''Don't Go in the House'' is a 1980 American

psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between t ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

written and directed by Joseph Ellison, written by Ellen Hammill and Joe Masefield, and starring

Dan Grimaldi Daniel Grimaldi (born March 7, 1946) is an American actor and mathematics professor who is known for his roles as twins Philly and Patsy Parisi on the HBO television series ''The Sopranos'', various characters on ''Law & Order'' (1991-2001), '' ...

. Its plot follows a disturbed man who, after suffering an abusive childhood in which his mother punished him with burning, becomes a

pyromania Pyromania is an impulse control disorder in which individuals repeatedly fail to resist impulses to deliberately start fires, to relieve some tension or for instant gratification. The term ''pyromania'' comes from the Greek word (''pyr'', 'fi ...

c and

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

who kidnaps and burns alive any women who resemble her. Filmed in the historic Strauss Mansion in

Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey Atlantic Highlands is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, in the Bayshore Region. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 4,385,obsessed with fire—his fixation stems back to his childhood, during which his sadistic, abusive mother would burn him on their gas stove to "burn the evil out of him." After returning from his factory job one evening to the dilapidating Victorian home he shares with his now-elderly mother, Donny finds that she has died in her upstairs bedroom. This spurs mixed emotions—initially of excitement, as he is finally freed from her—but alternately, fear, as he begins to hear a disembodied voice in the house that seems to be hers. The following day, Donny calls in sick to work and spends the day lining an upstairs room with aluminum, effectively fireproofing it. That night, Donny visits a flower shop right before closing and is sold flowers for his mother by a florist named Kathy Jordan. Outside the shop, Donny witnesses Kathy miss her bus before being harangued by a group of men. When Donny offers her a ride, she accepts. Donny talks Kathy into meeting his mother, but she grows nervous once inside and attempts to call for a taxi before Donny incapacitates her. Kathy regains consciousness and finds herself naked and chained to the ceiling of the metal-walled room. Donny enters the room in a

fire suit A racing suit or racing overalls, often referred to as a fire suit due to its fire retardant properties, is clothing such as overalls worn in various forms of auto racing by racing drivers, crew members who work on the vehicles during races, tra ...

, douses Kathy in gasoline, and burns her alive using a

flamethrower A flamethrower is a ranged incendiary device designed to project a controllable jet of fire. First deployed by the Byzantine Empire in the 7th century AD, flamethrowers saw use in modern times during World War I, and more widely in World ...

. The following day, Donny fails to show up to work, and instead kidnaps a stranded female motorist, again murdering her by immolation. He then proceeds to singe his mother's corpse before dressing it in her clothing. Donny repeats the same murder scenario that night with Linda, a woman he assails at a grocery store, and arranges her alongside his mother and the other two female victims. Donny's co-worker, Ben, phones him that night and warns him that their boss will fire Donny if he fails to show up to work again. Meanwhile, Donny is haunted by apparitions of his burnt mother, who appears to stalk him inside the house. Donny spends hours regaling stories of his life to the four corpses, which he has arranged and posed in chairs in a bedroom. Riddled with guilt over what he has done, Donny visits Father Gerritty, his local

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

, to discuss the nature of evil. Donny confesses to Father Gerritty that his mother repeatedly burned him to rid him of his innate "evil." Later, Donny accepts his friend Bob's invitation to go on a double date at a disco. When Donny's date tries to pull him onto the dance floor, she inadvertently brushes his arm over the table's lighted candle, triggering memories of his childhood abuse. Enraged, Donny smashes the candleholder onto her head, setting her hair on fire. Donny flees the disco, and en route home encounters two drunk women whom he convinces to come home with him. Bobby tries to find Donny and meets Father Gerritty on his way to Donny's house. When no one answers the front door, they break it down and rescue the two women. Donny sets Father Gerritty ablaze with his flamethrower, but Bobby manages to put out the flames and rescue him. Donny takes refuge inside his mother's bedroom. The voices express their disappointment in him, and the burned corpses come to life and attack him. He frantically fights them but dies; they drag him to the floor as the house burns down around him. Sometime later, a young boy named Michael watches the news report about Donny's death. His mother scolds and beats him for not turning off the television as she asks him to. When she leaves the room, Michael hears the same voices as Donny did, and they tell him that they have come to 'help' him.

Cast

Production

''Don't Go in the House'' was filmed on location at the Strauss Mansion in

Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey Atlantic Highlands is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, in the Bayshore Region. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 4,385,Richard Einhorn Richard Einhorn (born 1952) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. Einhorn graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University in 1975, and studied composition and electronic music with Jack Beeson, Vladimir ...

. The score features electronics mixed with orchestral and dissonant sounds. The soundtrack was released by

Waxwork Records Waxwork Records is an American independent record label. It has released film scores and movie soundtracks on vinyl as well as comics. History Waxwork Records was founded in 2013 by Kevin Bergeron and Sue Ellen Soto. By 2015, it had re-re ...

in 2019 as a double LP, making it the first-ever soundtrack release for the film.

Release

''Don't Go in the House'' was originally given regional theatrical release, opening in

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

on April 9, 1980.

Censorship

Despite some respectable critical notices, ''Don't Go in the House'' attracted controversy almost immediately because of its graphic depiction of the death of Kathy Jordan, Donny Kohler's first victim, and the central theme of childhood abuse. The film was cut by almost three minutes when it was released in Britain in the winter of 1980, but an uncut version was released on video by the Arcade label in 1982 – knowingly or not, they advertised the release as "a true 'nasty' from Arcade", and it quickly wound up on the

DPP DPP may stand for: Business *Digital Production Partnership, of UK public service broadcasters * Direct Participation Program, a financial security * Discounted payback period Photography * Digital Photo Professional, Canon software Law en ...

's list of banned titles, or

video nasties Video nasty is a colloquial term popularised by the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (NVALA) in the United Kingdom to refer to a number of films, typically low-budget horror or exploitation films, distributed on video cassette that w ...

. The pre-cut British cinema version was released on video by the Apex label in April 1987, though the film was finally passed uncut in 2011.

Critical response

On the

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website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, ''Don’t Go in the House'' holds a 50% approval rating based on 5 critic reviews, with an average rating of 3.75/10. John Stark of the ''

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...

'' panned the film for its depiction of violence, writing: "I would love to be flip and sarcastic about a new horror picture called ''Don't Go in the House''... But I can't. This movie is so sick and grotesque that it makes you spit nails." Writing for the San Pedro ''News-Pilot'', Joseph Bensoua was critical of the film, writing that it "should be avoided at all costs unless, of course, you want to be bored to death. The entire movie lacks suspense or terror and follows a cut-and-dried plot."

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

gave the film a three and a half out of five, writing that, ''Don't Go in the House'' "is one of those rare films that works really well despite the fact that rips off better-known movies" and "it's a bitter, ugly, and nasty little horror movie that doesn't pull any punches and is just as seedy today as it was when it was made. It's effective in that it gets under your skin despite its low budget origins and obvious flaws". ''Hysteria Lives!'' gave the film a similar rating, writing, "Grim is the only word for Joseph Ellison's psychological terror movie" and "It's easy to forget just how

nihilistic Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning of life, meaning. The term was pop ...

much of American genre cinema was as the 70s turned into the 80s (especially with the avalanche of

cheese Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During production, ...

that was just round the corner), but ''Don't Go in the House'' is a chilly reminder of times when practically anything went". In a retrospective, Dave J. Wilson from

Dread Central Dread Central is an American website founded in 2006 that is dedicated to horror news, interviews, and reviews. It covers horror films, comics, novels, and toys. Dread Central has won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Website f ...

felt the film was underappreciated, and called it "a dark, chilling, grim and gruesome depiction of the tragic repercussions of child abuse".

Home media

''Don't Go into the House'' was first released on VHS home video in 1982 by

Media Home Entertainment Media Home Entertainment Inc. was a home video company headquartered in Culver City, California, originally established in 1978 by filmmaker Charles Band. Media Home Entertainment also distributed video product under three additional labels — ...

. It was re-released on VHS by

Video Treasures Anchor Bay Entertainment (formerly Video Treasures and Starmaker Entertainment) was an American home entertainment and production company. It was a subsidiary of Starz Inc. Anchor Bay Entertainment marketed and sold feature films, television ser ...

on May 15, 1988. The film was released for the first time on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

by DVD Ltd on December 2, 1998. It was later released on DVD by

Shriek Show Media Blasters, sometimes abbreviated as MB, is an American entertainment corporation that was founded by John Sirabella in 1997 and is based in New York City. It is in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American ...

on November 29, 2005. Shriek Show would later re-release the film on February 5, 2008, as a part of its three-disk "Grindhouse Psychos!" film pack. American boutique home video label Scorpion Releasing then released the film on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

, uncut for the very first time in 2015. In November 2021,

Severin Films Severin Films is an American film production and distribution company known for restoring and releasing cult films on DVD and Blu-ray. History The label was created in 2006 in Los Angeles, and other offices were founded in New York City and Londo ...

announced they would be releasing a new special edition Blu-ray on January 25, 2022. Arrow Video released a special edition Blu-Ray in the UK in February 2022 as 2 disc edition and a special "Video Nasty" 3 disc limited edition, giving viewers the chance to watch the original remastered uncut version, the extended version as well as watching it in a retro 'VHS' form.

Notes

References

External links

* *{{IMDb title, 0080646 1980 films 1980s exploitation films 1980s psychological horror films 1980s serial killer films American exploitation films American independent films American psychological horror films American serial killer films American slasher films Films about Catholicism Films about child abuse Films scored by Richard Einhorn Films set in country houses Films shot in New Jersey Films about mental health Obscenity controversies in film Video nasties 1980s English-language films 1980s American films 1980 horror films