Open House (1987)

Open House (1987)

After the success of films such as Halloween (1978) and Friday the 13th (1980), legions of filmmakers set out to make their version of the slasher flick.  They hoped to milk the serial killer cash cow without investing any money up front on their part.  Unfortunately, this gave birth to a plethora of really bad movies.  Open House is one of them.  

The basic premise is interesting as female real estate agents are being killed off left and right.  Meanwhile, the killer is talking on air with a local psychologist who hosts a talk therapy show.  The problem with Open House is that it wastes this premise and is totally uneven in terms of pacing and quality of storytelling.  It starts off with a poor mans's Dario Argento screamfest of nubile realtors being dispatched in vile and gruesome ways.  This portion of the film is totally overacted.

Then Joseph Bottoms [The Black Hole, The Net: TV Series] and Adrienne Barbeau [Swamp Thing, The Fog, Creepshow] step in as the psychologist and big love interest.  Things settle down a bit and the quality of the acting improves greatly.  But, alas, Open House then morphs into an after school special with the most horrifyingly moralizing ending that explains why the serial killer did what he did.  Ugh!

Enough has been said.  Skip this one and stick with the classic slasher flicks.  I wasted my brain cells on Open House.  Don't make the same mistake or I will hunt you down and beat you senselessly.

RATING: Bad.

For more info check out the film's entry in IMDB.

Vintage Horror Films

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