Don't Go in the House (1979)

On a budget of 250,000 Dollars director Joseph Ellison made Don't Go in the House. The movie itself is very similar to Psycho (1960) and especially Deranged (1974). Not coincidentally both of these movies were inspired by 50's serial killer Ed Gein.

Donny Kohler is scarred for life (literally and figuratively) by his deranged mother, who he grew up with. After the death of his mother Donny goes completely insane and brings girls to his home to murder them violently.

Don't Go in the House has a pretty long build up which itself is pretty uninteresting as well. Even back in 1979 the whole 'Going crazy after mother died' was done multiple times before this movie, and because of that the story just doesn't feel really original. Luckily after about half an hour maniac Donny manages to get a girl into his house. The kill that follows is pretty good and actually very barbaric. Fully in screen we see how he ties up the naked woman in a steel room in his house. He pours gasoline over her body and then fires his flamethrower causing the woman to burn to death, still shown in full glory. Sicko Donny himself is wearing an asbestos suit. It's a suit that had the potential to become iconic in the horror genre. Unfortunately it didn't because the frightening looking suit is used much too little in the movie.

After this first kill the quality of the movie decreases rapidly. That's pretty much the only thing that goes rapidly in this movie 'cause after the kill the tempo of the movies goes back to being terribly slow. This slow, boring tempo lasts until the very decent disco scene. The scene is followed by a good showdown in the house of Donny. The house by the way looks like a horror house from the outside but unfortunately the creepyness of the house isn't shown very well when shooting scenes in the house itself. Anyway, during the showdown Donny finally puts his asbestos suit back on and again it is followed by a good looking burn kill. What's especially creepy is the ending scene in which Donny is going so insane that he thinks all the burned bodies, that he kept in the house, come back to life to muder him. An impactful ending that does look a lot like the ending of Maniac (1980). 

The music score is ofter very weird sounding and is sometimes supported by funky disco music. Dan Grimaldi grows into his role of Donny as the movie continues. The supporting cast is actually pretty decent, especially Robert Osth who plays the role of Donny's best friend. According to IMDB this was Osth's only movie role on his CV. 

Either way Don't Go in the House turned out to be a disappointment. It had potential, that's for sure. Killing your victims by burning them to death is macabre enough to make for a good horror movie. Unfortunate those scenes are pretty scarce. The tempo of the movie sucks at times and the asbestos suit had to be used MUCH more. The good last +- 15 minutes saved this movie from being a total let down.

Fun Facts (Source: IMDB) 

Dan Grimaldi kept the asbestos suit he wears in the movie.