I got this film as a double feature pack...the other film was called "The Evil" and like this one was a bit of a haunted house film. That one was a better film than this one, this is mainly due to the fact that this film did not really seem to know what kind of film it was trying to be. At times it seems to be playing out like an after school special on bullying. There are points it seems like a comedy and finally at the end of the piece the horror elements finally come into play. Sure there are a few things here and there before that, to suggest that something supernatural is going on, but all the really good stuff is confined to like a ten minute stretch at the end of the film. "The Evil" took some time to get started too, but nothing like this one. So it kind of disappointed, though I should have known it would not be anything great when Todd Bridges of Different Strokes fame is the only actor of note I recognize! The story has a number of clichés one associates with a haunted house film. A family moves into a new home after some turmoil in their lives and said new house has some strange secrets. The new addition they add though is a street gang that constantly harasses the brother and sister of the family. Though they are a very odd brother sister pair as they are kind of Angelina Jolie and her brother creepy. Well, dad's solution is to threaten them with a shotgun which at one point keeps said gang at bay for a couple of months. The son's strategy while mother and father are gone is to poke and antagonize said gang to the point of angering them into a murderous frenzy. At one point you think the movie is finally getting its act together, but this is just the son being idiotic. Finally, near the end, there is some stuff going down at the haunted house! So the film has some things going for it. I was kept wondering what the heck was going to happen. I kept wondering when something was going to happen and there were a couple of nice kills near the tail end of the film. Though this is the second film I have viewed that implies that if a woman is having sex, she will not notice that she is being electrocuted! The problem with the film to me, is the tone. It just needed to go all in and be a horror. It just does not have a good atmosphere and to many times I forgot I was watching a rated R horror and then someone would drop the F bomb and I am like, "Yeah, that's right, this is R." So in the end, the film takes to long to get going, but for that brief ten minute span it does deliver some of the goods. Not as good though as the film that it was paired with, though that one had kind of the opposite problem in that it kind of ended weakly, while this one took forever and ended on a strong note. Well, strong is probably to positive a word, it ended a least in a horror movie fashion. Which again, is the film's weakest point, the overall tone which seems to do to many different things.

Even though this movie was made back in 1988, when there was still some room for B movies to play in theaters, I am really surprised this was deemed to be worthy of a theatrical release. I am equally surprised that more than 20 years later, this movie was deemed worthy of a release on DVD. Actually, the DVD pairs this with another haunted house movie, maybe because the DVD company thought no one would buy this movie on its own. It's a really dull affair, with scene after scene going by with not only no shocks, but few attempts at giving the audience some horror. Of the cast, Todd Bridges possibly gives the best performance, but his role has such little impact it could have been easily written out without harming the rest of the screenplay. The last fifteen minutes of the movie, when the ghost starts knocking off the punks that have taken over the house, does have a little interest, but it's too little, too late. Definitely not worth seeking out, unless you participated in the making of the movie and you happen to want to be embarrassed.

The Cates family inherited an old mansion in Beverly Hills from their late uncle Tyler Walker, who was a well-known stage actor. When they get there, they find the rundown place to be overrun by some street punks who want nothing but trouble. After the Cates' teenagers make fools of those punks, they want to make their lives living hell. But also their uncle Tyler's spirit still hangs around the house, and doesn't seems to like the street punks' intrusion.Roger Corman's Concorde churns out an uneven, but well intended low-rent b-horror film that stage an entertainingly weird mixture, where it has the story criss-crossing into campy fields of supernatural and revenge, and then finally combining the two. Everything about it is stereotypical with the usual shenanigans, but director Bert Dragin does a well enough job with his pacing and makes the twisty style unpredictable and always engaging. Limitations don't hold it back, as the competent make-up and special f/x generates some creative and effective moments. It slowly builds itself up, for a crackerjack closing half. Some demented scenes towards the end, are well worth the attention. Sure the technical side of the production might not be perfect (with the boom mike constantly becoming visible), but it was surefooted. Zoran Hochstatter's murky camera-work sometimes had a neat frenetic touch and dreary colour use, and David Bergeaud's simmering music score stewed up some spooky cues to add to the atmospheric urban setting of the grand looking mansion. The gimmicky screenplay by Bert Dragin and Robert McDonnell seems to work, but if you don't take it for what it is. The ludicrous, and somewhat illogical and loose nature might be hard to shake. Also its change in moods, from being broodingly dark to suddenly comically light might be an inconsistent turn off. The script feels one-note for most part, but weaves in some amusing flourishes of dark humour; jaw-dropping dialogues and an oddly unforeseeable twist here and there. The performances are well suited and come across fair. Tom Bresnahan and Jill Whitlow are likable as the siblings. Christopher Burgard chews it up as smarmy gang leader and Todd Bridges shows up in a little part.Junky entertainment, but I wasn't expecting the modest quality that it dished up. Fans of low-budget horror should give it a try.

80s horror is awesome, and any horror buff will tell you that, but when you're into this sort of thing, there are so many movies you run across that basically just suck. This movie is one of those. The concept is somewhat interesting. A brother and sister are home alone in a haunted house their family recently inherited, but the antagonist isn't the ghost of the performer who once lived in the home. The bad guys in this movie are a group of punks who find their enjoyment in terrorizing the brother and sister. This is definitely a workable plot, but this movie fails on many different levels. First of all, the acting is the sort of stuff you see on bad television; second, the brother and sister are much more carefree and upbeat than they should be in their particular situation, and the gang of punks seems so sadistic that it is practically impossible to think that the police would not have done anything to protect this family. It is a cool idea that the ghost who haunts the house helps the brother and sister kill off the gang of punks, but the kill scenes are terribly uninteresting, and these scenes do not warrant the level of creativity which they attempt to convey. The ending is for those with a very very low attention span. If you're a huge horror buff, like me, then watch this movie for its intriguing concept. Everybody else- stay away.