Sorry for my absence yesterday; Joe Bannerman was visiting, and we spent much of the extended weekend (get ready) watching bad movies…actually, we watched more good movies, so it was weird that way.
Back to back (albeit one in the late evening, the next in the following morning) we watched Hausu (aka House) and Umberto Lenzi’s Ghosthouse. Both of which Sandy Petersen introduced me to, so I was just paying it forward as Joe had seen neither. I’m not much for ‘stuff’ movies, where ‘stuff’ just happens with no rhyme or reason. Hausu is the rare movie, though, that always seems to know what it’s about despite the fact that is it continually and utterly nuts.
Ghosthouse is the exact opposite, making a very interesting compare and contrast, given that both films are haunted house movies that make not a lick of sense. The difference being that all the characters in Ghosthouse are utterly retarded; indeed, this might be the single most moronic group of people in horror film history. Ghosthouse also seems to have been made by idiots, a vibe you most definitely do NOT get when watching Hausu.
On the other hand, both films are wildly entertaining, and turn out to make a dynamite double bill.
Hausu is available via a typically wonderful Criterion disc, while Ghosthouse (Sandy had given me a copy, but it doesn’t play on my DVD player) I was able to burn a really quite decent copy off of from YouTube, where the entire film is posted.