House of Purgatory (2016) Reviews

• Hit and Miss

  scythertitus2017-06-11

  This film starts off as promising. There is some good dialogue and the characters are generally interesting and believable. Then somehow several of the characters are just dropped as our four mains (not necessarily the most interesting of the characters introduced either) decide to ditch their party and go find a haunted house. Once this happens things slowly start to go downhill, not only does the ditching of these other characters make their scenes at the beginning completely pointless (why not just start at the haunted house?), but it means that things that looked like they were going to come into play later actually don't. So we get stuck with the four leads as they go through this house, and even that can't hold together long. There is just no pacing in this movie, it builds you up and then lets you down. I did quite like their approach on what is really scary in life, but most of the time it doesn't seem like the characters should really be going through what they are, which again could make sense, but the ending undoes that too. So overall this film feels like it is chasing its own tail, almost as if it had two completely different writers that had completely opposing ideas about what film they wanted to make. There is some good here, but it is buried underneath a pile of confusion and mistaken misdirection.

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• It's was there, then it flopped...

  ncallinicos2016-12-08

  The start was as good as any horror film, but somewhere along the way this film lost itself. There are some good scenes in this film, but they lacked to go the distance. Maybe to explain why some of the weird happenings were happening could help. I feel they rushed too quickly into things with leaving much to be desired. About half way through I was still engaged and then I felt they dropped the ball hard. I like far out ideas and things out of the ordinary, obviously I chose to watch this film. Yet with really no attempt to create any sort of understanding of what is going on, it became disappointing. One of those moments where it ends and your sitting there thinking what crap. Not left thinking or wondering about it in a good thought provoking way. I feel if someone used the same premise, and gave more insight into the what and why of this film they could make a decent film. More time and effort maybe, I can't help to think this film was rushed. As for watching I can say you can definitely skip this one.

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• Ghastly, but not good ghastly

  Kingkitsch2017-01-06

  "House of Purgatory" is based on the urban legend of a remote haunted house attraction that is so frightening, visitors get their money back if they can complete the entire creepshow. According to the legend, no one has ever finished the course. Interesting premise, unless the fabled haunt turns out to be one of those ultra-Christian spook shows that feature the sins of pedophilia, homosexuality, driving while drunk, and oh yeah, sex out of wedlock. Four annoying teenagers (who are terrible actors in their late 20s pretending to be high school stereotypes) leave a dull Halloween party to seek out the haunted attraction, and hey bingo, they find it. Getting into the house for free is like, awesome!, so in they go. The silly scares begin to take on surreal qualities and suddenly the foursome gets split up and must confront the Evangelical evils based on their deepest secrets. The drunk driver who's killed someone and runs away is given the shortest time and not much punishment. Evidently vehicular homicide is some pesky annoyance, like acne. The sex before marriage "girl" gets tied to a gurney, and suddenly her Christian mommy and daddy show up. Boy howdy, now little miss open legs is hugely pregnant! Mommy, who's carrying a bible, castigates the girl for her predicament and leaves, not offering a shred of compassion. Daddy just takes off his glasses and follows mommy away. Naturally, there's a bloody painful birth with a skull-painted guy in surgical scrubs and a hoodie acting as midwife. Hooray! It's a baby made of hamburger, which is all you can guess from the 1.5 nanoseconds you can see it. At least this poor unwed teen mom didn't abort, so she should get points for that. And now, the guy who's secretly gay although everyone thinks he's a badass jock. Like you couldn't see this coming at all. He's left to wander the high school hall, and finds his locker glowing and filled with pictures of man butt. His daddy appears, calls him all the things you know he's going to, and beats his son. Later, the jock "homo" is surrounded by his classmates and daddy, who proceed to beat him to death with what look like pool cues. There's an implied rape by daddy and his cue. Why the poor guy is killed for his secret is homophobic in the extreme. The treatment this character gets was telegraphed during the opening sequence in which three high school "girls" are carving pumpkins and getting drunk on another mommy's stash of vodka. One of these girls spends a long time reviling a male classmate because she believes he's gay. Finally, and the most degrading storyline, is the victim of child abuse who gets another meeting with her pervy uncle and a pillow across the face while he molests her again. Why is this person is being punished for the actions of the uncle? This is revolting. Are we supposed to think she was at fault, perhaps luring the uncle and maybe enjoying the abuse? One wonders if the director of this idiocy got money from some Fundamentalist group to vomit up this garbage, or perhaps he's got a secret of his own he's attempting to exorcise? The only real horror here is that it did get made, and although only available on direct to DVD or the shallow end of some cheap streaming service, it still sits there waiting to kill your soul by telling you what a sinner you are. Absolute crap, with a terrible ending you've seen 1000 times. Avoid.

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• No refunds.....

  FlashCallahan2016-11-29

  A haunted attraction repays a portion of the admittance fee for every floor patrons are brave enough to complete, but nobody has ever made it all the way through to the end. On Halloween night, four teenagers go looking for this urban legend. What they find is the titular house, the legend itself. Once inside the house, the teens quickly realise the house is more than a haunted attraction. The house knows the things each of the four keep hidden, and forces each of them to come face to face with them........ Another Halloween film that sounds really good on paper, but the final product is less than stellar, and quickly runs out of steam once we hit the titular house. The main problems with the film is the atypical teenagers whom have all the tropes that teenagers in films have had for the last thirty years, and you can guess who's going to live and who's not before they even open their mouths. Krause is okay as the skeleton, but he is far too serious to be the 'host' of the house. What we need here is a camp, sinister Captain Spaulding type character who plays mind games with the group, in a friendly but sinister manner. And once we are in the house, you just find yourself yearning for the remake of House On Haunted Hill, which isn't the best film in the world, but it's a lot more fun, and is self deprecating enough to be on the verge of parody. So instead of upping the ante once the house is entered, it's nothing more than one of the group seeing something a little ghoulish and the others looking at them in a concerned, but perplexed manner. And don't forget that horror films with a simple but promising premise has to have some sort of mind-bending twist come the end, and in this instance, it's not needed, and feels totally out of place. A wasted opportunity, which infuriates more than just an atypical rubbish lazily made horror film.

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• Not bad if you give it a shot

  jackmeat2016-10-28

  My quick rating - 5,1/10. We have all heard the rumors of the haunted house that is 5 floors, and if you can make it through all 5 you get your money back. I am sure there are variations of this urban myth and this film revolves around 4 kids that go looking to conquer it. But instead of a typical haunted house they stumble into a house that uses your own secrets from inside to terrify you. A good premise of a movie and to some extent it is well done. Purposely unbelievable and summed up by the great line "i don't think this is a normal haunted house" LOL. The film is more of a psychological type of terror with each overcoming the fears they hide inside. Atypical acting and good use of minimal locations to make the atmosphere seem plausible. I admittedly did enjoy this for what it was, nothing flashy and could have gone a long way with a bit more put into it.

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