Stop me if you’ve heard this one; a young family gets a great deal on a beautiful home due in no small fact that the previous owner murdered his family in cold blood after being acted upon by some sort of demonic force…and wouldn’t you know it, the new patriarch starts hearing the same voices and begins thinking his family would look better inside an oblong box. That’s House on Elm Lake in a nutshell…it’s also The Amityville Horror, so you’ve definitely seen what this film has to offer…so why should you give it your time and/or money?
You shouldn’t. It’s boring, tedious, filled with sub-par acting and dodgy effects, and it’s idea of scaring the audience is to amp up the volume of the soundtrack, or have a character scream.
But, I’m not the type of guy to not have something positive to say about the film, so here goes; thank the powers that be that this film runs ninety six minutes and not ninety seven, because if I had to endure one more minute of it I would have smashed my fist through my laptop and I’ve only had it a week. Also, the old-timey Halloween costumes some of the ghosts wear are really cool, and the climax is a great piece of traditional comic book occultism…which makes me even madder, because the film makers clearly knew what they were doing, and could have easily made a fun fright flick, but they just chose to travel the road most traveled…it’s a real shame honestly…
If you love film’s like the aforementioned The Amityville Horror or more recent takes on the same themes like The Conjuring then go watch those and use this disc as a coaster.
If you want to inflict more pain on yourself, you can head here for more on House on Elm Lake from Horror Fuel…or ram a railroad spike through your eye…either/or.
