House of the Damned (2008)
Reviewed by Geno McGahee –July 2, 2008
“Damn this house!”
Sean Weathers has put together a string of horror films. Filming in the city, which is rarely seen in this genre, automatically is compelling because it is so rare. Most of the time, you will see the backwoods or some small town, but the city can be a scary place and that is what Weathers attempts to display in his 2008 film HOUSE OF THE DAMNED, his directorial debut.
Liz (Valerie Alexander) has lost her father and there is a lot of mystery involved with his death. She is in mourning and is also dealing with a sick grandfather, Johnny (Nahum). Although coughing a little too much, playing up the role of a sick old man, he still is a very decent actor and brings some legitimacy to this  film. He is seen as a senile old man, but he knows the truth about Liz’s mother, Emily (Monica Williams).
Emily is throwing a birthday party for Liz in an attempt to cheer her up, but the party turns into a disaster when the evil is unleashed. Although most of the actors do fairly well, especially when you consider the very low budget of this flick, Kevin (Clinton Philbert) didn’t seem to take the role too seriously. Part of the problem with low budget films is that when you employ your friends, they don’t take it as seriously as you do and I think that we have that problem here with Philbert. Every time that he said something stupid, which is basically every time that he’s on screen, I cringe. He really does take a lot away from this film. 
We have several things going on in this movie and I don’t want to give too much away, but Emily has a dark secret, leading to some zombie action and a fight for survival. There is definitely some influence from films like Evil Dead, and when the zombies finally kick in, it’s done rather well.
Overall, this is a very good effort by Weathers, and with some fine tuning and introduction of some better actors, he could be onto something. HOUSE OF THE DAMNED is not a great movie, but it’s not a bad movie either, and if you enjoy no budget cinema and zombies, you will enjoy this film. The story is decent and under the financial restrictions, it was done rather well, and Weathers did a fine job directing his first film. A good first entry for Full Circle Filmworks.
Scared Stiff Rating: 4.5/10. Low budget zombie fun.
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