Don’t Go In The House (1980)

Trailer:

What’s It About: Deeply disturbed Donny Kohler works at a sanitation plant. He is fascinated by fire. Obsessed with it really. So much in fact that when another sanitation worker is engulfed in flames by an accident he just stands and stares. It takes a few moments but other workers come to this flaming man’s rescue. Donny lives alone with his Mother. That same day he comes home and finds her dead from natural causes. Donny also hears voices in his head. Its difficult to truly understand what they are saying but they are female and it sounds like they tell him what to do. When he finds his mother dead the voices tell him that he is free from her control. Donny celebrates by immediately playing loud music, smoking a cigarette and jumping on the furniture. He then stops when he hears the voices again and recalls all the abuse by his mother as a young child, specifically when she burned his arms whenever he did something wicked—hence the fire obsession.

So Donny then decides to char his dear old mother’s corpse and build a fire-proof room in the house. He then proceeds to buy flowers at this local florist and afterwards helps the florist with giving her a ride but insists he has to get the flowers home in water first before he can drop her off. He then pressures her inside to meet his mother. Once inside he assaults her, hangs her in the fire-proof room naked and burns her alive with a flamethrower.

After this he picks up a stranded girl with a broke-down vehicle. Again she says its OK that he drops something off at home first before he can take her to the nearest gas station. Anyway, she’s victim #2. Victim #3 is soon after and we then learn that Donny is dressing up the charred remains of these victims in his mother’s clothes and has them sitting nicely in a room on rocking chairs. Occasionally he talks to them but mostly yells at them for insulting or upsetting him.

I'm burning, I'm burning, I'm burning for you.

He is then haunted by the vision of the scorched corpse of his mother and decides to seek help from another co-worker friend and his parish priest. None are much help. The friend sets him up on a date at the local disco and Donny goes shopping for new duds for the occasion. Trouble is, Donny don’t dance and the girl is burned on the head by a candle when she pressures Donny to shake his groove thing. The brother of the singed chick tries to beat up Donny but Donny somehow gets away. But as luck would have it Donny finds two drunk girls outside a bar needing a ride. So he takes them to his house saying they’ll have a party. He kidnaps both girls intent on barbequing them but the friend and the priest barge in the house to help Donny. Donny fries the priest to a crisp and as the other friend helps Father Flame-broiled, the scorched remains of the mother and the other three girls attack Donny in an hallucinogenic state. He then defends himself with his flamethrower but is overcome with the flames getting trapped in the room essentially burning himself to death.

Is It Actually Scary: Donny is such a loose-cannon psychopath you never know what he’s going to do. I really thought he was going to kill anyone he came into contact with in this film. I’m shocked the two seemingly homosexual employees at the clothing shop were going to literally be flaming in a matter of minutes after meeting him. But unless you’re scared of fire this isn’t a scary movie.

Scariest Moment: There’s one scene when Donny is first spooked by the charred corpse of his own mother which was a decently done jump scare. Other than that this movie is a simple stalker flick.

How Much Gore: None. Everyone is killed by fire so no ounce of blood was spilled. Plenty of singed flesh abound though.

Dumbest Moment: It’s really hard to swallow how retarded these victims are. This was set in 1980, how much of a moron are you to not only willingly and happily accept a ride from some weird-looking guy in a beat-up Chevy pick-up but then agree to go to his house and go inside? Like the title states, don’t go in the house but it could’ve been easily been called Don’t Go In The Chevy Pick-up Truck. But more on the title later on.

But I also chuckled hard when the voices said after the death of his mother, “You are free now. You can do anything you want.” and his immediate response was “Can I play my music loud?” I know he’s a man-child and that’s the point but I found it really funny.

Any nudity: The first victim is naked as she’s tied up dangling from the ceiling. You pretty much see her from all angles and full frontal just before he sets her aflame. Not erotic at all.

DON'T GO IN!!!!!!!!

Overall: It certainly ignited my interest and should burn in my memory for some time; its a decently done thriller. It was a bit of a Psycho rip-off with the deranged son/deranged mother angle but I’ll let that slide. My main gripe is the title—Don’t Go In The House. The house is not scary. A bit run down but not spooky. And it’s on a decent street with a nice-looking neighborhood lessening the ominousness of it. What bugs me about the title is that it leads you to believe that people were unexpectedly showing up to this house and being preys to the killer. The house wasn’t a trap per se as the title alludes to me. The killer brought the victims to the house and they willingly went in. There’s just something off about a killer who clearly has a great method of killing—fire—and the title has nothing to do with that. In France, this film was titled: Pyromaniac. That’s not only perfect but original title as there is nor was a horror flick called that. Why they went with something so removed from the method or originality of the killer is a bit baffling. Don’t get me wrong I think the title is great but it just burns me that another title was better.