Don't Go In The House

Don't Go In The House Directed by Joseph Ellison. Starring Dan Grimaldi (1980).
   This film really portrays the sickness that child abuse can instill and cause someone to become deranged.Those that say Don't Go In The House is just a Psycho ripoff with fire and disco are missing the point it has those elements, but Dan Grimaldi's sincere creepiness really works and its very effective. The creepiest scenes for me are when you hear the disembodied voice of abuse in a warbled incoherent whisper as they zoom in on the box of matches. The same voice according to House visits all children who are the victims of abuse, it both comforts and drives them to kill. 

   We first meet Donny (Dan Grimaldi later on The Sopranos), a lowlife pyromaniac, who after an aerosol can is left in the incinerator that engulfs someone in flames, instead of helping he just stares maniacally fixated. After he arrives home to find his dead mother lying in a chair, his revulsion seems to be an act. He's not that broken up because of the vicious abuse she inflicted on him. Anytime she felt like burning "the wickedness out," she would hold his tiny arms over the flames on a gas oven. The echoy voices in his mind liberate him from the tyranny of his oppressive religious fanatic mother. He is so ecstatic to now be able to dance around the house and put on his favorite disco records!

Bobby a married cheater and perv makes every effort to become Donny's friend and is a horrible influence, but no one else will give him the time of day. 
   The actors in this film all have that seedy New York quality. Donny's first murder is particularly gut wrenching as a flower shop girl is chained up while her skin is flayed off and she is burned alive. He uses a flamethrower like The Exterminator accept he's more likeable then Robert Ginty! House really goes for the throat on a disturbing level and the only explanation for these grisly murders is that Donny was abused,never got over it and is now killing women full time. The way he reacts to the site of burning flesh seems to be a cathartic release for him and its pretty gruesome. As vicious as that is, I appreciate this film's no explanation policy because in real life almost all serious killers never explain their actions, they treat people like they are inhuman and disposable. Towards the end he tries to get help from church and finally attempts to become a normal person (or in his mind a king of the disco dance floor!)

   The disco shop scene in so unbelievably campy and ridiculous, but I have to identify with Donny's pathetic attempt to fit in with the rest of the world and that's what gives this film its edge, you start identifying with a human monster. There's noway you can possibly identify with him, but this film starts driving you toward that direction. Don't Go In The House has its way of slapping you back down, because just as you start to feel sorry for Donny, you are unable to understand why he continues to abduct women or the fact that he smashes his date in the head with a flaming candle (totally uncalled for!). This is one of many underrated slasher flicks that's alot better than people give it credit for! No one can resist the disco track "Struck By Boogie Lightening" It's so annoyingly infectious and repulsive!

Now that she's dead I'm gonna blast some Bee Gees!

This get up will totally get me laid

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