BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Mehdi Hoffman There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Stephen Abell This is a dark psychological thriller about the consequences of child abuse. Donny Kohler is a man who is growing increasingly detached from his life. One day, while he's at work he witnesses an accident which causes one of his work colleagues to catch on fire. While the rest of the workforce rush about trying to help the man Donny stands transfixed and spellbound by the sight.It brings back to him the memories of his mother's retribution for misbehaviour, where she would hold his hands and arms above the open flame of the kitchen hob. This triggers his psychosis, flames cleanse the sins of man... and woman.Kohler played admirably well by Dan Grimaldi - who is very good at making this psychopathic killer appear as normal - then sets out on his mission of cleansing his town. The most chilling part of this film isn't the killing or the portrayal of Kohler, but the killing room. Kohler covers the walls, floor and ceiling in sheet metal and adds a meat hook in the centre of the room, from which to hang his prey. It's the idea that he's thought this through to this extent so as not to burn down his house that makes it a very creepy and chilling issue and adds a deep psychological darkness to the character. However, there are issues with the story, especially in correspondence with Kohler's character. There are some scenes that don't quite gel with his personality. And some of the directing could have been better. The scene when Kohler goes out with his friend and ends up attacking his date is well thought out story-wise; however, it could have been acted and directed much better There is a few scene's like this.The director, Joseph Ellison, who co-scripted the story with writer Joe Masefield and Ellen Hammill, does create a good film with a variable pace and flow, which helps to create atmosphere and keep the viewers interested. However, I feel he could have done more to bring it above average.The acting is okay though nobody shines through or dominates the film. This is a shame because I think if Dan Grimaldi was a little stronger in his craft it would have made the film a hell of a lot scarier,Overall, the film suffers from averageness, though it is worth at least one watch. This is a film I would love to see remade, though adding a stronger cast and director, as I believe the story could make a classic film. I would gladly recommend the film to anybody who likes darker psychological thrillers and isn't too distressed by graphic and gory scenes. This left a chill in my bones and I will be watching the film again.

Rainey Dawn The film only held my interest for a little while then I ended up fast-forwarding, stopped to watch the part with him and the priest and then watched the crappy ending. I wasn't expecting much out of this film, and it isn't much.Basically his mother was strong in her Catholic faith, she took things literally especially "burning to purify". His mom burned his arms as a child every time she considered him "evil". His mom died at the beginning of the film, he's now free and he burns women. He also hears voices - voices of women particularly when he's about to do his killing.The ending is just awful - supposedly burned women he sees walking towards him (all in his mind of course) - just terrible. I think if this film was NOT an exploitation styled film but styled more noir-ish (like the psycho films) then I would have enjoyed the film a lot more.3/10

kapelusznik18 ****SPOILERS**** The film "Don't go in the House" is more of a statement against child abuse then the slasher or in this case burner horror movie that its comes at first across as. The star and psycho in the film garbage incinerator worker Donny Kholer, Dan Grimaldi, has been fascinated with fire ever since his religious fanatic mom, Ruth Dardick, used to hold the eight year old "Donny's" arms over a lit stove to burn out the evil that she felt was inside him. Now all grown up and crazy as ever Don gets his chance to get even with his mom, who just passed away, and the world for what she as well as it, in his sick mind, did to him.Searching out pretty women who's cars broke down or who need a lift home Don kidnaps them and later hangs then on meat hooks in his house and with a flame thrower, that he bought at the local Army/Navy surplus store, burns them alive. It doesn't take that long for a guilt ridden Don to realize what a monster he really is and seeks out his local Catholic Priest Father Gerritty, Ralph D. Bowman, for help before he does, by then he already murdered some half dozen young women, any more damage. Despite all the efforts by Father Gerritty and his good friend and fellow incinerator worker Bobby Tuttle, Robert Osth, Don's obsession with both murder and revenge, against his dead mother, gets the best of him. But in the end it's Don's many victims who untimely end up getting the best of him in what turned out to be a "Bonfire of the Insanities".Newcomer Dan Girlamdi looking like a young Dustin Hoffman does an excellent job as the crazed and as well abused, by his mom, Don Kohler who despite his addiction to murder & violence still invokes sympathy from the audience. This is done by the film-makers inter cutting his being abused as a child to balance off the crimes that he commits as an adult. This is not to excuse what Don does but give us an insight to his mind-set and how abusive children in extreme cases, like Don, become abusers themselves. And it does that in the very last scene in the movie where a future Don Kohler is brutally abused by his mom,while watching a news report on TV about the present Don Kohler, who in fact is very possibly turning him into the monster that he's to later become!

MBunge I'm sure Don't Go In The House wasn't a very good film back in its time and it certainly isn't one by today's standards, but it is a reminder of how much more interesting and worthwhile horror movies were before they became like pornography.Donny Kohler (Dan Grimaldi) is a sick, sick man. Horribly abused as a child, Donny developed a fascination with fire. When his abusive mother dies, that fascination ignites into murderous insanity. Donny creates an "oven room" in his mother's house where he burns kidnapped woman alive, then dresses up the torched corpses and leaves them sitting around so he can yell at them. Donny turns to his priest (Ralph B. Bowman) for help in stopping his deranged obsession but after a night at the disco with his only friend Bobby (Robert Osth) turns into a brutal disaster, Donny returns to his murderous ways and is eventually consumed by his own madness.Everything about this movie is primitively simple. The writing, the acting, the direction and the moral are all things you might see today from a very bright middle school student who makes a film with his family's old video camera and his friends from school. It may have had some shock value in the late 70s, but is tame by modern standards of violence and gore. There are a few moments that are still unnerving, but that's due to the difference between Don't Go In The House and what the horror genre has mutated into.Most modern horror films have a tinge of pornography to them. Their violence, depravity and gore are meant more to titillate and excite than to disgust or horrify. The audience isn't meant to identify with the victims. They're not even meant to identify with the killer. They're just meant to react to the acts of brutality on screen. Don't Go In The House predates that mindset. The violence in this movie isn't meant to be cool or entertaining. A scene of female nudity isn't meant to entice, but to emphasize how awful a situation is. This film doesn't want to thrill you. It wants to disturb you.Another way it departs from the roller-coaster approach to horror movies is that Donny Kholer isn't some unknowable, unreachable monster. He's a human being terribly twisted by childhood trauma, yet he still has all the normal feelings and needs of a human being. Donny is meant to elicit both revulsion and sympathy as the film raises the idea that people who do awful things are just repeating the awful things that were done to them. That's a much more nuanced take on evil than you generally get from any film, let alone a low-budget horror movie from 1979.Don't Go In The House isn't much as entertainment goes. Most of its frightening elements are dated and its pacing is flabby and flaccid. As a piece of cinematic anthropology, it's slightly interesting as a contrast to the modern horror film. If that sort of intellectual take on the genre appeals to you, give it a watch. Otherwise, I'm not sure it would be worth your time or money.