Search - The Shunned House on DVD

A grueling exercise in extreme fright on a low budget

Gregory Chiesa | 02/07/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This movie is a grueling exercise in extreme fright on a low budget. I found this to be referred to all that was once strong in the euro scene back in the day, all the atmosphere and low on the story. It jumps around from room to room and back to one part of the past, then shifts to another room where another part of the past happened and so on. All seem to connect in some way since we are grappled with insane and disturbing THE SHINING type mood along with upbeat camera work like the new version of HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL. This movie really touches me in a lot of ways meaning how unapologetic it can be. If you can't freak me out in some way whether it be a bloody gross out or ghostly apparitions inflicting as much trauma a la AMITYVILLE 2:The Possession then out the door you go. Hanging bodies, The slicing of many wrists and the playing of arteries which excellently enables a deaf mute violin player to continue to play her instrument since all her strings broke, sewn mouths and staked eyes familiar to Argento`s OPERA, dead children, tilted point of views, bloody mad surgeons, and massive amounts of killer editing. The editing is probably part of the star quality of this directorial debut. Flash here, jiggle jiggle jiggle there, in and out in and out here, man the camera doesn't stop. Even when they are just sitting there talking amongst each other the camera is doing something. I don't find it to be to over the top, more a compliment to the ever increasing suspense the flick gives off. This music is of almost a SESSION 9/ Aphex Twins delectability but tends to monopolize on the only chanting riff amongst the whole movie again and again and again.Horrorreview.com"

One of the greatest italian horror movies

Gregory Chiesa | Piacenza, Italy | 10/12/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"You all can hear a lot of bad reviews about this movie. How many reasons do those wise critics have to write such reviews??? Hundreds and hundreds more every day... The truth is that Shunned House is someway disturbing, due not to the splatter contents (which are, truly, a few) but to the sick and stunning feeling created by the director, Ivan Zuccon.
The tissue made by soundtrack, images, colours, interpretations and plots (the film is inspired, I mean ONLY INSPIRED, by 3 Lovecraft's stories!) that mix one into each other is hard to digest. Besides we must consider the low-budget realization, testified by the absence of GREAT MODERN CHILDRENandWOMEN-SCARING special effects (just like FROM BEYOND's and DAGON's ones).
The truth is that this movie provides TRUE horror, TRUE sadness and TRUE vertigo; you can taste the ground and the dust of an old abandoned house, a special house where took place horrors of distant time and space.

Remember when you were a kid, entering an old abandoned house in the country side. When you cross those old rooms you can read all its dark stories on the walls and you can feel like that house moves, breathes, wishpers... shuns...

Do you get the clue now???

By the way: The Shunned House is directed very well and has a very good casting!!!

Believe me and check it out"

Captures The Gloom...

Bindy Sue Frønkünschtein | under the rubble | 11/23/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"H.P. Lovecraft was a morose, effective horror writer. Whenever I think of his stories, I recall their thick, dreary atmosphere of encroaching shadows and approaching doom. THE SHUNNED HOUSE takes 3 such tales (mostly their collective mood), blends them, and adds a modern setting in a crumbling mansion. Dueling realities clash, overlap, and bleed together as two investigators experience the cold dread that lurks in this place. Are they going mad? Is there some scientific explanation for the terror within these walls? Or is something truly making its presence known? THE SHUNNED HOUSE is a chilling tale that certainly nails the spirit of Lovecraft's work. The fact that it is a low-budget film only makes me admire it more! Also available on DECREPIT CRYPT OF NIGHTMARES..."