I admit that I had not heard of this flick before I discovered it as part of the recently released "Horror Collection" from Momentum in England. This collection also consists of Dracula's Widow, The Manitou, and Bloodmoon. All four have been re-released in their uncut, widescreen glory and this turned out to be the best of the bunch. This one gets the party started with a decapitated head that explodes in a microwave followed by a window chopping a teenager in half. When you come out of the gate like that, who am I to complain?

James Houghton stars as David Thompson, the new reverend in a town that contains a haunted house where mysterious deaths keep occurring. Upon visiting the house, he meets the token crazy old lady and her token mentally or physically challenged son (who is a mute in this case). The pieces begin to fall together that the grounds were once the site of a witch-burning and said witch still haunts the property and harms those who try to occupy the house. David, of course, is a skeptic and has decided to put another man of the cloth named George and his family into said house until they can find a permanent residence as they have just moved into town. The doubts of the reality of the ghost witch begin to wear off after someone loses a fight with a circular saw, a teenage girl is grabbed by a severed hand while swimming, and a variety of other strange and scary events proceed to occur.

This is one of those flicks that may not be the most original story in the world but makes up for it with inventive kills, some great gory make-up effects, and an unpredictable plot where everyone has the potential to meet a gruesome end. In addition to the effects that I have already mentioned we also get a hanging, a nail through the head, and a creature with long black fingers that likes to grab people by the scalp. We are also treated to a flashback sequence to 1692 that looks like it came out of a bad Hammer movie but was still a welcome surprise that I was not expecting. The only part of this movie that bothered me was the whole mute son subplot that left a lot to be explained but this is a minor gripe. It would also have been nice to have some creature effects but they were not totally necessary.

From a filmmaking standpoint, there was nothing special here but it was competently made and director James W. Roberson managed to serve up a few scares and create a threatening atmosphere among the house and it's grounds. The film is briskly paced and does not linger for long before something happens to move it along. I should also mention that I was very tired when I watched this and if the movie was lame, it would have put me to sleep faster than a Celine Dion concert where she performs Bette Midler's greatest hits. To put things into perspective, I found this to be an entertaining haunted house flick that I liked more than the original Amityville Horror but I wouldn't put it on the same level as Poltergeist.

The cast consists of a number of faces that genre fans will recognize including Larry Pennell (Kemosabe from Bubba Ho-Tep) as George, Lynn Carlin (the mom from Deathdream) as his wife, Albert Salmi (Empire Of The Ants and Dragonslayer) as the police inspector, and Stacy Keach's dad as the older priest. One other note is that Maylo McCaslin, the brunette daughter who prances around in a bikini and early 80's short shorts, ended up marrying Willie Aames (Charles In Charge) and now co-stars with him on his crazy religious superhero show called Bibleman. If you haven't seen this and are curious as to what it would look like if Ed Wood was still alive and had found God, your prayers are answered. (Josh Pasnak, 12/4/05)

Directed By: James W. Roberson.
Written By: Donald G. Thompson.

Starring: James Houghton, Albert Salmi, Lynn Carlin, Larry Pennell.