HOUSE OF THE DAMNED (1963)
Article #1410 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-23-2005
Posting Date: 6-22-2005
Directed by Maury Dexter
Featuring Ron Foster, Merry Anders, Richard Crane

An architect is sent out to survey a deserted castle. When he arrives there with his wife, strange things begin to happen.

This movie is a low-budget cross between HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL and … another movie whose title I won’t mention here, because it gives away the ending. Let’s just say that the other movie is very well known and has an enormous amount of novelty value, and that the novelty value of this movie is of the same order. It’s directed by Maury Dexter, who was also responsible for THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH, and like that movie, I’m much more impressed with his ability to find great locations for movies (the castle is quite interesting) than his ability to make them lively or interesting. So what we get here are a few tepid scare scenes, lots of conversation, attempts at character development and conflicts that would have been welcome had they really led us anywhere, and an ending which manages to be both the most interesting and the most disappointing part of the movie. It had the potential to be a much better movie, but, as it is, it’s on the dull side and seems long at its 62 minute length.