Maybe it was because my expectations were low, but saw this on "Svenghoulie's" show and enjoyed it as an old black and white creepy movie from the late 1940s just as a Saturday night sort of thing. Not great but had some especially bright spots and a pretty decent cast and storyline, and kept you wondering what the outcome would be right up to the end. I kept expecting the story to fall apart at some point as it usually does in the ones shown on this show, but it kept continuing to be fairly engaging and had some cultural references to the art world that kept it fun to watch. I liked the portrayal of art critics and the art theme, and fun to see the actor who played "Big Jim Champion" on "Circus Boy" in a lead role, along with the monster dude who was an interesting character and had an interesting life story outside of the movie. All in all, fun to watch if you like old movies from the '40s and just want to see something not too deep or demanding that might remind you of a past era you find yourself able to get lost in.

Struggling artist (Martin Kosleck) intends to kill himself but winds up saving the life of serial killer The Creeper (Rondo Hatton) instead. Afterwards, he sends The Creeper out to murder his critics. When another artist (Robert Lowery) is suspected of being the killer, his girlfriend (Virginia Grey) investigates and finds the clues lead to Kosleck and The Creeper. Nice cast, weak script. Alan Napier is fun as one of the critics. This is one of the lesser Universal horror films made at the end of their second horror cycle. It's mainly of interest for Universal completists and those interested in the disfigured Hatton. It's certainly better than Hatton's next (and last) movie, Brute Man.

***SPOILERS*** After being humiliated by #1 art critic the snotty and full of himself Holmes Harman,Alan Napler, struggling sepulcher & artist Marcel De Lange, Martin Kosleck, decides to end it all by jumping into the East River and drowning himself. When Marsel saw someone in worst condition then even he was in floating below he decided to help the poor guy and nurse him, together with his pet cat Peblo, back to health. As it turned out the person that Marcel saved from drowning is the notorious "Creeper", Rondo Hatton, who's been on a rampage murdering a string of young women, mostly hookers, all throughout the city of New York.Puzzled but grateful for what the very out of touch with the latest news Marcel did for him, way would anyone rescue a serial murderer like himself, a now fully recovered "Creeper" decides to do what Marcel didn't have the guts to do himself. Take care of all those art critics like Holmes Harman who've been making his life a living hell by putting down his great, in his mind, works.At first Marcel doesn't realize what the "Creeper" was doing but as he read the newspaper reports of his exploits, murdering art critics who disgrace him and his art, he encouraged him to keep up the "Good Work". As it soon turned out the "Good Work" resulted in Marcel making his masterpiece a bust of the "Creeper" himself!As it also soon turned out it was a woman newspaper columnist Jean Medford, Virginia Gray, who in fact was one of the few persons in the city who admired Marcel's work who lead to both his and the "Creeper's" downfall. That's by giving Marcel the publicity, in her column, that he really didn't need. It was that , Jean's column about his latest work, which in the end broke up a beautiful friendship, Marcel and the "Creeper", and thus finally putting and end to their reign of terror .P.S Rondo Hatton who's signature role as "The Creeper" was to make him famous in the world of horror movies died almost two months before the film "House of Horroes" was released at the age of 51.

HOUSE OF HORRORS (1946) comes at the very tail end of Universal's classic horror film cycle, following on the heels of 1930s box office blockbusters like Dracula, FRANKENSTEIN, THE MUMMY, THE INVISIBLE MAN and THE BLACK CAT. By the 1940s, however, the studio's established monsters had been relegated to a succession of sequels with mixed and varying results. Ultimately, as budgets shrank and the big stars like Karloff and Lugosi drifted off to other studios, Universal began producing very low budget (although generally very entertaining) B horror melodramas such as CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN, THE MAD GHOUL, and, most notoriously, HOUSE OF HORRORS. For many, this film was particularly repellent because its star, Rondo Hatton, suffered from a horribly disfiguring and ultimately degenerative disease called acromegaly. He appeared in a small number of cheap-jack horror thrillers, HOUSE OF HORRORS definitely being the best of the lot. In it he (again) appears as The Creeper, a deformed, deranged killer thought to have drowned in the East River after a police manhunt. He is, however, rescued by a suicidal sculptor named Marcel De Lange (wonderfully played by Martin Kosleck) who spots him in the river just as De Lange is about to take his own life. He brings the monster back to his skid row studio where he not only nurses him back to life but develops a strange, impenetrable bond with him. This bond extends itself into killing off a number of art critics (as well as sexy streetwalkers and models) who have denounced De Lange as a fraudulent disgrace to the art world by first strangling them then snapping their spines. Ultimately The Creeper and De Lange are outwitted and brought down by a girl newspaper columnist (Virginia Grey) and her pin-up artist boyfriend (Robert Lowery). A dim-witted cop (Bill Goodwin) provides little help at all. Despite the rather dismal reputation this film has, it is nonetheless an effectively atmospheric and peculiarly disturbing story, perhaps most accurately described as horror noir. Put aside whatever reservations you may have about this bizarre oddity and check it out.