The House That Would Not Die (1970 film)
Summary
A tale of witchcraft, black magic and a haunted house in the Amish country.
Details
- Release Date: 1970
- Country/Language: US, English
- Genres/Technical: Horror (Gothic horror), made-for-TV
- Setting: 1970s Gettysburg, Pennsylvania USA
- Runtime: 1 hr 14 min
- Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Egan, Michael Anderson Jr.
- Director: John Llewellyn Moxey
- Writer: Henry Farrell (screenplay), Barbara Michaels (novel)
- Producer/Production Co: Aaron Spelling Productions, ABC
- View Film: (link)
- IMDB Page: (link)
Ratings
MPAA Ratings
- Rated: (not rated) (perhaps equivalent to a TV-PG for mild Violence)
Might be considered the equivalent of a TV-PG for mild Violence and a few 1970s TV-movie scares, though it could easily pass for a "G".
Tentacle Ratings
A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:
- S____ (One Tentacle: Debateably Lovecraftian; has almost no direct connection to Lovecraft's work)
Not very Lovecraftian, but it might lend itself to adaptation to a haunted house scenario in the same vein as "The Haunting", with its tale of 18th-century black magic, witchcraft, hauntings, possessions, unearthed secrets, and such. It wouldn't take much to link this story more directly to the Cthulhu Mythos....
Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.
Reviews
Review Links:
- The Bloody Pit of Horror, (link) - "(2/5) Competent, but very forgettable, made-for-TV haunted house/ possession tale... The cast is fairly decent, but the storyline is incredibly predictable and the chills just aren't there for the most part, though nostalgic viewers who saw this one as kids seem to look at it through rose-colored lenses...."
- Kindertrauma (link) - "The House That Would Not Die'’s scares may be softer than bunny fur but it’s got a general spooky atmosphere that works nonetheless."
- Lisa Marie Bowman at Horror on the Lens, (link) - "...It's all kinda silly but kinda fun too..."
- Chris Hewson at Not This Time, Nayland Smith, (link) - "...A tense and softly eerie ghost story.... more of a ghost tale than an outright horror film.... It has no body count, instead relying on its plot, creepy atmosphere, and subtle scares to carry it, and it works fantastically! Anyone who says G/PG rated horror films can't work [are wrong]! The mystery here is very well-handled, with a good dripfeed of information. We don't get too much at once, or too little. The answers are revealed well, and best of all, the ending not only didn't piss me off, but it's also not abrupt! A 74 minute TV movie with a well-paced ending!"
- Richard Scheib at The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review, (link) - "(2/5) ...At best a routine entry. The plot plays out by the established cliches of the genre – seances held to communicate with the haunting entity, books/documents conveniently left open to pages that provide vital clues, atrocities of the past replaying themselves, the ghosts possessing the living to replay their dramas. To its credit, the film does arrive at a moderately interesting climactic revelation... there are some odd moments during the seance and the investigation of the cellar that raise some atmosphere. Mostly the film has an easy predictability where all atmosphere comes at timed intervals and builds to contrived cliffhangers in time for the commercial break..."
Synopsis (SPOILERS)
Spoiler Section (Highlight to Read)
Ruth Bennett has inherited an old house in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania where she moves in with her niece Sara. The house was built during the Revolutionary era and is said to be haunted by the spirits of its original inhabitants who are disinclined towards hospitality. The house soon begins showing signs of a sinister haunting, with Sara sleep-walking and uncovering hidden rooms, objects moving on their own, and other evidence mounting of a malevolent ghostly presence. With the help of a local professor and one of his students, they delve into the history of the house and find a scandal that involves a traitorous revolutionary war general, his daughter, and her patriot boyfriend, whose spirits take possession of the living characters, with one spirit guarding the house against a more evil presence, and the clues pointing to a monstrous secret hidden in a secret room in the basement of the house....
Notes
Comments, Trivia, Dedication
Associated Mythos Elements
- fiction: "title (fiction)" or title (fiction)
- tome: Tome1
- race: Race1
- deity: Deity
Keeper Notes
