I have been a huge fan of H.P. Lovecraft's writings for almost ten years and jump at the chance to see any movie based on his works. I have enjoyed all of them including the recent "Beyond Re-Animator" which many people hate. However, I did not enjoy "The Shunned House" in the slightest. The acting is bad, the special effects are cheesy to say the least, and the plot is near impossible to follow due to the constant shifting of time and introduction of new characters with little or no development. It seemed like the director did not care very much about this film due to the amount of detail that was ingnored. For example, there are several characters that obviously did not speak English during filming, but were dubbed over with English. At least in "Hurcules in America" Arnold learned how to speak English before filming so that the dubbing, no matter how horrible, would be somewhat believable. There was also an inconsistent use of subtitles in the film whenever a character wrote in another language. The one time they were used, they seemed awkward and out of place. The almost constant use of the strobe light is enough to bring on an epileptic fit and the music is repetitive and mind numbing. The film did have its moments though. The DP did make some interesting choices with the camera work and there were some moments that were genuinly creepy. If you're looking for a good adaptation of Lovecraft stay far, far away from this piece of crap. Try out something like Dagon, Necronimicon, or From Beyond. If you're looking for a good nappy time film though, The Shunned House is a sure thing.
Review of The Shunned House
