Skip to main content

House of Mystery (1934) - William Nigh


This movie is extraordinarily mediocre. Nothing about it stands out, not even the witty banter. Which there is an abundance of. A stereotypical cast of characters is trapped inside of an Old Dark House type story line with an escaped Ape knocking people off one by one. A horrible constable comes to investigate, but does a horrible job and people keep dying off. This isn't a story line that that we haven't seen before. In fact nothing about this movie is that original. Aside from the origin of  the Ape is haunting this house.

The story-line deals with a guy that kills an Ape in India in 1910. He gets cursed and his curse is "supposedly" killing off anyone that comes in contact with their inheritance. Because of the curse a giant Ape is running around snapping necks. The acting is horrible and forgettable. There is almost no character development and the development that happens is boring and stupid. Yes, stupid.

The lead actress is so bizarre looking. Just look at her eyes in the poster. To the director's credit, he did a good job of keeping her profiled. Not really too many scenes with Wide-Eyes looking directly at the camera. The actors were all pretty bland. They were obviously written without much diversity. Yeah, they have their quirks and annoyances. However, they all feel the same. It is so generic. They had so many killer ape movies back in the thirties. This was definitely bottom of the barrel in terms of that. Horrible.

I wont recommend House of Mystery since there are so many other good movies out there from the thirties. These movies are starting to become really mundane. Hopefully, they can move out of these Old Dark Houses and into something a little more fun and interesting. Please. 


  • Also known as Curse of Kai
  • Old Dark House storyline combined with Ape antagonist!
  • Filmed with a Balsley and Phillips Sound System in Mono!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Human Monster (1939) - Walter Summers

Bela Lugosi turns in a fantastic performance. It is right on par with the exact same films that had made him famous like Dracula . My personal favorite being The Black Cat . Like the latter, this film suffered from poor circulation and lack of advertisement. Either that or the public wasn't interested in seeing Lugosi in anything else other than his famous bloodsucker. This film has a broad and well acted plot that was rich with detail.  Lugosi has two sides in this picture. His well loved and compassionate side. The other is a strict, brutal lone shark that acts as a sinister villain to blind and handicapped people. He really brutalizes his victims. It's a macabre message to pay your bills.  The film is slow moving and plagued by the usual setbacks from its time. Most of the nation wasn't really that concerned with horror at the time. But studios knew that they would always have an audience. This film is a prime example of that. It's sad because it's 
1 comment
Not scared yet? »

Ju-On (2000) - Takashi Shimizu

Watching Japanese horror is similar to watching British comedy. If you enjoy dry whit then you probably enjoy the boys of Monty Python in drag. That's the joke, they're dressed like women. Get it? Well, that's British humor. But if you're like most Americans you probably prefer Adam Sandler farting his way across a football field and hooking up with chicks that are way out of his league. Americans usually prefer this more in your face, crass brand of humor. My point is funny in England is different from funny in the US. The same goes for J-Horror. What the Japanese consider scary is very different from what Americans consider scary and it shows in this horror film. Japanese horror is generally slow (a little too slow sometimes), suspenseful and creepy. Ju-On is a creepy effing film. The movie has almost no soundtrack. It is incredibly suspenseful and the pay-offs are pretty awesome, but I think that it was done better in the American version (cultural t
Post a Comment
Not scared yet? »

Inseminoid (1981) - Norman J. Warren

What can be said for mindless schlock pictures like this one. They were pumped out in droves during the eighties. Inseminoid !? give me a break! It sounds like some pre-pubescent teenage boys came up with the title. On the plus side the movie isn't horrible to look at and it has a decent amount of gore. If you can separate yourself from the political incorrectness, then you might have a perfectly decent Sci-Fi Monster Feature.  A research team exploring caves on Jupiter accidentally awakens an ancient alien that rapes and impregnates one of the team members. She suffers from terrible shock and trauma, leading to a complete mental breakdown as her pregnancy accelerates faster and faster. Feeling threatened she decides to kill anyone she deems a threat. Can the rest of the research team survive or will they all become victims of INSEMINOID! Apparently this movie had a million dollar budget. That's really shocking considering the outcome of the picture. The acting
Post a Comment
Not scared yet? »