Don't Go in the House

Norman Bates meets Carrie meets Willard… with a flamethrower

A troubled young man (Dan Grimaldi) living with his mother in the Northeast develops a penchant for bringing attractive women home for questionable reasons. Robert Carnegie plays his only friend at work, the local incinerator.

"Don’t Go in the House" (1979) is psychological horror with the mother/son base of “Psycho” (1960), the parental abuse with religious undertones of “Carrie” (1976) and the mentally disturbed young man in an old house angle of “Willard” (1971), yet with the haunting Northeast milieu of “Silent Night, Bloody Night” (1972). While not great like the first two, it’s arguably superior to “Willard” and almost on par with “Silent Night, Bloody Night.”

Blonde Gail Turner stands out on the female front as Patty, but there are a few other notables, like Johanna Brushay (Kathy) and Nikki Kollins (Farrah).

Because the bulk of the film focuses on solitary Donny’s mental issues, and effectively so, the disturbing story is kind of one-dimensional. Yet it occasionally perks up, like with the discotheque sequence.

The film runs about 1 hour, 22 minutes and was shot in the New Jersey/New York area as follows: Strauss Mansion in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey (Donny's House); downtown Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey (florist); New Rochelle, New York (clothing store & Disco); Jersey City, New Jersey; and Port Monmouth, New Jersey. Despite these locations, the story is curiously set in Maryland, as evidenced by the license plate on Donny’s truck.

GRADE: B-