The House Of Seven Corpses DVD Review
The House Of Seven Corpses is a movie about a movie being made about killings that actually happened in the house that it’s being shot in. During the course of the shooting, a secret black magic ceremony room is found along with a “Tibetan Book Of The Dead”. The crew decide to use actual passages from the book in their movie, with disastrous consequences. A corpse rises from the graveyard outback and slowly stalks the crew.
Did Tibetan people traditionally write in Latin and English? This movie would have you believe so. There are more than a few inconsistencies in this movie. The grounds-keeper (John Carradine) is seen cavorting in the cemetery and entering a grave to the horror of two actors. It comes out later that it was staged for the film, but not entering the grave which is what they were most creeped out by. This is never explained.
The single zombie in this film is made up pretty good for 1974. He’s thoroughly decayed, but not entirely filmed. For the most part he’s cast in shadows and from behind in a less is more sort of strategy. Most of the special effects you see in the film take place while the crew in the movie are filming, in other words, it’s not a kill-crazy gore-fest.
The House Of Seven Corpses is pretty slow paced. There’s not a whole lot of story to it. They tried to put a twist at the end, but it just comes off as illogical and confusing. It blows my mind that this film was made in the same year as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as the two styles of horror films are worlds apart, but feel decades apart. It’s funny to think of The House Of Seven Corpses as a much more toned down House Of A 1000 Corpses, the relativity is just about right. This could be a classic to someone, but it’s a snooze-fest to this zombie fan.
