The House Where Evil Dwells

Moving into a new house can be frightening. Moving into this one is deadly. Edward Albert (Mimic2), Susan George (Straw Dogs) and Doug McClure (Maverick) star in this horrifying haunted-house tale about a young American family moving into an old Japanese house where the dead don't rest...and history is about to repeat itself. A century ago, a samurai brutally murdered his adulterous wife and her lover before taking his own life. Now, the Fletcher family has found what they think is their perfect Japanese home - not knowing it's the same house where the murders occurred. But as strange events escalate and the ghosts of the dead toy with the living, the Fletcher's discover they've become unwitting players in a horrible reenactment...one which they may not survive! (88 minutes, 1982)

This was a surprisingly good film for a 70s style B movie with an awesome ending, and I mean awesome. The movie begins set in the mid 19th century with a samurai who discovers his wife cheating with another man. The husband flies into a rage and slaughters them before committing seppuku. This all took place in the small house that later in the 20th century would be rented to the American family. And that's when all the crazy stuff begins. The family starts experiencing more and more odd events in the home including giant crabs that terrorize the daughter. For some reason all three ghosts work together to manipulate the wife and husband leading them down a path to destruction involving the family friend. Inexplicably, rather than just gettin the hell out of that freak house, the couple decide to seek the assistance of a local odd Buddhist monk. But the monk's efforts were not enough to hold off the manipulative ghosts. All this manipulation from the three ghosts eventually leads to the awesome final scene.

This is absolutely a corny and humorous movie because of the 70s style, the goofy low tech translucent blue ghosts, and giant crabs, but it was also a very entertaining film even before the kick ass ending. One of the other positives of this film is that it included one or two good nude scenes along with the entertaining 70s aspects, a couple of good bloody sword scenes and the killer ending makes this a highly recommended movie to see.