PopHorror Let's Get Scared
One Friday night when I was in eighth grade my dad went to the local video store to rent movies for the night. Normally this wasn’t a good thing because when he went by himself, he would come back with a bunch of Clint Eastwood movies or some random western or war films that none of the rest of the family enjoyed. This night was different though, and in addition to getting The Outlaw Josey Wales (for like the millionth time) he also grabbed a little flick called Don’t Go in the House.
I was excited when I saw that he got it because I had never seen it and was curious about it. We popped it in the VCR (after Josey Wales, of course) and kicked back to enjoy it. Unfortunately, at the time I just couldn’t get into it and thought that it was more than a little boring. To be honest, I had forgotten all about it until several years ago when I decided to give it another chance since I was older and (hopefully) a little wiser.
So, what did I think about it after watching it again after all those years? Was it a lot better than I remembered it being or was it really a total snoozefest like I recalled it being?
Keep reading to find out…
Synopsis
A deranged man (who was abused by his psychotic mother as a boy) who is obsessed with fire lures women into his house so that he can set them on fire and burn them alive.
I’ve got to admit, I really enjoyed Don’t Go in the House the second time I watched it. It’s a decent little flick that is a lot better than I remember it being and I had a good time with it.
The premise is simple enough, but it is effective. We have a total whack job named Donny who was horribly abused by his mother (who enjoyed burning him to keep him in line) when he was younger that totally loses his mind after she dies and leaves him all alone in the house where he grew up. He decides to lure women to his house (or straight up kidnap them and bring them there) where he strips them nude, chains them up, and burns them to death with a flamethrower.
While it may not be the most original idea in the world the premise works and makes for one extremely disturbing movie in a lot of ways.
Don’t Go in the House is a slow-burning (no pun intended), character-driven horror film that does a good job of showing Donny’s decent into madness (not that he was all there to begin with) and the horrible things that he enjoys doing to others. It’s as effectively creepy as it is disturbing, and one of the scariest things about it is that there are people like the main character out there in the real world that are capable of doing the things that he does.
It’s a more realistic film as it doesn’t feature monsters, demons, or an unstoppable supernatural maniac like Jason running around chopping people up and the fact that something like what takes place in the film could really happen in the real world is probably the most unsettling thing about it.
Dan Grimaldi (Made in Brooklyn, The Sopranos) does an amazing job of bringing Donny to life and while he is a little sympathetic due to what happened to him at the hands of his mother when he was younger he is also just scary as Hell in general as well. He’s obviously got some serious mental problems and is in desperate need of some help, so you can’t help but feel a little sorry for him as a result. At the same time though, you also can’t help but hope he gets caught and gets what is coming to him after you watch him burn several women to death with a flamethrower.
In a lot of ways, he is a lot like Frank from the 1980 horror classic Maniac with a little bit of Henry from Henry: Portrait of Serial Killer thrown in for good measure. Grimaldi does an awesome job here, and I am glad he was cast in the role as I am not sure if the character would have been as effective had it been portrayed by another actor.
I’m all about death scenes and movies with high body counts, but the murders that take place in this film are a little hard to watch. Being burned alive isn’t a fun way to go and is just horrible in general, so watching Donny strip down his victims, chain them up and burn them alive is pretty rough to watch, especially since the actresses being set on fire do convincing jobs and their screams of agony makes their murders some of the most disturbing death scenes I have ever seen.
I mean come on, imagine being chained up and intentionally set on fire. Sounds completely horrible, doesn’t it? I wouldn’t wish that on anybody and the fact that Donny is able to do this to people without feeling any remorse or guilt is what made my skin crawl about this movie. There’s no fun, wacky over the top deaths here, and that is one of the reasons that the movie is as troubling as it is.
I really dug Don’t Go in the House and am glad that I decided to give it another chance years after I originally saw it. I think one of the reasons I wasn’t into it as a kid is because I was all into slasher flicks (and still am) so I thought that it was boring because it didn’t feature an over the top antagonist like Freddy, Jason, Michael, or even Chucky.
It is very similar to films like Maniac and as a kid I think I just didn’t get what the filmmakers were going for at the time, but I appreciate it now as an adult. Give it a shot if you haven’t seen it, but be warned that parts of it are very hard to watch and if you are like me you will feel the need to take a shower after watching it because you’ll just feel dirty in general. It’s a great movie, but it will stay with you long after the end credits have rolled.
