Fright House

I'm not exactly sure when cheap exploitation became synonymous with "striking shots" and "cult following", but the advertising blurb from Variety on the press release for this film would have you believe that you're about to see some serious cinematic derring-do. On the contrary, Fright House is a lame sexploitation/slasher double feature from writer/director Len Anthony, whose idea of style, apparently, is to intercut images of topless women holding knives, into the title story--which doesn't make much sense to begin with, but is apparently about a coven of witches. The second story, "Abadon," is even flakier. Trying to follow the plot is like attempting to map Liz Taylor's love life. Basically, an art school is the feeding ground for the headmistress, who's immortal, thanks to her long gone hubby's invention of a positive/negative fountain of youth electronic gizmo that looks like it cost all of $.99 to put together. Both the machine and the blood of exceedingly dumb students are required to keep the headmistress looking fresh as a daisy. When she goes after a student whom she doesn't realize is her own daughter, the estranged father (Duane Jones of Night of the Living Dead fame) reads trouble in his tarot cards, and heads for the school to save the day. The real burn job, however, is on the video's back cover, which distinctly shows two skulls melted down to the dentures--a shot which never appears in the video. Not for the squeamish, not for anyone with double-digit I.Q.'s or above, and definitely not recommended. (R. Pitman)