Dr. Douglas Madsen (veteran American character actor,
Christopher Kriesa who appeared previously in Ittenbach’s Legion of the Dead (2001)) awakens the morning of the anniversary
of his parents’ tragic death. Along his
route to work, his vehicle collides with a prisoner transport bus. This collision causes an accident which
allows the prisoners to free themselves.
The four convicts have a shootout with the guards and are
victorious. They assume the garb of the
guards but during the battle, one of the prisoners, Spence (Luca Maric), gets a
bullet wound to his arm. The convicts
drag Madsen out of his vehicle, and the de
facto leader of the group, Arthur (Simon Newby), forces Madsen to tend to
the wounds of Spence (who is Arthur’s younger brother). Madsen argues that he needs better facilities
to help the man, and the group suggest hiking north towards Canada (away from
their prison in Seattle). They move
through a dense forest and encounter a thick fog bank. They enter and exiting the fog, the group
encounters an antique cottage (seemingly older than the American Colonial
period). A beautiful young woman (named
Alice, portrayed by Martina Ittenbach) is letting blood from a sheep
outside. The convicts decide to siege
upon the cottage’s inhabitants (of whom there are quite a few) and allow Madsen
to attend to Spence. The inhabitants of
the cottage insist that the convicts leave, but the convicts persist in
staying. The group appears
extraordinarily religious (Christian) and passive, initially, until they
transform into vampire-like demons and whip some serious convict ass. Madsen is the only survivor and escapes into
the arms of a patrolling SWAT team…
The screenplay for House
of Blood is interesting conceptually.
Ittenbach and Reitmar introduce the governing theme as reincarnation and
structure the narrative in an elliptical fashion. However, its execution is woefully done. Ittenbach does not use his exposition in the
first act effectively. Most of the
characters’ dialogue and action are devoted to bickering and repeating the same
things. How many times can the group of
convicts decide to go north? A lot. How
many times can Arthur bitch at Madsen to heal his brother? Too many.
The most detracting flaw is the dialogue of the cottage inhabitants-cum-demons: they all suffer from Yoda-its, where they all begin their
sentences with verbs with the additional annoyance of adding –eth to the end of them. For example, “Knoweth, I do. Leaveth, you now.” This shit gets on your nerves pretty quickly. Finally, the dialogue pads the length of the
narrative which in turn kills the pacing of the film. Kriesa and Martina Ittenbach give competent
performances. Wonderful actor, Jürgen
Prochnow, is sorely underused as a police inspector who appears in few scenes
in the same setting (an interrogation room).
The best performance is given by veteran character actor, Dan van
Husen. [There is an essential interview
with him discussing his career on the Wild East DVD of Alive or Preferably Dead/Kiss
Kiss Bang Bang.] Van Husen plays
Paul Anderson, another convict leader with a penchant for quoting literature
and philosophy. It is too much, here, to
describe his role in the narrative. By
the time van Husen and crew appear in House
of Blood, you either have to roll with this bit or shut the film off.
Most would probably think that I am wasting my breath
critiquing the screenplay (or acting or direction) of House of Blood. Olaf
Ittenbach currently holds a Tom Savini-like
reverence by fans for his ability in crafting detailed, practical, and gory
special effects. In fact, like Savini,
fans will see films solely armed with the knowledge that Ittenbach provided the
special effects, regardless of the film’s director or actors. The make-up upon the vampiric demons is
particularly good. The typical splatter
effects, like shotgun head blasts and intestinal work, are present; however,
the edits of such shots are quick, unlike some of his previous efforts, like in
The Burning Moon and Premutos (both 1997). It was either an artistic choice or a
commercial edit. [I watched House of Blood via the Region-one
Lionsgate DVD.] While the special
effects are well done, House of Blood
is not entertaining enough on the whole to merit seeing it for their
inclusion. Ittenbach- and German
Splatter-fans will end up seeking this one out.
All others should avoid.
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