Dr. Moreau's House of Pain is set in the 40's where boxer Eric Carson (John Patrick Jordan) is searching for his brother Roy who has mysteriously disappeared, Eric traces Roy last known sighting to a seedy strip bar & is told Roy was last seen with exotic dancer Alliana (Lorielle New) & Eric decides to confront her. However Eric sees Alliana kill a man in an alley & instead decides to follow her along with a newspaper reporters named Mary Anne (Debra Mayer) & Judith (Jessica Lancaster), Alliana drives to a disused sanatorium & while following her Mary Anne is kidnapped by a mutant creature. Eric & Judith try to find Mary Anne but only end up imprisoned themselves by several half human half animal mutants created by the sadistic Dr. Moreau (Jacob Witkin) who has been carrying out gruesome experiments in order to create a perfect half human half animal hybrid & he is always on the look out for fresh victims to experiment on...Directed by legendary low budget film maker Charles Band this has nothing to do with classic novel by H.G. Wells other than call an evil scientist Dr. Moreau & feature some manimals, overall this is a pretty poor effort in terms of plot but it is quite well made although I am not sure if that's much of a trade-off. The script was obviously based around the fact the production had no money & sets 90% of it in a few rooms & corridors with a very small cast too, the story doesn't grab you & there's no real build up to the revelation of the manimals & if you think about it for any length of time it all falls apart. At just over 70 odd minutes in length it's short but I did think it dragged at times & when your film is only 70 odd minutes long the one thing it shouldn't do is drag. The character's are bland & it's unclear what the ultimate purpose of Dr Moreau's experiments are, the dialogue is average & not enough happens really, the house of pain part of the title also might be rather misleading as this is quite tame.The manimal make-up effects are quite poor, it's too obvious that the actor's are wearing cheap face mask's especially the half man half pig manimal. There are one or two moments of gore, a fist is punched through someones head, there's a slashed open stomach, a slit throat & some blood splatter but not much else. There isn't even much nudity as only one woman gets her kit off & even she isn't that attractive. The one thing that does stand out here is the colourful photography by Mac Ahlberg who photographed most of Band's better films during his Empire Pictures days, while most of the scene remains dark people's clothes or light sources are bright neon colours which looks quite cool actually at times. There's a nod to Re-Animator (1985) as bright green liquid is syringes are seen & that fire axe on the back of that door which never gets used looks very much like the one used at the end of Re-Animator...With a supposed budget of about $300,000 effort was obviously put into the look of Dr. Moreau's House of Pain but that sort of effort is sorely lacking in just about every other department & never rises above average. The acting is forgettable, the plodding dialogue doesn't do anyone anyone any favours though.Dr. Moreau's House of Pain looks alright but the film feels padded at even 70 odd minutes as various little things happen to merely fill the time it seems, it looks quite nice I suppose but that's about the best I can say for it. Watch the original The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977) again instead.

Brisk/credible script, the small cast give good performances and the prosthetics and photography work well too. I picked this up for a £1, so expectations weren't exactly sky-high and the Full Moon logo can sometimes spell 'AVOID', - I was very pleasantly surprised. Earl Kenton did a great job with the script, and recognised the budget limitations his story would work within. He has created a small, dark and believable realm. All the actors, (particularly Jacob Witkin and Lorielle New) give very watchable interpretations and transcend the usual standard of performance you expect from this type of film. 'House of Pain' reminded me of two other great films - Stuart Gordon's classic 'Dagon', and the recent remake of 'She Creature'. Good stuff.

Director Charles Band has walked a long way on the hard road of independent horror film-making. He has given us as many good movies as he has done awful ones, but the only thing sure in his work is that he is completely dedicated to the genre he loves.With that said I must start saying that I was not expecting much of this movie, not only because of Band's uneven record, the main problem Full Moon has had in the last years has been the unbelievably low budget they use. I was expecting something really awful considering that the movie was loosely based in the really SFX-demanding novel "Island of Dr. Moreau" by H.G. Wells. I was really wrong.Set around the 30s (the exact date is never given), the plot follows Eric Carson (John Patrick Jordan), a low profile boxer who is looking for his missing brother. In his quest he is joined by his brother's lover Judith(Jessica Lancaster) and their friend Mary Anne (Debra Mayer), who is a reporter always searching for the next exclusive. While following a clue in a bar, they get involved with a stripper named Alliana (Loriele New) who lures them to an abandoned Asylum. They will find Dr. Moreau (Jacob Witkin) and his collection of the creatures he calls "Manimals".The most amazing feature of the film is the way it handled the budget to make the film REALLY look like it's set in the 30s. Band outdid himself this time as he really cared about things like scenery, music and props. He even recreated the look of film noir. The lighting and editing of the film is superb. I dare to say that it is among the best movies Band has directed, technically speaking.The Make-Up for the Manimals and the overall SFX are a bit bad, but the story makes up for it; the script is surprisingly good and the characters are quite developed which is a good change from typical B-Movies.The acting is above average, and while John Patrick Jordan struggles at times, the rest of the cast makes a good job, particularly Peter D. Badalamenti II as rebel Manimal Gallagher. Lorielle New as the sexy Alliene has good scenes, and shows plenty of nudity, for those interested.Overall it was a good movie that was hurt hard by its lack of budget, nevertheless Charles Band proves that when he wants it, he still can make a good movie once or twice. 7/10. Nice Surprise indeed.

Director Charles Band has pulled off a terrific bit of sleight of hand in Dr. Moreau's House of Pain. Yes there are Pig People, guts and gore, lots of nudity etc., etc., but what makes this little film special is that Band has made a terrific homage to the film noir films of the forties. Color, (did he use technicolor? the color is perfect), costumes, hair styles and dialogue are all out of 1947, and the actors play their parts as though they were Alan Ladd, Gail Russell and Lizabeth Scott! The premise is silly in this the what, fourth go-round of a Dr.Moreau film, but the execution, (no pun intended), is really top notch and on a par with much more expensive films.Congrats Charles Band and all who worked on this film. Not to sound too 1940's, but you all did a "swell" job!