Review: House of Evil
(2017)
By William Pattison
For Horror Bob’s Blog
Gore and scares everyone and welcome to my latest movie
review. This time I’ll be looking at the retro 70s style demonic haunted house
thriller House of Evil.
House of Evil tells the story of Kate and John McKey (played
by Lucy Drive and Andrew Harwood Mills) who have moved into a remote old
mansion in the countryside. Kate is a portrait artist and John is a
photographer. They have come to the country for inspiration, the quiet and to
start a family. Unfortunately, unknown
to the couple the mansion is infested with a demon and the spirits of its victims.
As time goes on the couple begins to suffer horrifying nightmares. John starts
to get obsessed with his photography and spending all his time in the cellar
where he has his darkroom. Kate sees phantom children and keeps dreaming of the
demon stalking her and her unborn baby.
I loved the style of this film. It reminded me of the
haunted house films of the late 60s and 70s, like House of Dark Shadows. The
clothing, hair styles, light blue Volkswagen van the couple drives screams the
70s. John even has the long sideburns that were popular. Also the pace of the film is very 70s,
meaning slow, which will annoy a more modern audience, but for me it was a nice
change. The annoying part for me was when the cult with the old guy in the
Catholic priest outfit show up.(Spoiler) Having them explain to Kate that they
had called up the demon, before the last owners of the house murdered
themselves, and that Kate’s baby is not really John’s but the demon’s. I just
found that a lazy, sloppy, way to end the film. After all the build-up and work
the filmmakers put into the story to end
it in that way, like The Last Exorcism, spoiled the film for me. So,
unfortunately, I can’t recommend this film. Though it did manage to capture the
70s feel and pace the last ten minutes of the film trashes all that good
work. I ended up leaving this film
feeling cheated and I don’t want to put anyone reading this through that….Also
they tried to end the film by saying that it was based on a true incident…I
sorely doubt that….
Keep on Creepin’, Horror Bob’s Blog
