HOUSE
OF SEVEN CORPSES (1974)Director: Paul Harrison
Image Entertainment
HOUSE
OF SEVEN CORPSES (1974)There's nothing I like more than an all-star horror opus full of well-seasoned, veteran actors at their vigorous best. Cleverly owing its title to Hawthorne's classic novel, HOUSE OF SEVEN CORPSES plays like a sort of CHILDREN WOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS with adult actors, and there's plenty of bickering, snootiness, vanity and drunken shenanigans to make for great characters (played by great character actors).
The plot concerns a low budget film crew making a period horror film in a creepy house with a cursed history. The crumbling Tibetan Book of the Dead is read from and strange things begin to occur. John Ireland heartily plays the determined but hasty director who makes William "One Shot" Beaudine look like a procrastinator. 50s starlet Faith Domergue plays his "past her prime" leading lady, as he tells her to get some sleep or she'll have "bags under her bags" and reminds her that he rescued her from a less respectable profession than acting.
John Carradine makes the most out of the small role of Mr. Price ("What's his first name, Vincent?") the house's irritable caretaker. Perhaps the caretaker could have hired a cleaning service to clean and maintain the mansion. Watching him try to relax and read a book, while constantly being interrupted by outside noises, had me snickering to no end. Charles Macauley (he was Count Dracula in BLACULA) extends his exploitation credits by emulating an alcoholic ham actor who conceals his very bald head with a Tony Orlando wig and mustache.
Although slow at times, the adequate number of "film-within-a-film" proceedings keep things interesting as the actors sport fancy dress and do a lot of bloody stabbing in front of the camera. There is an overall uneasy, eerie feeling, and the film commences with the appearance of a gruesome rotting ghoul (conjured up by Domergue during a shoot) that creeps out of the cemetery grounds for revenge.
HOUSE OF SEVEN CORPSES is the kind of film most people remember viewing on late night TV or through a number of budget video releases. The film has never looked pristine in the past, and Image's full frame DVD transfer doesn't bring it to a level of spectacular appearance either. However, even though it's overall presentation is filled with minor blemishes and some subtle murkiness, the film looks superior than ever before and the sound is very clear for a change. All in all, the late night TV feeling lives on in this acceptable presentation. There is also an additional Spanish language soundtrack. (George R. Reis)