A Night To Dismember, Macabre, and Grandmas House

[FirebirdMatt1997]

What do you guys think of those three movies: A Night To Dismember, Macabre, and Grandmas House. Are they any good???


Word
Matt

[Antonio]

GRANDMOTHER’S HOUSE (1988) Directed with mucho style by Peter Rader. Another overlooked horror film from that great decade, the 1980’s. The story concerns two orphaned teens (Eric Foster and Kim Valentine) who are sent to live with their creepy grandparents after the untimely demise of their father. After a series of bizarre occurrences, the siblings begin to suspect that their grandparents are up to no good. Cheesecake B-movie Scream Queen Brinke Stevens co-stars as the “surprise relative”, and Len Lesser (Uncle Leo in the “Seinfeld” TV series) plays it relatively straight here as the kids’ grandfather. There are enough chase sequences and gory images to satisfy fans of the genre, the California settings are great (creepy farmhouse, maze-like orchards, decaying palm trees and ominous water tunnels), and the slam-bang twist ending will stick with you for a while. Pretty impressive for its limited budget, reminiscent of both CLOWNHOUSE and CHERRY FALLS. The two leads, Foster and Valentine, are escecially good, and prove to be resourceful rather than idiotic during their battles with the villain(s). Definitely worth a look if you can locate it on video store shelves, where it is probably collecting dust. My grade: B

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**********SPOILERS OF SOME SORTS************
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A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER (1983) is a trip! Directed by the one and only, the queen of sleeze and exploitation: Doris Wishman!

"Plot": When young Vicki Kent (Samantha Fox — the porn star, not the pop star) is released from the state asylum where she was sent years ago for a violent double murder. Her siblings Mary and Billy don't want her at home, so they attempt to frighten her into insanity so she'll be re-committed. Vicki experiences strange hallucinations, and a number of people are extravagantly murdered. But as a Detective investigates, he begins to wonder if Vicki is truly the culprit.

Facts: To fully appreciate A Night to Dismember, one needs to appreciate the circumstances surrounding its production. The negative was stored at Movielab, a concern that went bankrupt—in the process, half of Wishman's original footage was lost to damage (fire) inflicted by a disgruntled employee. She spent eight months reconstructing the film in heavily modified form, shooting additional footage to make something coherent out of it. It should also be noted that the film was shot on a very low budget, so low that synchronized sound recording was not possible. The soundtrack was assembled after the fact, using stock music, dubbed voices (in rare dialogue moments), and sound effects. The story is carried primarily by narration over silent footage, courtesy of Detective O'Malley, a character who doesn't interact with the story to any great degree otherwise.

Due to these facts of the troubled production A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER is probably one of the worst films ever made but don't let that scare you off. This film is so bad it's freakin' surreal!

There is of course a good deal of entertainment to be found in this campy "classic". For example in one scene you see Vickie's brother Billy circling ads in a newspaper, accompanied by narration explaining that, wishing to drive his sister to insanity, he looks for ideas in the paper (!) or another scene where we witness someone's wife taking her "usual afternoon stroll in the garden", wearing a blouse that is so low-cut it's almost not there — she only appears in one shot before the narration informs us she was also murdered, heh. At one point Vicki takes time out from her agonising dementia to do a strip-tease for the Detective, who watches through her window with decidedly unprofessional interest, though the characters have never really met each other except for one brief encounter and do not otherwise interact. There are also a few colorful psychedelic sexual dreams in which Vickie makes love to a faceless man.

The gore cheap and bloody, a few impressive stabbings and several axe murders that are laughably inept — blows which begin with great momentum in one shot end with a light tap on the victim in the next, "painting" blood onto a shirt or a neck without penetration.

I love this film, its the perfect party flick. Gotta be seen to be believed.
It's a mindfuck, even tho it wasn't a intended one. Recommended!

[Bear]

ugh, I hated A Night to Dismember.

[ParileseMonster]

Grandmother's House is cool, it is on DVD. I like to watch it once a year at least. My husband likes it but not the part where they are running and boink and that is all I will say boink. Those who have seen it, will get that hopefully.

Macabre does not ring a bell right now.

Night To Dismember was just a cut up nightmare that could be entertaining depending on your mood, maybe have a few drinks first, something like that.

[mary lou 102]

I've wanted to see Grandma's House for a long time now, but can't get a copy.
I have Macabre. It was in double feature DVD with A Blade In The Dark from Anchor Bay. Both films are directed by Lamberto Bava. Macabre was his first film and it's one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. The odd Southern dubbing makes matters even weirder. It was shot in Rome and New Orleans and was supposidly based on a true story about well...you'll have to watch it to find out just how weird our world is if it is true.

I'd say it's worth a rental or a cheap buy. The double feature DVD was only 10 bucks. Not bad for two decent little Italian movies.

[JayWolf]

I never understood the love for Grandma's House.

For one, there's barely any tie in to the story having to do with Grandma. It has more to do with Grandpa than anything. It's very slow, little to no atmosphere, has a lot of buildup for nothing, and takes too long to get going. Not to mention there's barely anything creepy, shocking, or weird going on to keep interest. When anything does kick in, it's very mediocre in execution. The only time I was even taken aback was during the end revelation. Besides that, I don't see what was so great about this film. I had the same reaction to Clownhouse. I found it boring and tedious until the end came about.

[ParileseMonster]

I agree with you about Clownhouse, but I did not find the same things with GH that you did. I really liked it and the dorky kid who took the brother out that was talking all sorts of shit always amuses me to this day. I like Brinke anyway.

[Tikkin]

A Night To Dismember is one of the worst slashers Ive even seen. Had to stop watching halfway through! Wouldnt recommend it to anyone.

I found Macabre quite dull too, Lamberto Bava is a bit overrated.

Havent seen Grandmothers House but its on my list.

[Bear]

I agree about NIght to Dismember... I made it all the way thru..... but not in one sitting. It was 69 inutes but it felt like 4 hours.