When I started watching House of the Damned I had no expectations. That turned out to be a good thing. At the beginning it was okay but it started going downhill immediately. The dialogue was cheesy, delivered in a stiff, choppy manner that was unappealing. I didn't feel any tension during the entire film, just a feeling that the life was being sucked out of me. The antagonists of the film weren't scary, turning out to be benign people trying to preserve their home. If you are going to call a movie House of the Damned, either the house or the inhabitants should darn well be damned. I wouldn't recommend this movie for fans of horror films as they will be sorely disappointed.

"House of the Damned" is a short (barely over one hour) and definitely not-so spooky haunted house chiller from the early 60's that remains extremely slow-paced and never really reaches any atmospheric highlights. There are no famous names in the cast or crew list, so maybe if this were a Hammer or William Castle production; it might have been a bit more appealing. It's actually not even a full-blooded haunted house movie, as none of the menace ever comes out from the house. Usually in this sort of films, like for example "The Haunting", the house is introduced almost like one of the main characters, but here it's just a piece of decor. An architect and his wife are sent up to a remote house on a hill after the previous tenant mysteriously vanished without leaving a message. The owner and his attractive foreign wife come to meet the couple the next day and, for a short while, the script resembles more of a melodramatic soap opera instead of a supernatural thriller. Perhaps the "Damned" in the title refers to the poor suckers, like me, who were tricked into watching this dull nonsense and expected something good. Eventually there does appear to be something wrong with the house; namely unknown residents with hairy hands that like to steal keys. Then, suddenly and out of the blue, the architect couple also discovers that the place once was inhabited by a crazy old lady who now resides in a sanatorium. Whatever twist the screenplay attempts to bring forward, it's totally useless. The ambiance simply isn't as compelling as it should be. Nothing to recommend here. Even Disney's "The Haunted Mansion" is at least a dozen times more disturbing than this. The climax, which comes abrupt and totally random, is too insane for words and left me staring at a black screen for certainly five whole minutes after the finishing of the closing credits! What the hell was that? Was I too stoned, drunk, temporarily unconscious or did I REALLY witness this ending? It's the most nonsensical, random, unworldly, grotesque, irrelevant and deranged twist-ending ever! The Oscar for dementia inarguably goes to "House of the Damned".

Architect Scott Campbell (a solid Ronald Foster) and his wife Nancy (a spunky performance by the fetching Merry Anders) check out an old castle located on a remote hillside in California. They are joined by lawyer Joseph Schiller (nicely played by Richard Crane) and his snippy spouse Loy (a charming turn by the lovely Erika Peters). Moreover, there's something else in the castle that wants them out of there pronto. Competently directed by veteran journeyman Maury Dexter, with a steady pace, stark, yet polished black and white cinematography by John M. Nickolaus (the use of fades and dissolves is quite nifty), a fair amount of creepy atmosphere, a tight 62 minute running time, a pleasingly shivery'n'spooky score by Henry Vars, acceptable acting, a cool array of grotesque circus freaks (Ayllene Gibbons as a friendly fat lady and Richard Kiel as a mute, menacing giant are both especially memorable), and an unexpected, but satisfying ending, this pleasant little low-budget quickie makes for a perfectly painless diversion.

A very mediocre movie that based its story too much on earlier classics like FREAKS and Robert Wise's THE HAUNTED. The acting isn't something to write home about, but at least they tried to give the characters a little background. The first part of the movie suggest more horror then really showing it and at times it works. The last part of the movie ends in such a disappointing way you can't talk about a horror movie anymore and you'll ask yourself what you just have been watching. Real horror fans should avoid this one. Proof? No one dies.