The House Where Evil Dwells

What a surprise! The House Where Evil Dwells was an unexpectedly good haunted house movie that I stumbled across on NetFlix. It’s pretty similar to another movie, Ju-On or The Grudge, but it was made in the early 80’s, so it was appealing to see a different version of the same idea.

The House Where Evil Dwells starts out in mid-1800 Japan. A samurai comes home to find his wife in bed with another, and in a rage murders them all in a great bloody slaughter. Zip forward to modern day Japan (well, modern 1980’s Japan), where a young American couple have traveled to Japan so the husband can work. An old family friend, who lives in Japan already, has found them a house. Guess what house it is. The family finds out that sometimes old ghosts stick around. Will they survive, or will they be forced to reenact that horrible night?

Many people say the ghosts were quite silly, and well, yeah, they are a little. But I just chalk that up to it being an early 80’s film, and too many people expecting stringy-haired girls crawling around walls like you see in modern day Japanese horror films. It did at times feel a bit like a movie-of the week, outside of the nudity of course. But overall, I felt the idea and the plot felt fresh, even though I have seen Ju-On, The Grudge, and most of the sequels. It felt new to me anyway. The acting was better than most horror movies you find from that age, including Susan George who shines in the troubled, haunted wife role.

If you like the stream of Asian horror movies being churned out on DVDs, you might take a look at this one. It’s refreshing to see an early version of an idea we have seen over and over in movies today.

Rating: 4 Purrs for a gigantic crab attack and creepy ghosts in the soup