Ghosthouse 4 - House of the Witches

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Ghosthouse 4 - House of the Witches
Original title La casa del sortilegio
Country of production Italy
original language Italian
Publishing year 1989
length 90 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Umberto Lenzi
script Umberto Lenzi
music Claudio Simonetti
camera Giancarlo Ferrando
cut Alberto Moriani
occupation

Ghosthouse 4 - Haus der Hexen (original title: La casa del sortilegio , German alternative title: Totentanz der Hexen 2 ) is an Italian horror film conceived for television from 1989. The Italian B-movie director Umberto Lenzi wrote based on a literary template by Gianfranco Clerici and Daniele Stroppa wrote the script for the film.

The film was originally released by the Italian broadcaster Reteitalia (today: Mediaset ) and the Italian film production company Dania Film as part of the loosely linked film series " Le case maledette ", which includes works such as The Clock of Horror and The House of Evil by director Lucio Fulci and Ghosthouse 3 - House of Lost Souls includes, produces. Due to the depiction of violence, the genre production was not premiered on Italian television, but instead marketed directly on VHS .

action

The young journalist Luke Palmer has been suffering from terrible nightmares for six months, which eventually leave him with a nervous breakdown that results in inpatient treatment in a mental hospital. He keeps dreaming of an old witch who dips his severed head into a boiling cauldron. These events also damage his recently concluded marriage with his wealthy wife Martha, from whom he is gradually becoming estranged. In order to solve the upcoming marital problems from the world, Martha, who dedicated herself to occult science, invites him to a short vacation to a rented remote country house after successful therapy by his widowed sister-in-law Elsa, a psychiatrist. The venerable and eerie property is rented by the blind former concert pianist Andrew Mason, who is expecting his attractive niece Sharon, a student, as well as the couple.

Already in the first night the mentally unstable Luke is an eyewitness, like the old witch he knows from his visions, brutally murdered a pastor in the garden. Nobody initially believes his bizarre observation. Luke realizes that the house is the central plot of his nightmarish visions. The next morning, near the crime scene, he found the signed and blood-smeared Bible of a clergyman who was found dead a short time later under inexplicable circumstances. Seeking help, Luke turns to his sister-in-law and asks her to visit him immediately with her daughter Debra for a weekend. At the same time, to his amazement, his wife behaves increasingly bizarre. She sleepwalked and struggled with sometimes aggressive emotional states, which Elsa describes as a worrying "strange aura".

Luke investigates and learns that a witch is said to have once lived in her home. After further research, he confides in Sharon, somewhat perplexed, and tells her about his visions and the estrangement from his wife. His sister-in-law arrives the same evening and gives him sedative medication, relieving him of any fear for the time being. More mysterious and sometimes bloody incidents are taking their course; the suspicion is always directed towards the apathetic Martha, in whom Luke mistakenly seems to see an obsessed and malicious witch. In reality, however, Martha is just a mindless tool that is controlled at will by the present witch, it is Sharon, and transformed into a black ubiquitous cat. After the gruesome murders of Debra and Elsa, the unsuspecting Luke believes he recognizes his wife as the murderer who caused violence and gets rid of her in cold blood. At the same time, Andrew Mason, suspecting the strange activities of his relatives, chooses suicide.

The next day, the farewell letter from the old host is checked by an arriving police unit and incorrectly found to be authentic. In it, the visually impaired man confesses to the willful murder of several people in his house, although there are several indications that another unknown person was involved. The investigations are discontinued. Luke and Sharon remain silent in the face of this written confession, even though they neither believe in its content. The two survivors soon get closer and a passionate affair begins. However, Luke continues to be plagued by visions that lead him back to the country house after the sudden disappearance of Sharon. Upon entering the house, he sees the old witch who turns into Sharon in a nightmarish scenario. At the end of the film, Sharon explains to a loud laugh and reveals herself to be an unconscionable murderer, a long line of witches. The shocked Luke is then beheaded; After his visions have become reality, his head is thrown into a cauldron with boiling liquid by Sharon.

Reviews

  • Haiko Herden from the film lexicon of the same name is of the opinion that the film " may not be the bloodiest thing that has been seen so far ", but that it is developing " but sometimes quite violently ". Furthermore, he sums up that there is not much to say besides the statement that “ the people who also liked the other parts can also strike here without hesitation. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Italian Wikipedia - Retrieved March 3, 2008
  2. ↑ cf. http://www.haikosfilmlexikon.de/link/index.php?ID=6937