGITH. Its straightforwardness is actually what sets it apart from most films of its kind.

The only big mistake in the film is the tacky "surprise" ending that has nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Otherwise, the film is solid and packs a mean punch. And I dig that disco music!

So, if you don't like your horror movies with a depressive tone. If you don't like movies that don't look splashy or stylized, then DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE is not a movie for you. Personally, I think it's light years better than the overrated MANIAC (1980).

Nasty Exploitation Thriller ... With Historical Inspiration??

[Steve_Nyland · 6/10 · 14 March 2007]

Yes, DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE seems to be another lurid cinematic adaptation of a real-life serial killer's exploits. The first time I saw this film I said to myself "Now where have I heard about someone burning fetching young ladies to death in an asbestos insulated room before?" and the answer is Herman Mudgett, aka H.H. Holmes, Chicago's twisted "Torture Doctor" who murdered anywhere between 20 and 200 people in a self-designed townhouse on 63rd Street during the 1890s. Mudgett built a maze of false corridors, secret passageways, trap doors, sound proof and air proof killing rooms and dug vats for quicklime acid baths & a crematorium incinerator in the basement of his 3 story castle of horrors, complete with fake battlements and windows covered with sheets of steel. The most famous of which was an asbestos lined room with gas jets where he would confine victims and watch them being burnt to cinders for kicks.

It is perhaps from those basic elements that the brain trust responsible for DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE found their inspiration for a story about a steel mill worker who goes on a killing spree after his mother -- who cruelly abused him as a child -- drops dead in her sitting chair. Character actor Dan Grimaldi is very well cast as Donny Koehler, a mommy obsessed loser and budding psychopath still bearing the scars of his childhood trauma where mom attempted to "burn the evil out" of his soul by holding his bare arms over a lit gas stove, which of course created a Freudian fascination with fire, his relationship with women, his mistrust of authority figures and religion. It doesn't quite answer the question of how he became interested in disco music but what the hell, that was the fad of the time. These days he'd be obsessed with Britney Spears maybe, which IMHO would make for an even more frightening portrait of insanity.

Several things about this movie actually click and make it a rewarding ride for fans of 1980s era slasher horror, the first being the setting. This is one of the most bleak and dismal looking horror movies ever, set on Long Island during a cold, inhospitable looking February that is actually quite unique: Most slasher movies are set during the warmer months of the year to afford the cast to walk around half naked in the great outdoors. By contrast this film is set within dank, claustrophobic interiors, specifically the wonderfully creepy, empty and rapidly dilapidating house that Donny grew up in, which is photographed from an interesting vantage point to make it look all the more isolated from the rest of the world. There are no neighbors to overhear the screams of anguish from Donny's victims, who's complete lack of hope for rescue is probably more disturbing than their on screen fates.

Much ado is rightfully made about Donny's first murder of a full-breasted young florist he tricks into coming home with him after wrapping up a get well bouquet for his putrefying dead mother. She is knocked unconscious, stripped nude, hung by her wrists, doused with gasoline and lit on fire. The sequence is convincingly staged but again what struck me about the murder wasn't how graphic it was so much as that she has utterly no hope of salvation and is merely present in the story as someone to suffer horribly for the benefit of the camera. Then there is the scene in the men's shop where Donny is outfitted for a night on the town in a disco ensemble suit that would have made John Travolta envious. Others have questioned it's relevance to the story and my thought is that it depicts just how isolated Donny is from the world around him. And reflects the filmmakers' disdain for the whole disco era subculture.

Aside from the young florist no characters in this story are sympathetic, there are no good guys and even the local minister ends up a charred reminder of how the community failed Donny by turning a blind eye to his mother's cruelty. Next time you are waiting in line at the grocery store and some pathetic loser starts screaming at their misbehaving kid tell them to knock it off lest the young urchin someday grow up to buy an asbestos suit and flamethrower. Psychopathic mommy obsessed losers are a dime a dozen and you might just end up saving the life of a hot young florist with pert nipples. We need all of them we can get.

6/10

Psycho meets Thank God It's Friday

[avanderyacht-68798 · 5/10 · 27 February 2019]

Like disco and hate your mother? C'mon in! Otherwise, DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE

Norman Bates with a flame thrower

[Stevieboy666 · 7/10 · 29 March 2020]

Cult horror movie about a young man who goes off the rails when his overbearing mother, with whom he still lives with, dies. The first thing that he does his turn the volume up on his stereo! Then he constructs a fire room in the large, creepy house and uses it to burn young women to a crisp using a flame thrower. The first death is particularly graphic but after that the rest are off screen. In fact the movie is pretty much bloodless. His bosses calls him a sicko, and this is just at the start. Psycho is an obvious big influence here, even down to the music in one scene, but the film is also similar to Maniac too. This was made in the era of disco and we get a glimpse into the music and fashion of the time. Banned in the UK as a Video Nasty in the 1980's - and it is a pretty nasty, but well made movie - now thankfully available to watch uncut. If you want blood and guts then probably best to look elsewhere but DGITH is a grim, exploitive tale of abuse and madness that will linger in the memory.

What ever happened to movies like this?

[Dolemite-19 · 6 September 1999]

As a big fan of horror I really liked this flick and it made me wonder whatever happened to these kind of movies. Horror films used to be disturbing and always pushing the limits of what people can handle. Now all it seems to be about is impressing 14 year old teenyboppers with these hyped flicks like Scream and Urban Legend. Bring back the movies like Don't Go in the House, I Spit on Your Grave, and Maniac and keep the teenybopper trash.

Donny boy has got a special talent of enticing women inside his house.

[Fella_shibby · 6/10 · 27 March 2017]

I first saw this in the late 80s on a vhs.

Revisited it recently.

Donny keeps hearing his dead mother's dominating voices as the body of his mother is still kept in the house a la Psycho style.

Donny, inspite of being an introvert, somehow succeeds in picking up females n is able to lure them in his house.

Donny's house is a brilliant piece of location and adds an eerie sense.

Coming to the bad points, the movie is very slow. Nothing happens in the first 50 mins or so n most of the killings r offscreen.

The end too is a big meh.

What happens to the poor priest is never shown.

The movie has zero tension n zero suspense.

One can call it a poor man's version of Psycho n Deranged.

Thoroughly sick and perverse 80's "slasher"

[Bogey Man · 3/10 · 19 September 2002]

Joseph Ellison's film Don't Go in the House was made in 1980 when the huge slasher and horror boom was at its greatest in America and many nasty and mean spirited slashers and splatter flicks were made, each trying to be more repellent and violent than the previous. Don't Go in the House has one outrageously sick murder scene which makes the film easily to the hall of (sh/f)ame of the all time B level horror films.

The story is about a sick man Donny (Dan Grimaldi), who was tormented by his even more sick mother when he was a child. The mother burned his arms everytime he had been "naughty" and he even lives with his mother being at his thirties or near that! Soon his mother dies (or is killed, never explained clearly considered how twisted the mind of Donny is) and he starts to hate females very much, using his flamethrower and self made torture chamber with his help. He keeps (of course) his mother rotting with the other corpses in his house and searches for new victims everyday, until his colleague starts to smell something, quite literally!

I definitely agree with Chas. Balun that this film is too sick and perverse to win too many fans. The guy likes to burn chicks. Can anyone name even more sadistic and painfull way to kill someone than burning? Especially when chained so that the victim can't even run and try to extinguish the fire. The opening murder has a female chained and covered with gasoline and then burned with the flame thrower while Donny watches next to her and listens to her screams probably enjoying what he witnesses. That scene is among the nastiest and most over-the-top sadistic acts of terror I've seen in any slasher and video nasty of the 80's, and it is no wonder this film is included in the British list of Video Nasties, a group of films which were banned when the British censorship law began in the early eighties. Don't Go in the House was released on video also after that, but cut by many minutes, as could be expected, and due to this film's scenes of females being killed and tortured, this wouldn't pass uncut even today, I think.

This film is co-written and co-produced by female, and it is no use in saying how this film hates females and is misogynistic overall. This film hates males as much as after all, the murderer doesn't get away and gets to taste his own medicine, the kind of ending which would NOT be in a film if it was misogynistic. Also, this film hasn't got any powerful themes and it isn't even interested in saying something about the society or human beings; it is just exploitation to make some bucks at the time these were so popular among drive ins and other places showing low budget horror films.

Don't Go in the House is technically pretty bad and doesn't have too interesting atmosphere or any "real" horror elements, but that can be expected from these films. The soundtrack tries to create some tension, but doesn't succeed pretty well. The special effects are pretty few but at least the opening killing is almost as realistic as possible, and the crew didn't even use prosthetics as they would make people look unnaturally fat, so they used just tricks and other techniques to make the scenes look more realistic. The nightmare scenes and visions the killer has are effective just occasionally, and after all there's nothing too talented and cinematically noteworthy in this film. Still this can be recommended for all the fans of low budget horror of the eighties and those interested in the Video Nasties. I give Don't Go in the House 3/10 and won't forget it too easily either!

You want sleaze? Look no further.

[FilmFatale · 7/10 · 21 January 2007]

Poor Donald. As a child, his mom held his arms over open flames to "burn the evil out" of him. Now he's all grown up and working at the local incinerator - but he's still under Mama's thumb.

Donald comes home from work one day to find Mama dead. At last, he's free to play bad disco music really loud and jump on the furniture. Soon, he buys a flamethrower and an asbestos suit & starts stalking women to bring 'em home & burn 'em alive in the fireproof spare room. Can Bob (his only friend) and the local police stop Donald from killing again? If you want to cry "misogyny" about any horror film, this is the one. The agonizing murder of Donald's first victim is excruciating to watch. He also has a few scenes berating the charred corpses in the sitting room.

DGitH isn't a great movie, but it's a sick classic that's oddly compelling. Dan Grimaldi's lack of acting talent actually enhances his performance and almost gives a documentary quality to the events. The music is especially awful - but appropriate. Things get weird with a supernatural twist, but dead Mom is sure creepy. Recommended.

A laughable, low budget flame fest

[Afracious · 1/10 · 17 February 2000]

This film is sort of a poor man's version of Hitchcock's Psycho, no make that a destitute man's version of Psycho. It is a very low budget and grainy pic with Dan Grimaldi starring as Donny Kohler, a guy who was burned by his mother as a kid and so now takes to burning women in a metal room in his house. His mother is dead upstairs in a chair, he burns her too and she talks to him. I have to say Grimaldi is not bad in his role, his eyes are shifty and he looks a bit like David Berkowitz, and the sort of guy who would commit these heinous crimes. There is an amusing scene at a disco, where Donny dressed up in his complete 70's disco outfit tries but fails to impress a chick, instead he sets her on fire and gets beat up by her brother. The ending is alright and was also used in William Lustig's Maniac. A word of warning though, don't buy the DVD of the movie, it is very poor.

Another Mommy-Obsessed "Slasher" - This Time With A Flame-Thrower!!!

[EVOL666 · 7/10 · 11 April 2006]

DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE is a relatively un-talked about film that falls squarely in the slasher genre - though our lead psycho never actually "slashes" anyone...preferring instead to burn 'em up with a military-style flame-thrower. Comparisons can be drawn to such other mother-obsessed horror films like PSYCHO, PIECES, and MANIAC - as our main-man is all whacked-out due to the treatment he received as a young lad at the hands of his over-bearing momma.

Donny (who reminds me of a cross between Mike Damone and a young Dustin Hoffman...) is a quiet kinda guy whose mother just died. She used to burn him as a kid for being "evil", but I guess a kid's still gonna love their mom - even if she was an abusive bitch. Not taking her death too well, he consoles himself by picking up random chicks and torching them to death in a makeshift steel room in his newly inherited house. He then keeps the charred remains around so he can dress 'em up and talk to 'em. Things get really out of hand for Donny when one of his friends from work invites him out-on-the-town with a couple of broads to the local disco. Needless to say, Donny ain't too good with social interaction of the courtin' kind - and makes a big mess of the whole scene. This brings a bunch of "heat" down on Donny that makes it impossible to hide his obsessions any longer...

DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE is pretty standard slasher material with the flame-thrower as a "different" element. The film is relatively misogynistic due to our psycho's penchant for torching hot young ladies...but the concept itself is nothing new. There are a few choice scenes (the disco scene is flat-out hilarious...) and a couple tits-n-ass shots, including some brief full-frontal. Donny's performance is pretty good too as the quite and mild-mannered freak. Definitely worth a look to slasher fans but don't expect anything extremely original or "shocking"...7/10

House it going?

[lee_eisenberg · 5/10 · 16 August 2022]

The slasher genre was just taking off when Joseph Ellison's "Don't Go in the House" got released. Much of it comes across as a "Psycho" ripoff. I will give it credit for some sexy scenes and a cool soundtrack (it was also the tail end of the disco era). As with any movie released around that time, it's interesting to see a town's local businesses, long since shuttered and replaced by chain businesses.

All in all, the movie delivers what it promises. As long as you don't expect anything profound or serious, you won't be disappointed.

Great study of deadly obsession!

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 8/10 · 22 September 2003]

"Don't Go in the House" is an obscure early 80's horror film that seems to be forgotten by many horror fans.The film is well-made and slickly directed by Joseph Ellison,a talented musician and a screenwriter.Donny Kohler is a tormented young man.His mother tortured him by holding his bare arms over a gas burning stove.He grows up to be a psycho who delights in burning young women with a flamethrower inside his steel paneled bedroom crematorium.The film is filled with truly sick atmosphere and there is one of the most sadistic burning killings ever captured on screen.The underlying theme of child abuse is also taboo-breaking."Don't Go in the House" is often trashed by some politically correct people-still it beats most of the crap being put out today.Highly recommended.

Nasty Piece of Work

[tysonrowlands · 7/10 · 15 July 2022]

After watching this, I was surprised by how little gore there is and yet I felt dirtier and nastier than I have after watching far gorier films. In that sense, you have to hand it to Don't Go in the House. They make you use your imagination a lot more than most of these movies and it's much more effective for it. The acting and mood are better than average as well.

Another sick horror film about a woman hater who kills defenseless women.

[Michael_Pilkington · 1/10 · 2 June 2002]

I rented this sick horror film along with "Don't Answer the Phone!". Just like "Don't Answer the Phone!", this one is about a woman hater who kills defenseless women and it sucks. Just about any horror movie released in the early 80's starting with "Don't..." sucks. "Don't Go in the Woods" is just as bad (read my review).

A traumatized young man (Dan Grimaldi) was burned by his mother as punishment for being bad when he was a boy. After his mother dies in her sleep, he builds a fire-proof room where he lures unsuspecting women into his home so he can tie them up, strip them of their clothes, pour gasoline on them and burn them alive.

There is only one on-screen death by flame-thrower, and it's very unpleasant. Anyone finding this entertaining must be sick and most likely hate women. This one is to be avoided like any movie released around that time and starting with "Don't..."

My evaluation: NO STARS

Grim tone and atmosphere makes for a grueling study of insanity.

[justin2rue · 27 March 2004]

It doesnt get much more grim than Dont Go in the House folks. And I'm not just talking about Donny Kohler's choice in music "When we get home....when were alone" . There is something profoundly artistic about this film whether it be intentional or not. The bleakness and raw style,or lack of style in definetely not for everyone. here is no safe cutaways to humor,just gritty.realistic film.

Crackles,pops,film grain and all. DGINH runs a little long in the tooth but for me it just adds to the realism. Its interesting to hear that Tarantino backs this one up. One last thing,If you think this movie is a hack job and that no one came out of this ,you'd be wrong. Good ol' Donny Kohler(Dan Grimaldi) went on to fame in Law and Order and the Sopranos.

A not-for-the-faint-hearted meditation on violence

[RomanJamesHoffman · 7/10 · 22 December 2012]

'Don't go in the house' is a gruesome, low-budget, surprisingly effective, and even oddly moving inclusion on the UK Director of Public Prosecutions list of video nasties. The premise is ghoulish: Donny (Dan Grimaldi) is a misogynistic pyromaniac who builds a special room in his house where he incinerates women before keeping their charred corpses in another room.

So far, so…well, exploitation film. However, DGITH raises itself far above this macabre premise in daring to present the killer in a sympathetic light and (at least for me) succeeding. This is done through various expository means which reveal Donny's homicidal urges to be the result of an abusive childhood at the hands of his domineering mother. In particular, the seeds of his obsession with the cleansing effects of fire are delineated to the moments when his mother would burn his forearms on a stove to punish transgressions whether real or imagined. Donny then continues to grow up in the family home under his mother's watchful eye until one day he returns from work to find that she has croaked. Initially jubilant, he quickly begins hearing voices and his fragile psyche soon breaks under its own weight and he descends into a bottomless personal Hell.

The film obviously has shades of Hitchcock's 'Psycho' (1960) in its mommy-dearest theme, and also Polanski's 'Repulsion' (1965) as we watch him succumb to his inner demons. However, in contrast to the artistic sense these directors imbued their films with, the wholly unaestheticised exploitation-style presentation of the murders communicates the full brutality of the act which makes the subsequent attempt to portray Donny himself as a victim all the more daring.

Depending on one's moral standpoint, it could be equally argued that as a serial murderer Donny deserves the harshest of punishments, and on the other hand he could be seen to deserve pity and sympathy. Beast or bird with a broken wing? What's clear is that the movie is boldly treading on dangerous ground, which is why the film ended up on the list of Video Nasties. The aim of the list was to enable prosecution for the sale of movies which were deemed to have the power to morally corrupt…which is ironic for a film with such a strong moral message that violence begets violence and that even the worst of us are, in fact, victims.

Nasty, But Well Done Slasher

[juniorrickman · 7/10 · 22 September 2020]

If you like down and dirty feel bad movies like Maniac or Nightmare, Don't Go in the House is more of the same. It's less gory and explicit, but the mean spiritedness and ick factor is still present throughout.

It's well made with a great central performance by Dan Grimaldi as the mother obsessed serial killer who likes to lure women back to his house, tie them up, and torch them with a flamethrower.

And it burns, burns, BURNS... The House of Fire!

[Coventry · 5/10 · 22 February 2006]

What the hell is the deal with murdering psychopaths and their dominating mothers? After the far more superior horror titles "Psycho" and "Deranged" (that are, admittedly, inspired by one and the same real-life killer, namely Ed Gein), "Don't go in the House" is another sick low-budget film that entirely revolves on a mommy's boy with severe mental issues who turns to gruesomely killing women after the death of his mum. As a child, Donny's mother punished him by holding his bare arms over a burning stove. Now, and with his mother's decomposing corpse still around, Donny lures young women to his ominous dark house where he then chains them up and burns them alive with a flamethrower! Yikes!! "Don't Go In The House" is inane and shamelessly exploitative 80's horror with a mean-spirited attitude towards women and a minimum of credibility. Still, if you like aggressive and misanthropic horror (the kind they hardly make anymore nowadays), you might be very interested in seeing this sick puppy! The best way to describe it is as a crossover between the uncanny storyline of "Psycho" and the ill-natured grossness of "I Spit on your Grave". The extended sequence in which florist girl Kathy Jordan is killed in Donny's basement is very disturbing and easily one of the most repulsive things I've ever seen. There's few other gore but trust me, this one particular sequence is more than enough of that. Too bad that this film has the most painfully bad and illogical structure ever! The first half hour, which also contains the aforementioned burning sequence, is very compelling, atmospheric and in one word great! You almost get the impression that you're watching an overlooked horror gem but then suddenly the dreadfully boring middle section kicks in. Nothing really happens for about an hour and even the killings aren't shown on screen anymore. And then finally, the totally ridiculous climax (involving a weird hallucination-sequence) pretty much ruins the entire film. It's a damn shame. Enter at your own risk...

"You won't mind if I drop these things off at my house first?"

[gigan-92 · 7/10 · 5 July 2012]

This movie is about as good as it can be. The acting is all right, I myself finding the performance of Dan Grimaldi quite well done. There are even some generally frightening moments I enjoyed. The score by Richard Einhorn is also pretty interesting, quite menacing when it gathers full strength. Problem is the film's story borrows somewhat from Hitchcock's "Psycho" that preceded this film by well over two decades. Technically speaking, the lead characters from these two films are quite the same in motive and disposition; difference (the most important thing to keep in mind) is that Anthony Perkins was allowed subtly and mystery to his performance as Norman Bates. This film is so out right with its villain there's not much mystery, just violence.

However, I still find this movie a hoot to watch, though by no means a horror classic.

Sick utter trash

[preppy-3 · 1/10 · 30 October 2001]

Pointless, sadistic film about a man who was tortured by his mother with fire as a child. He grows up, picks up women, strips them, chains them up and sets them on fire. I saw this piece of crap back in 1980 when it came out and I was appalled. The sequence in which we see a chained, nude, screaming woman doused with kerosene then set on fire is one of the most revolting in film history (this got by with an R????). I can (unfortunately) still remember that sequence and remember more than a few people walked out of the theatre--I wish I had joined them (I think I was too stunned to move). Also the film is boring, stupid, badly acted, badly directed and just plain trash. I can't believe some people think this is a good movie. It's definitely bottom of the barrel material--right down there with "Last House on the Left" and "I Spit on Your Grave". Everyone involved with this atrocity should be ashamed with themselves. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!!

Flamethrowers and Disco.

[Darkweasel · 6/10 · 1 October 2014]

Donald Kohler is having one of those days. First he sees one of his workmates seriously burned by an exploding aerosol can in an incinerator, then his boss calls him a faggot for standing there and not helping, and then he gets home to find his mother dead. Unlucky.

Donald is far from downhearted though. After crying for a while, he starts hearing voices. Voices which tell him he can do things he wasn't able to before. He can stay up late, he can play his music loud, he can turn his basement into a fireproof death chamber and burn girls alive with a flamethrower. You know? Guy stuff.

One of many '80s horror films with the word "Don't" in the title, DGITH looks at things from the loony's point of view, even making you feel a little sorry for Donald when you see what a vile old harridan his mother was. Of course, when he's onto horribly burning his third victim alive, your sympathy towards him does tend to wobble a bit.

Nowhere near as shocking as it would want you to believe, DGITH is actually a very sombre, low key affair with a pretty good central performance from Dan Grimaldi (Patsy Parisi from The Sopranos), and a surprisingly effective first death scene. Although Psycho is a massive influence, it also looks as if in turn, DGITH managed to influence William Lustig's Maniac (also set in New York), most notably during the dream/paranoia sequences.

A lot better than I expected. 6/10

Ineptitude Sinks Good Concept

[S.A.B. · 2/10 · 23 July 2000]

Some of the most painful films to watch are those which are plainly sincere, but completely inept. The ultra-low-budget horror flick DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE fits this description more than any other film I have ever seen. The film's plot concerns incinerator worker Donald Kohler (Dan Grimaldi), who was brutally burned by his mother as punishment as a child. After his mother unexpectedly dies, Donald begins bringing women back to his home and burning them alive, in a twisted scheme of revenge against his deceased mother.

I believe that this film intended to be a grim shocker, showing how the effects of past child abuse have driven a seemingly normal man over the edge. However, ineptitude in almost every possible department make this film extremely difficult to watch. The acting is generally quite poor, though Grimaldi does have his moments as the psychotic Donald. Director Joseph Ellison fails to build any dramatic tension or suspense, which is a necessity for any film with such unpleasant material as this. And more than anything else, this film suffers from absolutely atrocious editing. While the death of Donald's first victim is shown in excruciating detail, in a truly shocking scene, his other killings are shown completely offscreen. Additionally, a scene showing Donald shopping for disco clothes seems to go on forever, without having any relevance to the plot. About the only thing the film has going for it is a decent score, and a generally creepy atmosphere.

Because of this ineptitude, the film is very difficult to watch. It fails to ring true as a psychological suspenser. The shock and sleaze value is diminished by the fact that only one killing is shown in graphic detail. And most importantly, the fact that the cast and director seem to be taking the film seriously and trying their best makes the film mostly devoid of unintentional humor (unlike the 1981 schlockfest PIECES). As a result, DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE is virtually unwatchable, as it fails to entertain on any level.

* out of ****

What? Creepy verstehen surrealism isn't enough??

[iate · 10/10 · 9 May 2004]

First off, I don't like real life violence, but I like realistic violence in the appropriate media forms. That being stated, I appreciate the effort and crafting of any horror film that does good with what it has, which is what this film does exactly and which is the reason why I love it. But there is a part of me that cannot understand why they thought this movie was so bad. I mean sure, it has obvious signs of a low budget production, a little bit of a strong focus on a sub-theme layered somewhere in the movie and a bit of ambiguity, but everything else from the mundane spoken lines, the acting (especially with Mr.Grimaldi...hey, every big career has to start small) the synthesized music and disturbing imagery that you could rarely find in horror movies were memorably effective.

I can understand how some people just don't think it's scary in general and I'm not worried about that at all, but what confuses me is when people give it a bad grade for being 'sick' and 'perverse'. Were they just expecting some lame kill scenes like the kind we see today where we see the killer with weapon in hand, we see the victim scream and then we suddenly cut to camera two and they're magically dead? I particularly understand that some people are sensitive to such material and want to express being politically correct in their every day lives (apparently with the old movies they watch as well), but come on ladies and gentlemen!

This movie takes steps in a different direction! It pulls you into the life of a throughly traumatized man (hence verstehen = a walk in another person's shoes), it was made a few years after famous real-life serial killers such as Jeffery Dahmer, Ted Bundy and David 'Son of Sam' Berkowtiz were caught. All disturbed men who performed terrible acts of cruelty and murder due to the horrors of their personal traumatized lives, and you don't find it horrifying, scary, disturbing and/or unique to witness the fictional account of such a man who let his squelched mind wander too far on a positive gamut at all??

If you cannot deal with the aspects talked about in this movie then watch something else and don't complain about how sick a horror movie is. It's a HORROR movie to begin with, it's supposed to be that way! But if you are looking for a psychological horror movie that is uniquely creepy and different for a change (I'm really getting tired of that old 'EEEK', splat, ketchup-on-the-wall crap), and if you KNOW you can take the explicitness, then be my guest, hop on in, watch the movie and see what you think!

Don't Go in the House

[ryan-10075 · 6/10 · 8 July 2020]

Prior to the first time I was to see this film I was thinking I am probably going to hate this movie and dismiss it as just another early 80s slasher. But, once getting into the film I was surprised and enjoyed it. This film was a video nasty in the UK due to the kill of the first victim and child abuse.

A young man named Donny Kohler (Dan Grimaldi) has a fascination with fire due to the abuses he undertook as a child, but just as important has a relationship with his dead mother and in turn needs to pile up victims using his flamethrower and have ongoing relationships with them as well.

Really owes a lot to Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO, but does well even though some of the material was pulled straight from that film. Grimaldi is good in his off-centre performance and the film really rests on his shoulders. That being said some of the secondary characters' performances ain't that great.

Inept is the word that comes to mind

[bensonmum2 · 1/10 · 13 February 2006]

Based on a lot of what I've read about Don't Go in the House, it seems to be a Love It or Hate It kind of movie. There appears to be very little middle ground. Put me in the Hate It category. If you take a look at some of the other stuff I've reviewed and enjoyed, you'll notice I do not automatically write-off a movie because of a low budget. Some of my favorites fall into the low-to-no budget category. But what those movies have that is sorely lacking in Don't Go in the House is talent. This is one of the most inept pieces of celluloid I've watched. It comes off as some kind of lame Psycho rip-off without anything approaching entertainment to be found in the entire runtime. It's dull, poorly acting, poorly directed, and poorly scripted. I feel like I've just flushed the $11.98 I paid for the DVD down the commode.