Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

noonien-soong Well... I don't think I need to say much more about this movie, given that it is an Ittenbach creation... however, seeing that I need to post 10 lines in comments, I have to say that this is probably one of the worst horror movies I have ever seen (and I have seen a few). The acting... well, where has it gone? It's just not there. People are running around like they don't even know the camera is rolling, and the plot does not make it better. The more you see of this movie, the more you actually want to kill the persons acting in it. Especially the guy playing Arthur Palmer. He is most likely the worst actor I have ever seen, and probably the most annoying too. Yes, Jürgen Prochnow has a small role in this movie... but compared to other films he has made, his acting is poor and lifeless. I can only assume this has something to do with the movie in total, and that he may have lost a bet to the instructor... don't know, and frankly, don't care. Movies like these should not be allowed on TV... period. This will be the last movie from Ittenbach for me I'll ever see. Enough is enough...Yes, I hated this movie.....

BA_Harrison With his early, (very) low-budget splatter films, Olaf Ittenbach proved that he could make a well constructed horror movie, despite technical limitations and a cast that obviously needed a few more acting lessons. Therefore, since it had a larger budget, I was hoping that Chain Reaction would be a leap forward in terms of overall quality for the German master of gore. But apart from a some flashy CGI credits, a few crashes, and the presence of a 'real' actor (Jurgen Prochnow), not a lot has changed. In fact, to be honest, the acting is actually worse than usual, and the script... well, it maketh me laugh!A dead crow drops from a tree to the ground and dislodges a rock, which hits a car (belonging to a doctor), that crashes into a bus-load of violent criminals, who escape into the woods (taking the doctor hostage) and eventually wind up in a house occupied by weird religious folk (who speaketh in ye olde dialect), who then transform into flesh-eating demons. Phew!To be fair, I like the initial premise—that something as insignificant as a dead bird falling from a tree can set off a series of dreadful events—but unfortunately, so does Ittenbach. A lot. So much so, that he uses the idea three times within his film! After his captors are all killed, the good doctor escapes, only to run into the arms of the law, who suspect him of foul play and decide to keep him under lock and key whilst they investigate.The doctor is put on a DOC bus to be transferred to jail, and, guess what happens..... that's right—a dead crow drops from a tree to the ground and dislodges a rock, which hits a car, that crashes into the bus-load of violent criminals... and so on.And when a third dead crow causes even more trouble later on, one wonders whether it might be wise just to cut down all of the trees along this stretch of road, to bring down the accident rate.As always with an Ittenbach film, there is plenty of gruesome gore on display (with some very nasty crushed heads being the most sickening of these), but with quite a long running time, there are also periods in which the film is just too 'dry'. Some of these moments offer some (presumably) unintentional laughs (the aforementioned olde English spoken by the demon people is hilarious), but other parts are just plain dull. Jurgen Prochnow is given nothing much to do, there is lots of mundane chit-chat, and the whole 'deja-vu' angle quickly starts to irritate.Ittenbach is a director who has shown a lot of promise in the past; he certainly knows how to put together a decent gore scene. Perhaps, in future, if he gets a reasonable amount of dosh to spend, he should invest in a decent scriptwriter and get a better cast. I'm sure he has a horror 'classic' somewhere up his sleeve, however, on the strength of this effort, it's hard to believe.

Coventry Olaf Ittenbach is a fairly gifted special effects wizard; there are quite a few movies to confirm this statement. But at the same time he's an absolutely terrible director and, unfortunately, there are several movies to confirm that statement as well. Somebody really ought to tell him - tactfully - that he isn't cut out to sit in the director's chair and that he should exclusively focus the rest of his career on make-up effects. The gory bits and nauseating effects form the only highlights in "House of Blood", as the rest of the film is one major pitiable effort, complete with poor plotting, total lacking of coherence & suspense and probably the worst acting performances you've ever seen in your life. The basic premise is already rather stupid, and then still the script has the pretension to appear intelligently structured and even poetic! The official title (although "House of Blood" is a much more suitable one) refers to the unlikely chain of reactions caused by a small event. A dead bird falls from a tree and causes a rock to roll down a hill and into the windshield of a car. This subsequently results in a collision with a prison bus and all hell breaks loose. Four heavyweight criminals escape, take a doctor hostage and end up in a farmhouse where time seemingly stood still. The people there, wearing medieval outfits and talking with a strange accent, turn out to be bloodthirsty demons and repulsively kill the unwelcome visitors. The doctor escapes, but naturally the investigating police detective (Jürgen Prochnow, of all people, he must have been desperate for work) doesn't believe his story and arrests him. Next thing he knows, the doctor is sitting in a prison transport bus and the whole nightmare starts over. What, is this supposed to be some kind of surrealistic fairy-tale or something? All the characters, whether good or evil, are insufferable and you'll secretly wish they will all die an excruciatingly painful death. Who knows, maybe your wish is granted. My best advice is to try and totally neglect the ridiculous plot and just fully enjoy the grotesque gore! We're treated – in great detail – to faces getting smashed to pus with rocks or shot to slush with shotguns, wild axe-decapitations, ripped off testicles, torn open throats and much more. Utter garbage, but exhilarating & inspiring grossness… At least it's something.

bc200036 The worst movie I have ever seen... and I have seen some really bad movies. The story line made no sense at all (I wanted to write that in all caps, but IMDb doesn't allow it!) The acting was horrendous. The gore was okay at best. Just an overall waste of time. Go to your nearest movie store, close your eyes, and pick out any random movie you can find... I'd bet a lot of money its way better than this piece of crap. Please, don't waste your time watching this. I have seen a lot of horror movies, and if there is any genre out there that gives you a high chance of seeing garbage, it would be gory horror films. Even with that being said, this movie is by far the worst one I've ever seen. Its almost surprising that someone can really put their name in the credits of this movie and not feel like a loser. Avoid!