Reaction & Review | Fright House

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering an anthology movie from 1989. That movie is "Fright House".

Now I don't really know very much about this movie, outside of a couple of things. One of them is the casting, which I'll talk about in a second. The other thing is actually something of an oddity when it comes to this particular anthology movie. You see, most anthology movies would usually have about 4 stories at the minimum, sometimes even more. However, this anthology film only has about 2 stories to work with. And I'm not totally sure why this movie only wanted to work with just 2 stories. On the other hand, this movie is just under 2 hours long. So maybe they actually have something here that might be worth it for only 2 stories.

Now the other thing I wanted to mention was the casting, which was partially the reason why I wanted to cover this movie. In fact, you might already notice the names on the poster for this movie, but I'll still go ahead and talk about them here. One of the stars of this movie is Al Lewis, who was mostly for playing Grandpa Munster from "The Munsters" TV show from the 60's. And the other cast member Duane Jones, who was the star of George A. Romero's "Night Of The Living Dead". Which is a really good zombie film, and something I would be able to recommend if you are really into zombie flicks.

So, just based off those two names alone, this movie might actually be decent. I don't know if it's gonna end up being any good, but I am hoping for it to be, at the very least, interesting. So the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is worth watching at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Fright House".

18 minutes later

You know, guys, I totally understand that this is only the first story in this little anthology, but I'm gonna with you when I say this...I'm fucking lost here. Literally, almost nothing about this first story here makes ANY sense, and that's partially because of the pacing. It's moving too god damn fast that I'm having a hard time trying to figure out anything as to what's been going on so far! I'm hoping some of this weird shit will start to make sense soon, but I'm not sure if it will.

20 minutes later

Guys, I'm still trying to figure out what the fuck is even going on in this first story. I get SOME things, like Les is trying to investigate his brother's death, and all these connections that had to do with the other victims suicides. There's also a cult that's kidnapped Les's partner, and she's being used for a ritual sacrifice for...something. Probably an exorcism, not totally sure. I get THAT much. But I still don't know what the hell this is all leading to! It better have some decent payoff, because I'm beginning to lose interest with each passing moment that this story refuses to make some lick of sense. And I have a strange feeling that it's probably not going to, either.

12 minutes later

So, by possessing someone's body, you basically touch their head, and their entire face starts burning off. That's...sorta cool, I guess. Still doesn't really make much sense, but, then again, this entire story hasn't really made much sense, so why the hell should they start making sense now?

8 minutes later

Thank Christ, that first story is fucking done! I'm certainly hoping that the second story is gonna be better than what I just watched for almost an entire hour. God, I'm hoping for it to be better...

9 minutes later

OK, so...I guess this couple was killed by the toilet that wouldn't flush earlier because of...something that, I guess, must've clogged it. Probably would've been cooler if we actually got to see this sort of kill, but unfortunately, we don't. Kinda disappointed in that, really.

19 minutes later

I didn't think this was possible, guys. But somehow, this second story is even MORE confusing than what was shown in the first story. At least the first story had some things that I could piece together, but this second story is just not giving me ANYTHING to work with. Not only that, but this story is also boring as shit, too. Hopefully, I'll be able to process some of this shit by the time this thing is over, but I strongly doubt it at this point.

The Review

Well, guys...that was "Fright House". Let me go ahead and shut this crap off...oh...my...god. I'm trying to figure out what the hell I should even start with...? Um...well, I guess I could say that, going into this movie, I thought it was going to be a somewhat decent anthology film, because I like anthology movies. And while not everyone one of them I've seen has been good, such as "Terror Eyes", I was still able to find some kind of positive quality to it. This movie, on the other hand...um...

Well, let's just get into the movie itself and try to dissect what I just watched for almost 2 hours. Now, since this is suppose to be an anthology movie, I would usually start off by discussing the weakest story of any anthology flick. And in this case, it would have to be the second story known as "Abadon". However, I'm going to start this off in a way that I normally don't ever start any of my reviews with. And for this particular movie, I have to start with the editing. Because both movies have big problems in their editing. Mostly for the second story, which I'll get into in a second. But in the case of the first story, which is basically the main title of the film itself, it's more so of a pacing issue. Because with the first story, it felt like everything was moving at such a fast pace that you won't have any time to try and figure out what the hell is even going on in that first story. Now yes, I was able to grasp SOME things, such as the bits that I discussed earlier. But for the most part, I was totally lost on a lot of things that happened here. And had this first story gotten ANY kind of breathing room, I would've been able to make more sense of this confusing story. The worst bit editing in this movie is both during the ending, which ends in a VERY anti-climatic fashion, and during some part of the beginning, where Les gets a call from his brother, Bryan, about wanting to meet him somewhere. And during this whole bit, Les is the one doing the talking. Which probably wouldn't have bothered me so much...except for one bit of it where it's showing Bryan trying to pretend to listen to Les talking on the other end of the phone. Why is this an issue? Because a bit before that scene, they showed this EXACT SAME frame, shot for shot, with Bryan being silent on the phone while trying to get into contact with his psychiatrist Victoria. And that is fucking laziness, because they couldn't be bothered to film new material with Bryan on the phone! And mind you, that is the LEAST of this movie's editing problems, but that one certainly jumped out at me when I first saw it.

But then comes the second story, "Abadon", where the awful editing REALLY comes into play. Now I did know one other thing about this movie, but I didn't want to mention it until after I watched this second story. Firstly, this entire movie was originally just suppose to be the entire first story that was less than an hour long. But somehow this thing got stitched together as an anthology film. I don't know if it was because what they originally had wasn't enough to be considered a feature-length film, but regardless, we got another story attached to this movie. Speaking of which, the "Abadon" story was originally a different film by itself, which is simply called "Vampires". And somehow, they were able to edit that story into this movie. Not only was that movie edited into this movie, there was also another film called "Negatives" that was also stitched into this movie. And for the latter film, it was never fully completed, because some of the crew members for that movie never got a paycheck. So they left production, and thus that movie got stitched in along with "Vampires". Now the only reason as to why I can think of as to how both movies were able to be combined as one was because both "Vampires" and "Negatives" starred Duane Jones. And they probably had to think of a way to combine both movies, since "Negatives" was never fully finished. And you can totally see how well that turned out, because there are scenes in this second story that don't make any sense. The biggest examples are when Duane Jones and some other girl are talking, and throughout those few scenes, we get multiple shots of some tarot cards, which has NOTHING to do with what they're talking about, because the tarot cards themselves mean nothing to the overall movie! There's also another scene where they're talking, and it shows a caption which is suppose to take place 75 years earlier, and it just shows some woman sitting near a window as she's sketching a portrait of what, I assume, is suppose to be Duane Jones's character. My guess is that because they had leftover footage from "Negatives", they they tried to shoehorn those scenes into this movie in hopes that it would make some sense. But, surprise surprise, it didn't make any sense whatsoever.

Now, let's aside the god-awful editing for this movie, and try to get into the actual writing itself for these stories. And I'm gonna start with the main title story "Fright House". Now as I stated earlier, I was able to kinda understand some things that were taking place. And it kinda starts off with Les's brother, Bryan, getting killed shortly after he discovers a location in which the gates of hell might be located at. Now they don't show how Bryan gets killed, but we do get an explanation that he was killed because one of his wrists was sliced open. I personally didn't think it would be that easy to kill someone by just slitting their wrists, but what do I know? So anyway, it comes down to Les, who is also a detective, and his partner, to try and figure out what happened to his brother, and a bunch of other students whom were also reportedly being killed off. He tries to get information from his boss, Captain Levi, which is Al Lewis's character in this movie, but he's being intervened by him, simply because of the fact that he's been so frantic on trying to find out the circumstances behind all the deaths that have been going on near this frat house that has been abandoned. Essentially, guys, this story is basically a cult story featuring nude women, satanic rituals, and a bunch of lazy shit we've seen before. Now before all that, you probably wouldn't have guessed it, because the story made no fucking sense before all that, and how we get to all of that is a different story all together, which most of it makes no fucking sense either.

Speaking of which, let's talk about the second story "Abadon". Sweet merciful fuck, this story...I'm still trying to figure out even half of the shit that went on in this story. The closest thing I could gather is that there's this woman named Abadon, who is secretly trying to feed on the positive energy that the students who attend the school of the same name as Abadon's, so that she can live longer. I guess you could say that she's a vampire, but it's not made entirely clear here. And to do so, she has this machine that her father built that's made to suck out the positive energy of the students that's able to help her live longer so that she can become immortal...I guess. And Duane Jone's character needs the help of one of these students, who somehow was able to discover this secret, which later leads into her being the chosen one for Abadon to possess because of...reasons. Now I know that I've been beating a dead horse with these words, but I'm literally NOT kidding when I say that nothing about this story makes any sense. In fact, about almost halfway through this thing, I was beginning to lose brain cells attempting to figure this shit out. Which was probably a mistake, because I was beginning to fall the fuck asleep, because I was just so bored with everything that went on during that story. So with that said, I want to propose a challenge to any viewer that's interested in watching this movie. If you can somehow figure out even half of the bullshit that goes on during this movie, doesn't have to be all of it, just 50% of it, then congratulations, you have a better brain than I do, because mine went dead when I attempted to figure out Abadon's story. The only other movie I can think of that was even close to making me lose brain cells was when I watched "The Item". And that is pathetic on every single fucking level, because that movie was borderline unwatchable, and this second story I would say almost rivals the shit that went on in that movie.

My god, guys, I cannot stress enough on how awful this movie truly was. The writing for both of these stories are so nonsensical that it hurts to even watch. But again, I am curious to see if there's anyone there that can even attempt to make sense of, at least, half of the bullshit that went during this movie. I'm genuinely curious there. But anyway, let's finally move onto the acting. The acting here, at least for the first story, was OK. It wasn't really good, but at least the cast sorta tried there. The best actor, by far, would have to be Al Lewis as Captain Levi. He's the only one in this movie that seems to genuinely care about what's going on in this movie. But then again, you could probably give Al Lewis almost any kind of terrible script, and he would still be able to polish a turd just enough in order to make it look like gold. The second story, however, had the exact opposite. Because the acting in the "Abadon" story is mostly wooden and terrible. And unfortunately, that also includes Duane Jones. Because his acting in this movie is some of the worst I have ever heard from him. Now mind you, that isn't really saying very much, considering that the only other film that I ever saw him in was "Night Of The Living Dead". And he was really good in that thing. However, when you compare his performance from that movie into this one, it sounds like he just phoned it in and did not care at all. Now, in fairness, I can't really say that this is all his fault, because, one, you can only do so much when you're given a script that's just horribly written for you. And secondly, since the other two movies he starred in were edited into this story, I can't really judge his performance in this thing too harshly. That being said, though, I CAN say that everyone else in the "Abadon" story mostly sucked. Like I said earlier, most of them phoned it in, and most of them didn't even try. Which makes sense, given what I just mentioned about what an actor can do with such a god-awful script. So overall, the acting here is kind of a mixed bag. The only shining spot in the acting department is Al Lewis, but it's not really enough to save this movie whatsoever.

Costuming here is OK, for the most part. Special effects in this movie, at least when it comes to it's blood effects, are kinda shit. Most of the blood looks like it might've came from maple syrup. And even for a low budget movie, it's not really that spectacular-looking. Makeup effects are...OK, I guess. Again, none of it looks great, but I can't really say that it's the worst kind of makeup effects I've ever seen. So really, the special effects in this thing kinda suck.

Beyond the horrendous editing, the camerawork here is OK, but the picture quality looks terrible here. Now that might be because I was watching this movie off YouTube, and the only version that was available to me was, probably, ripped from a VHS or even a Betamax tape. I have no idea what this thing would look like on DVD or Blu-ray, but I can't imagine that they would look any worse than the version that I watched off YouTube. Lighting here is almost pitch black when it comes to any scenes involving darkness. You won't be able to see a lot of what goes on in this movie, especially when it comes to scenes where it's filmed in the dark. Those scenes just looked awful. Sound-mix here also kinda sucks. And as for the music...oh dear god, the music. Now this is only prevalent for the first story, but I'm gonna tell you this, guys. There's one track in this movie that seems to be played on a loop. And it's mostly during the latter half of the story where it's filmed inside of the frat house. It's suppose to sound haunting and spooky, but I, personally, just wanted that shitty music to end. Because, similar to what I mentioned back in my review for "Mardi Gras Massacre", there is almost no hint of silence that goes on during that bit, because the retards who put in that music thought it was a good idea to just have it play out on an endless loop throughout almost the ENTIRE portion, up until towards the end with it's anti-climatic ending to which it finally stops. And you will wish for it to stop as well, because you will get sick and tired of listening to that music as well. I want more filmmakers to know that if you are going to add a score into your horror movie, you don't have to use music for EVERY scene. Just only in small doses. That way, for when you do need it, it makes your horror movie much more tolerable. Anyway, the score here would've been OK, but that fucking music in that first story turned into garbage thanks to it's over-usage.

So...when all is said and done, guys, am I able to recommend "Fright House"? The only way I can recommend it is if you are dumb enough to accept the challenge that you can figure out more than half of the shit that tries to pass itself off as a movie. And if you can, then, like I said, you have a much more tolerable brain than I do, and I commend you for that. But for everyone else, no. Hell-fucking-no. This movie is, without question, the WORST anthology movie that I have ever seen. And I don't think anything else, in terms of anthology movies anyway, are gonna get worse than this thing did. Both of these stories sucked. Which is a horrible thing for an anthology film, because you could usually find at least one decent story, even in a bad anthology movie like "Terror Eyes". The only thing that's sort of a positive is Al Lewis, but that's mostly because he was from a classic sitcom that I enjoyed watching growing up. But even then, that is not even close to saving this movie, because thanks to it's awful writing, atrocious editing, special effects that are 'meh' at best, and most of the technical aspects being shit, I don't see myself ever watching this piece of shit ever again. Which is a real shame, because the casting was partially the reason why I wanted to watch this movie, and the fact that it was an anthology movie also raised my interest in watching it. But unfortunately, it turned out to be far, FAR worse than I could've ever imagined. So much so that it ended up being the worst anthology film I have ever seen. So...go figure. So anyway...seeing as how Al Lewis was in this movie, and the credits also advertised him as Grandpa Munster, I do have the entire first season of "The Munsters" on DVD. So, I'm just gonna go marathon some episodes of that right now, because I need to make my brain feel better after watching this crap that I sat through for almost 2 hours.

And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.