Save your money for something good and enjoyable

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

IT'S BEEN A REALLY LONG TIME since I saw the movie but I respectfully disagree with Moonspinner5520 that the film is "Superior to the source novel by Robert Marasco". Marasco's book is NOT great. It's not "The Dark Secret of Harvest Home" or "Salem's Lot" (the latter marred only by its nihilistic ending which necessarily impacted its subpar prologue), compared to either of which Marasco's book is thin gruel. However, the book provides Marian's character with internal monologues that open up her character and even at the end allow her to feel pain at the loss of her family, pain which must be "cauterized" (I remember Marasco using that very descriptive term) as she begins the new existence that she has largely created for herself but her own victimization is still palpable, unlike the horror villainess the film makes her. Also, by the by, the villainous Allardyce "siblings" (although they and the inept "handyman" are clearly not human but rather servants or familiars of the demonic presence that feeds off generations of families lured to the remote and isolated mansion) played largely genially but with foreboding bits of intensity by such old pros as Eileen Heckart and Burgess Meredith, are underused in both the film and the novel.

The Rolfs' summer vacation has brought them to a ruined mansion (the Dunsmuir Mansion, which was also used for Phantasm) somewhere in the country. Marian and Ben have a 12-year-old son named Davey and have brought along their beloved aunt Elizabeth. Why would they stay in this ancient abode? Well, it's cheap. Real cheap thanks to the kindness of the Allardyce family, who only require that their mother stay upstairs and that the family provide her with meals all summer long. They will never see her or probably even speak to her, a deal that Marian agrees to quickly. The house is just too great and she's fallen in love with it.Love soon turns to the obsession that only comes from 1970's horror fiction. Soon, she's dressing like a Victorian woman and not speaking to her family, content to sit near Mrs. Allardyce's bedroom and stare at old photos.The house keeps getting cleaner and better looking the more weirdness happens, like windows locking shut, accidents all over the place, nightmares of an evil chauffeur and Ben flipping out and nearly killing his son while swimming and Aunt Elizabeth dying.Marian won't even leave the house for the funeral, so Ben angrily declares that he will leave without her. His attempts to escape with his son ends when a tree blocks the road and his wife becomes the dreaded chauffeur, turning the once strong man into jelly. Yet after the pool itself tries to kill Davey, Marian declares that they should leave once she tells Mrs. Allardyce goodbye.Easier said than done. She disappears into the house and when Ben goes to confront the old woman, he learns that she and his wife are now the same person. He's thrown from the attic window in a scene that ends the trailer to the film and even Davey is killed when a chimney falls on him, because the life of children was quite cheap in the movies of the 70's. To paraphrase John Mulaney, back then "no one cared about kids. I grew up before children were special. I did. Very early '80s, right before children became special."The house is now brand new as the Allardyce family and the chauffeur celebrate mother's return. The photos on the wall — all of the home's past victims — now include Ben, Davey and Aunt Elizabeth.Curtis was a fan of the book, except for the open ending which he thought was unfilmable. His ending is much different, as is the inclusion of the chauffeur, who is based on a childhood trauma where he watched a driver laugh during his grandmother's funeral.Some people dislike this film because of its slow pace, but others — like Stephen King — love it. I'm on the fence. I love parts of this, but the pace is truly glacial.Read more at http://bit.ly/2megicO

After watching this at night which was a very bad idea, it was absolutely frightening and gripping. I swear, I couldn't sleep til 4am in the morning, the movie would seriously mess up your mind and Im not joking here! I was really shocked that Karen Blacks character as the mother in the end, became the old lady of the house. How was that even possible?! She was outside the room the whole time and I honestly was stunned. I still have my mouth open because like, I didn't expect that the ending was going to have twists and turns! I was even surprised that Reed's character jumped out the window and Montgomery as the son, was killed by the house falling on top of him! I really would've loved to have seen what Black as the old lady had in common with the two house owners who the brother & sister. I honestly wish the movie was longer, I just think it would be so interesting to find out what happened next.This film is too underrated, it should've deserved a lot of awards, it is just brilliant especially with Bette Davis as the grandaunt!

To judge this book by its' cover, one would assume that it is the stuff of a 70s horror fan's dreams. Here is a movie directed by Dan Curtis, known for such fare of DARK SHADOWS and TRILOGY OF TERROR, about a haunted house that feeds on the pain and emotions of its' inhabitants. The cast is extraordinary and reads like a wish list. A couple played by Oliver Reed (CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF) and Karen Black, who had starred in Curtis' TRILOGY OF TERROR, along with their aunt played by the legendary Bette Davis. We, also, get Burgess Meredith, who seems to pop up continually in horror films from this time era. It seems like it couldn't possibly miss, but miss it certainly does.I am not a giant fan of the "haunted house" film. Of all the little sub-genres of horror it tends to be one of my least favorite, but when done well, some of those are among my favorite horror films as well. The fans of this movie will want to use words like "understated", "brooding" and "atmospheric" to describe the sort of ominous tone that this movie wants so badly to achieve. The words they should really be looking for are "dreadfully boring" as it is hard to find anything worthwhile in this snoozer. The biggest issue I have with it would come from Curtis' background in television. That's exactly the way this movie feels is a waste of budget and cast, as Curtis really does nothing more than perfectly re-create the look and feel of 70s TV horror. Supposedly, this movie had a fairly large budget for its' time, but I couldn't tell you what they spent it on for the life of me (beyond the aforementioned acting talent). There are absolutely no effects. This is almost the anti- haunted house" movie as we start to wonder if our characters are going crazy out of sheer boredom more than being driven there by ghosts and spirits. The 70s were full of great, effective haunted house flicks like THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE, THE SENTINEL and THE AMITYVILLE HORROR. You could create a Top 25 list just from this decade of great horror films. The viewer cannot help but place this against the competition and it comes up sorely lacking. I would challenge any great fan of this movie to honestly come up with one element or characteristic that makes this movie worth the watch? Even the great cast are just not given anything to work with here. The dialog wants so much to be meaningful, but feels empty. The scenes where each character have their own brushes with madness could have been rife with tension and paranoia, but fail to elicit any real pathos from the viewer.It has been said that Stephen King was a big fan of this movie. If that is in fact true, then it's an interesting coincidence. This would have been released one year before King wrote THE SHINING. Those works have a lot in common, a family with skeletons in the closet moves into a house with its' own skeletons, a house that slowly feeds on their emotions until it has destroyed them. It's just that King took the kernel of story that is present here and actually made it worthwhile.