User Reviews

Ghosthouse (La Casa 3) is a decent, yet flawed haunted house chiller directed by Umberto Lenzi (under the painfully obvious pseudonym, Humphrey Humbert. The story concerns a young girl and her demonic clown haunting a house just outside Boston. 20 years earlier, her mother and father were brutally murdered by the evil clown, and the daughter died under mysterious circumstances. 20 years later, two college students hear a distress call coming from a short wave radio. The trace it to the now decrepit and dilapidated house and soon meet two brothers, their annoying sister, and one of the brother's girlfriend camping at the house. Soon, they all begin to die at the hands of the evil clown and the little girl.

For the most part, Ghosthouse succeeds at being atmospheric and suspenseful, mostly due to the creepy nursery rhyme that either the little girl or the clown sings (it was hard to determine who it was). The house was played a major part in the film's dreadful, melancholic atmosphere. For trivia, it was the same house used in Lucio Fulci's less than desirable, HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY.

Ghosthouse had it's fair share of gore, unfortunately not too much of it, and it was difficult to see it due to the poor lighting. The acting was also a bit uneven and the dubbing of the actors poor. But that's to be expected with any Italian horror film. The ending was a bit downbeat, but a neat way to close the film. Another issue I had with Ghosthouse was that the actors were extremely annoying, and they all deserved to bite the bullet. The ending also felt rushed. Perhaps, their budget ran low, and they had to come up with something less expensive at the last minute.

Overall, Ghosthouse is worth seeing if you are a die-hard fan of Italian horror. Like most Italian horror films, it succeeds in being atmospheric and melancholic. Unfortunately, it ends up just becoming a run-of-the-mill haunted house slasher flick with uninspired performances and ludicrous situations. It is quite rare on video but it receive a DVD release in the UK. Seek it out only if you enjoy these kinds of films.

Once again, let me say "Thank God for RiffTrax." They tackled this one and came up with a gem! There are so many laughable moments, and their comments just add to the quirkiness of it all. Now then, those crazy Italian directors are at it again. This time, Umberto Lenzi (under the confusing pseudonym Humphrey Humbert) steals liberally from much better films, like POLTERGEIST, in telling a completely nonsensical story. Many years ago, a creepy little girl and her equally hideous clown doll go on a rampage and kill her parents. 20 or so years later (though it's never made clear because in Italian horror flicks, details are annoying) a ham radio operator named Paul (uh-oh!) and his bland girlfriend Martha sit around eating chili (cuz that's what us Americans do, right?) Then Paul's radio picks up a strange message. So out they go, attempting to find the source of the mysterious signal. Along the way, they pick up an annoying hitchhiker named Pepe. And finally come across the Ghost House. There, they meet up with a group of campers in an RV (cuz that's so American) and together, they decide to investigate the Ghost House. Now, I won't give anything else away, because this film has to be seen to be believed. Just know it's one of those unhinged Italian movies, so there's bound to be weird occurrences and violent deaths. But then again, that's why we love those crazy Italians. So track down RiffTrax's version, or invite your own motley crew of comedians over for a laugh riot!

Being a big fan cheesy 80's movies an Italian haunted house movie sounded like it'd be right up my alley. unfortunately this movie lacked everything a good b-rated horror movie should have; not much gore (I mean why else would somebody wanna watch an Italian horror flick), no naked babes, and on top of that it wasn't scary in the least. Basically the only thing it had going for it was the cool creepy music. Maybe if you absolutely can't stand clowns it might creep you out a little bit but otherwise i'd recommend avoiding this.

GHOSTHOUSE starts off promising with a couple decent deaths but it gets boring real quick. Nothing happens for the majority of the movie and when it does pick back up towards the end it's still pretty lame. It was so boring it took me three tries to finally finish it without falling asleep. I don't usually care about plot or acting but if i'm watching a horror movie i expect the victims to try to at least pretend to be scared. Not even a chick getting cut in half by guillotine can save this one especially since you barely get to see it. I'll give it 3 stars outta 10 because that's about how many scenes caught my attention. If you're looking for a good cheesy Italian horror flickthat delivers the goods check out PIECES or DEMONS instead.

A copy of Umberto Lenzi's GHOSTHOUSE was lying at the bottom of my closet for almost ten years now. I knew I'd seen it once, but I couldn't remember much of it. So last night I decided to watch it again. And, honestly, I don't know why I didn't remember anything of it. Because this is one memorable bad movie! Pretty bad Italian haunted house rubbish. If this was Umberto Lenzi's shot at making American movies, then he blew it big time.

Now, the first two murders in the prologue of the movie were actually quite good. Typical brutal Italian style and a bit classic in a way. But then flash-forward 20 years or so, and all goes down the drain. Laughingly bad! A radio-operator hears the most unconvincing cry for help ever on his radio. He and his girlfriend discover the origin of the transmission. It seems to come from an abandoned house. Some youngsters are spending the weekend there in the yard with their trailer-van. Et voilà, enough meat for the grinder as the house appears to be possessed by a girl and her doll (who died 20 years ago).

There's a lot of silly dialogues. But the dubbing is rather good, I must say. I think they mainly used the actor's real voices. Although there's one girl (I think it's Lara Wendel) which has such a thick accent, you can hardly understand a word she says. There's also that stupid joking black guy who serves absolutely no purpose (except getting killed). And don't get me started about that annoying nursery rhyme...

However, there is some amusing stuff going on (but there's no logic to it whatsoever, of course). There's one guy that suddenly falls into a lake of milk (!) in the basement (kinda cool). When he crawls out, his girlfriend mistakingly takes him for an oozing zombie and stabs him to death with a pair of hedge-scissors. Hahaha, I had some fun with that! The old caretaker was a hoot too. He's supposed to be half-crippled, but he manages to chase almost every single girl that crosses his path.

And then that tomb on the graveyard, that looks from the outside like a Hobbit's house... It has electricity in it??? There's a night-lamp that still seems to work after 20 years?!?!?!?! And the girl's corpse doesn't show any decomposing signs after 20 years of rotting away??? And can someone explain to me what was up with that ghost-dog? Barks a few times and doesn't do anything... and then vanishes. Nothing makes any sense in this movie! But the ending was good though: Bus of Death, hèhèhèhè...

So this movie is worth watching once, because it's pretty hilarious. Some death-scenes are mildly amusing, and I must say that some sequences succeed barely in being scary (the washing machine in the basement, some scenes with the doll), but in the end it's just a bunch of silly, illogical nonsense. I haven't seen a lot of Umberto Lenzi's movies (I've only seen CANNIBAL FEROX and NIGHTMARE CITY, which I both enjoyed), but to me it seems he's just a mediocre Italian director when it comes to horror-movies. Fans of Lenzi might wanna check out GHOSTHOUSE (that's what they'll do anyway), but if you're just beginning to discover Italian horror-cinema, then go with stuff from Argento, Bava, Soavi and Fulci.

This 1988 horror film features a couple and others entering an old, abandoned house where a young girl's spirit and her creepy, clown doll haunt them. This starts off ok with a bit of eerie moments, but becomes boring. The characters are also annoying and badly acted/dubbed. You could probably give this a view at least once if you're into supernatural horror, but may fall asleep like I did.

I saw this on tubi I figured it's an 80s horror movie so I'm sure it's not entirely great and I was right. Starts with craziness and ends crazy. There is a weird little girl with a ugly clown doll that goes on a killing spree of whoever goes into the house they lived in. We never learn anything interesting about the little girl other than she started acting crazy after her dad gave her the doll which isn't found out till way later In the film. The doll itself is just ugly who gives their kid a gift like that sheesh. Then there is this weird annoying song that plays whenever someone is about to get killed no idea what the words are just a weird song that will get stuck In your head lol. There is alot of terrible acting all around and not great special effects. There are a ton of things that are never explained like why there is a huge weird caretaker person killing people, why is there a dog that suddenly appears and dissappears cause they don't say the kid had a dog. The young people that go to the house keep doing stupid things like going in and out of the house even though people keep getting killed. I mean you just want to watch a nutty bad 80s horror film than this is for you. I tend to watch movies like this I've never seen before just to see what it's about and also cause I was a 80s kid so I watched alot of crazy good and bad 80s movies. I say check it out it's a crazy movie but you can have fun with freinds watching it. Enjoy.

Admittedly I have not yet seen Troll 2 but I'm going to make a guess that this is a similar type of deal. I saw Ghost House on Rifftrax, and from where they dragged is beyond me. Firstly its original Italian title (this film is listed as being from Italy but was set and filmed in the United States) is La casa 3. Some of the related films on the IMDb page are La casa 4 and La casa 5, leading to believe that this film is in a series though I haven't actually taken the time to do any research confirming or denying this. It made relative sense on its own which is why I'm dwelling on this. So the story centers around this house in Massachusetts that's emitting some kind of radio frequency where a guy gets killed which is picked up by this college student in Boston who deduces exactly where it's coming from and decides (for some reason) to drive over there and check it out. He and his girlfriend find some other people there and discover that the house is haunted by this spirit of this girl with a clown doll. Credit where it's due, the film actually legitimately creeped me out which I was not expecting. Clowns generally don't frighten me but for whatever reason this one did. I think that's also due to the very eerie noise it makes which actually got under my skin. Well, at least it did before it sounded off in every other scene and just became annoying. The story is pretty stupid and it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense for the characters to do what they do. The acting is also pretty bad, sometimes verging on being cringeworthy. The comparison I drew to Troll 2 at the beginning is from one scene where a character about to be killed asks some questions like "What's going on?" and "What are you doing?" in a manner almost identical to that film. I'd say give this one a pass.

I can't believe that there are people out there who don't like this movie!! I've got to say that this is one of my favorite horror movies. I loved it from the first time I saw it. There are pretty good scare scenes, and some gruesome gore. For example, when Tina is cut in half, when Jim gets it in the neck with the fan blade, the blood coming from the faucet...etc. One freaky part is how the clown turns into Tina after she is dead, and comes to Susan. I can assure you that that would scare the hell out of me!!

The ending was quite bizarre, and I wish they would have made a sequel, just so we'd know what happened with the doll and it's creepy nursery rhyme. I'm telling you, this movie gave me nightmares after watching it. That rhyme just sends chills up my spine.... This movie rocks.... definitely pick up a copy and watch it. How could anyone say it "shouldn't even be used as toilet paper"..... I guess they just don't appreciate a good cheezy 80's horror movie.

I say almost good, but in the end it does a bit too much wrong to be considered a really good film. Still, it was a fun watch as it had a lot going for it and I so wanted to see how it played out, but unfortunately there are too many problems with the characters and story that prevent this one from journeying into the good zone of films, so it must languish in the so bad, it's good category. So what is good about the film you ask? Very creepy girl with clown doll, some imaginative kills and the house used for the setting. What is wrong with it? The characters motivations for delving deeper into the mystery, the pointless insertion of a crazed caretaker and no on screen death for Pepe!

The story starts out with a father berating his daughter for killing the beloved cat. Probably should not have done that as soon something comes and takes out both he and his wife. Flash years later and a ham operator hears a disturbing message and yearns to seek it out for some reason. He comes across a group in a mobile home staying near the house for some reason and soon they devise a plan to see what is going on which costs one dude his life! The ham radio operator soon leaves and then comes back because he is obsessed with solving the mystery...for some reason.

Once again, all the good is just overwhelmed by the stupidity of the characters motivations. There is literally no reason for anyone to go into the house, yet even after the one dude is killed, a girl sneaks in there! They all just go out of their way to get themselves killed it seems as they simply just need to keep out of the house. Then there is the whole caretaker thing, he for some reason goes berserk and kills an undertaker and no explanation at to what the deal is with him and why oh why, couldn't I watch that annoying Pepe killed in a very horrific manner!

So we get some interesting kills and a good setting, but the story is just a bit to absurd. I know people are stupid in a horror film, but these characters take it to the next level! I would have rather seen more within the house as they made it clear that stuff gets warped within as we have many lights seemingly increasing in size before busting and a scene where a guy falls into some nasty liquid, but instead, they would rather show us a guy hunting down the reasoning behind everything, I mean that one old caretaker told the man nothing that the undertaker did not already say!