Surprisingly incoherent and boring

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

House of Lost Souls (1989) * 1/2 (out of 4)The fourth and final film in the "House" pictures that were made for Italian television (two by Lucio Fulci and two by Umberto Lenzi). This one centers on a group of friends who have to stay at a junky hotel after the road they're traveling on gets closed. It doesn't take long for strange things to begin happening and of course this leads to death.Lenzi directed THE HOUSE OF WITCHCRAFT as well as this one and I guess the best thing you can say about this film is the fact that it's better than the other one he directed. Yeah, that's really not much of a recommendation but these two films show exactly why Italian horror was dying off. Their releases in America had already stopped and it's clear that they didn't have the budgets needed to make the type of film that fans would expect.In all honesty, the story here isn't original but at the same time I think it would have been a lot of fun had it been made in 1980 instead of 1989. I say that because earlier in the decade Lenzi would have been given a budget for special effects and I'm sure we would have gotten some classic death scenes. All of the death scenes here are poorly done or they're not even on the screen. Most of them contain very little blood and there's just nothing memorable about them.What's worse is that the characters are all annoying, the performances are rather bad and there's certainly not tension in the film. Lenzi's direction seems like he's just going through the motions as there's no style or anything else for that matter. HOUSE OF LOST SOULS is a pretty poor movie that just shows how far the genre had fallen.

Basically, you can judge your prospective enjoyment of this film by how you receive this line: "It's okay, the Doctors gave you a rational explanation. You've got psychic powers". Although this is part of the House of Doom series, this film would be better off being called Ghosthouse 2: Ghosthotel, because both films have a lot in common. We start off with a group of geologists getting stuck trying to get to a certain destination, including Carla, who has visions, her boyfriend Kevin (Joseph Johnson, somehow ending up here via Slumber Party Massacre and Bezerker), Massimo (no doubt a tribute to Massimo Vanni), two other folks, and atypical annoying kid Gianluca. These folk, as you would imagine, end up stuck at some haunted hotel where the manager went insane and killed all the guests. Carla's first to start seeing things, what with the television in the basement broadcast murders from twenty years ago, and Gianluca's seeing blood dripping from the ceiling and fake spiders everywhere. Travelling companion Mary gets pushed into a freezer by the maggoty hand from Ghosthouse and ends up sharing that space with two hanged corpses. By the end of all this our victims realise that things are a bit wrong at this particular hotel. At this point things get even more Ghosthouse, when two of our characters head out into the world to investigate what the problem is while the rest of our characters stay behind to be murdered by the vengeful ghosts that reside in the hotel, so expect decapitation by washing machine (extra point for that), decapitation by knife, and decapitation by some other blade. Meanwhile, Joe Johnson and the guy who's dubbed by the guy who appears in more Italian films that anyone else that exists run around town, graveyard etc trying to find out what's going on. Before you know it, they're back at the hotel with the only survivor, the ghosts have somehow used concrete to wall everyone in, and Joe Johnson's using a metal detector to find some severed heads!If you are the most rational person in the world, I wouldn't be seeking this one out. However, if you like Umberto Lenzi films then this one is a fairly safe bet. There ain't much in the way of gore but if you like Ghosthouse then this is more of the same - haunted house stuff, people freaking out and getting killed, and a better soundtrack than normal. I've watched this one about five times and never get sick of it. It's the best of the House of Doom films for me and further proof that Lenzi is a fine director who managed to sully his name directing crappy cannibal films.

"House of Lost Souls" is a very fine addition to the long line of fine European horror.**SPOILERS**Traveling through the countryside, friends Kevin, (Joseph Alan Johnson) Carla, (Stefania Orsola Garello) Massimo, (Matteo Gazzolo) Mary, (Laurentina Guidotti) Guido, (Costantino Meloni) and Daria, (Licia Colo) decide to stop off at a hotel to spend the night. As they decide to explore the house, they experience a series of weird visions and scenes that make them believe that it's haunted by malevolent spirits. Realizing that the small town nearby might have answers, they go out and discover that the hotel decades ago was the site of a brutal mass murder, and that the ghosts haunting the place where the victims of the rampage from the past and are soon out to terrorize the remaining guests inside, forcing them into a fight with the supernatural in order to escape it's deadly grounds.The Good News: This was a really interesting and exciting European-horror tale. There's some really fantastic scenes in here that come from it's wonderful setting. The opening visions of a knife-wielding Buddhist Monk that starts slashing at the camera starts it off at the right note, and once inside the house it has even more. Soon strange visions haunt them, as there's dead bodies that appear and disappear out of nowhere, blood dripping from the ceiling, spiders crawl over beds and ghosts materialize out of thin air and much more. Each of these is really great, as the spiders scene is the best. With the dripping blood starting off from the ceiling fan covering the victim on the bed, a split-second later they turn into spiders crawling all over the body in a long, protracted scene that is just infinitely creepy as it goes on. Another great one is the scenes down in the cellar, which are just great and really fun as there's plenty to like about them since they're just so much fun. From the howling winds that spring to life to the malevolent manifestations that appear out of nowhere and the film's ability to keep throwing people down there for more scenes of them is a great idea and definitely worthwhile. Those are really amongst the best parts of the film, as well as the later scenes of the demons coming alive. This one even has a fun severed head gag that is one of the better ones of the style. The finale is the fantastic assault of the undead ghosts chasing the remaining survivors through a crumbling house, and it's action-packed, tense and quite exciting, from the decision to fight the creatures to the way that they're able to fight back, this is all really great. The deaths in here are pretty good as well, mainly decapitations but they're all really good. From being done with hatchets to a spinning chainsaw to a falling window pane and by falling into a dryer, which is the single most impressive one. The way it happens is the best set-up in the world, the victim is just so deserving and because it's done on-screen makes it so great. This is one of the best things about the film which featured a lot of good things in it.The Bad News: There wasn't a whole lot here that didn't work. The fact that the deaths here just weren't as good as the previous European horror fare to come along is cause for concern, as beyond a couple of them, most of the deaths in here are either done from an angle that makes the impact obvious but done in such a way as to render it impossible to see the full impact of it or to be done in a completely inane way that just doesn't look at all realistic. This is a far cry that doesn't match up for most of the ones in the past, which is something that can hold this one down. The other thing in this that doesn't work is the constant showing of the back-story which is just the same thing over and over again. Rather than doing anything new with them, showing anything different or even giving off new information, which should've been the point. These here are the film's few flaws.The Final Verdict: An incredibly fun European horror entry that has a lot going for it and only a few flaws, this here is quite a lot of fun. Give this a shot if you're really big on the European style of genre films or want a creepy little haunted house film without being grossed out, while those who aren't should heed caution.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language

It's the old dark house plot again with added gore. Foolish young people take shelter in in old house or in this case, hotel and all hell then breaks loose. Not one of the most original stories in the field of horror films and sadly there is nothing really new in this made for TV movie. Other than the only known case of death by washing machine that is!Made in 1989 but looks even more dated than that, the jocks and bimbos in the American splatter films were pretty air-headed but they were always far worse and incredibly stupid in the European ones. Anyone with an ounce of sense would see what a 'con-damned' building this house was and run for the hills. These just wait around aimlessly to be picked off by the forces of evil.The sound dubbing isn't very good either and somewhat annoying as none of the voices seem to be in tune with the actors. And the small child while I guess, is supposed to be cute is just a major pain in the backside. But then again, none of the cast are sympathetic and you don't really care what happens to them. Thus it rattles onto a dull finale and disappointment. Like a lot of Spanish and Italian films in this genre, the horror effects happen for no rhyme or reason, just to try to elicit a scare. There has to be some bounds of credibility and logic in even the most dopey plots.Only for really die hard fans of the director.