Review of Don't Go in the House (1979) by Tim S — 04 Nov 2012

Don't Go in the House appears on the outside as a dark and disturbing horror film. You can't really tell much of what it's about on the cover (not the cover that Flixster is using, by the way), but it's intriguing nonetheless.

What it winds up being is an exercise in patience more than anything. It does have an interesting premise: a grown man's mother dies and he loses his mind when he is reminded of the horrible abuse he went through at her hands so he begins kidnapping women and killing them.

It actually feels like an echo of Psycho, more than it's willing to admit (especially since he keeps his decomposing mother in the house). The difference here is that Norman Bates appeared to be a sweet man, but you can tell subtely that something is wrong underneath.

In this film, Donny is clearly disturbed and crazy on the surface from the very beginning. The kills also are kind of lame; he just uses a flamethrower on everybody, including a priest. The performances are pretty good, and there's a scene containing nudity, but overall it's only a mediocre affair.

It's definitely worth a watch, but you'll probably forget about it once you've seen it.