Highly Overrated But Still Good

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This film was made in the late 1980's--basically at the nadir of the horror genre when most alleged "horror" films being made were either half-ass comedies with some wise-cracking Freddy Krueger knock-off, or softcore sextranvaganzas with a bunch of no-talent "scream queens" running around half-naked in some "haunted" house in the San Fernando Valley. This, however, is a genuinely spooky film. It kind reminded of a couple underrated slasher flicks from the early 1980's, "Silent Scream" and "Funeral Home". Like those films it's fairly bloodless, but atmospheric and creepy. But it also has a nice little sting in its tail with some surprising revelations in the final reel.The plot involves a recently orphaned brother and sister who go to live in their maternal grandparent's house after the death of their father. The grandfather is played by Les Lesser, an actor best known as "uncle Leo" in "Seinfeld", but who was actually quite an accomplished drive-in horror actor, also appearing as a brutal murderous handyman in the lost 70's minor classic "Blood and Lace". He's equally effective here. Strange things begin to happen in the house--the boy thinks he sees his grandparents disposing of a body. Even more disturbing a weird young women seems to be stalking the children. The woman is played by Brinke Stevens, one of the most famous 80's scream queens. Like the rest of her ilk, Stevens was not much of actress, but she did have at least one talent beyond displaying her incredible naked body, and that was playing a mute psycho like she does here and in Fred Olen Ray's "The Haunting Fear". It might not be saying much, but this is easily Steven's best role--she is genuinely scary. The two kids are kind of weak link, but it's good to see Kim Valentine, a strikingly beautiful teenage girl, actually play a strikingly beautiful teenage girl instead of being typecast as a sub-Molly Ringwald type in a sub-John Hughes movie like she was in all her other roles (although I am sad to report that neither she nor Stevens has any nude scenes in this movie).The best part though is the end, which I REALLY don't want to spoil in any way. Let's just say the film does a really good job keeping you guessing who the real villain(s) is/are. This movie ranks with "the Stepfather", "Parents", "Pin" and "The Reflecting Skin" as one of the best and creepiest films of its (admittedly pretty sorry) era.

this movie is great..... this movie came out a long time ago but i barely watched it and surprisingly at my grandmothers house the cast is great and the plot is awesome...... the kid actors didn't get on my nerves and made it very difficult to make myself believe it wasn't true.... to keep it short and simple this movie is great i would give it two thumbs up for sure....the story is about to kids that go live with there grandparents because their parents boy died at first there having a great time but then they discover a dead body..... they tell there neighbors but they said it wasn't the first one.......after that the kids start investigating and find out some things about there grandparents....... after that the movie gets scary

Poor David and Lynn! Their father, the only parent they have left, has just died. As a token of their sympathy and concern, Lynn's and David's grandparents allow the kiddies to stay with them. But little do the kids know, their grandparents are actually bloodthirsty killers! ...Or are they? Who cares. I don't, and you won't either. Trust me. This has got to be one of the most painfully uninteresting movies I've ever had the discontentment of seeing. Even with the disgraceful attempts at shocks and unnecessarily complex and nonsensical plot twists, I still wasn't amused. The only thing that kept me watching was an insightful quote made by a boy talking to David: "If I had a sister like that, I'd boff her." Did somebody get paid to write this?!??

Warning- possible spoilers here-although I don't think you will mind since the movie has no plot to spoil.Re-released on DVD, I picked up a copy with a coupon and figured, How bad could it be for $6 ? I now feel as if I fell for an internet scam or something. There ought to be laws against films this bad. There were entire scenes missing. Characters just disappeared for 20 minutes at a time without knowing what they are doing. Characters were brought in for a few seconds, then disappear, then re-appear dead without even knowing what happened to them or how they got there. Grandma disappears for the entire last half hour, you never find out what happened to her. You also never find out what Grandpa was up to in the basement, although about one forth of the movie takes place there. The boy never tells his sister what he has seen in the basement, he never tries to call or get help. This movie seems like it was torn up by vandals in a break-in and then they taped it together the best they could, and threw out the rest. Truly, the absolute worst movie I have ever seen. Not even worth one rental. Don't make the same mistake I did. Just run!