Synopsis: A film crew uses a house where seven murders occurred for a movie and ends up regretting it.
The House of Seven Corpses utilizes one of my favorite tropes in film. The “making a movie within a movie” bit spans genres but specific favorites of mine lie firmly in the horror world. Particularly Return to Horror High and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. Both employ it in a way that enhances the narrative rather than distracting from the story. When it comes down to it, you don’t want something that just ends up feeling like a procedural. Walking you through the steps of filmmaking. You want something that will pull you in and make you feel like you’re watching the chaos occur in real time. In case you were wondering, this didn’t do that.
Eric Hartman (John Ireland) has assembled a cast to make a horror film about the Beal House. The catch? He wants to film at the actual location where seven mysterious murders occurred, the real Beal House. Edgar Price (John Carradine), caretaker of the house, takes the cast and crew on a macabre tour. Showing them every location and reciting the manner of each death before taking them to their rooms on the top floor. David (Jerry Strickler), one of the crew finds The Tibetan Book of the Dead and suggests excerpts be used for authenticity in production. But doing so raises more than they bargained for.
The final act is where all the action happens. David reads from the book, repeating a chant that summons the dead to come to him. While Gayle (Faith Domergue), one of the actresses reads from it as well during a scene. A zombie rises from the grave and begins killing the crew. But not before some accidental deaths occur that resemble the historical deaths of Beal House.
Here’s a quick rundown. Gayle shoots another actor, then dies by hanging. David attacks Eric near an open grave with the marker of “David Beal 1847-1896”, coincidence? Maybe. Anyway, David gets thrown into a grave only to emerge as a zombie and chases Eric back into the house. Eric discovers his crew murdered then gets a film camera dropped on his head by a different zombie three floors up. It all culminates in a zombie grabbing another dead actress and carrying her back into the grave with him. It’s all very fast and somewhat strange. I’m sure there are connections but I’m just not seeing them.
The House of Seven Corpses, from the open, feels like we are watching the behind the scenes making of a film. Highlighting the drama between actors’ egos and the relationships formed from years of collaborative work. Then when the in-film production is nearing its end, the director of the film we’re watching realizes he’s supposed to be making a horror film and tacks that element on to the last 20 minutes. Ending up feeling extremely haphazard and sloppy.
The acting is good from some recognizable names of early to mid century film. The film is well shot. The director was adequate. But the movie itself…meh. The trope of a film within a film contributes nothing to the overall story arch. Maybe I’m in the minority here though. I’m sure there’s an audience for The House of Seven Corpses out there but I’m certainly not it.
Don’t get me wrong, I liked both aspects of the film, but putting them together doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I love John Carradine though. Having him as the caretaker, basically feeding bits of the backstory in order to establish the thinnest of connections was a good call. Aside from that, as a horror fan, it probably should have been a neat & tidy 20 minute short. The slow moving chaos was a welcome sight after sitting through the first two acts.
As always, if you want to judge for yourself you can find this on most streamers but I caught this on Tubi as of this writing.
1.5 out of 5
So grab your popcorn, kill the lights and join me again tomorrow as we continue our journey on this strange little trip down the 31 Days of Horror rabbit hole. See you soon…
