Horror House

Released 20 years ago, this adaptation of a Stephen King short story still has some shining qualities. By the title you'd assume that it's a supernatural ghost movie. Quite the contrary. I did not expect the movie to materialize in the way that it did and when a B movie can surprise you, it's generally pretty good.

There is a problem down at the old textile mill, people keep dying in "accidents" on the graveyard shift. Turns out, the place is completely infested with rats and I can tell you (because it's my job and future career) that this is not in compliance with OSHA. However, the foreman is a real hard-ass and won't shut it down while the problem is being resolved. Instead, he hires a ridiculous exterminator - definitely my favorite character - who tells stories of rats eating people back when he was in the Vietnam war. Well the exterminator can't eradicate the problem on his own so the foreman is forced to assemble a clean up crew to work in the bowels of the mill over the off week of the 4th of July.

The clean up crew begins work and soon finds a trap door that leads even deeper under the mill. Down they go. This is not a good idea but what's a horror movie without some terrible decisions? They soon find themselves lost in a maze of tunnels far underground being picked off one by one by a giant bat with a taste for human blood. Yeah, a bat. I don't know how we went from rats to a bat but hey, that's what the director wanted. A final standoff between the bat and the main character ends with an "accident" for the bat. #Winning.

Pros: This movie does a good job of creating and maintaining suspense throughout but keep in mind it's the slow moving old school style devoid of wild special effects and "jump" moments. The actors were a lot better than what I expected to see. The exterminator is an awesome character. For 1990, the giant bat was a very well done animatronic creature and wasn't really laugh worthy aside from the fact that it's a giant bat living underground. The supporting rat cast appeared to be a collection of trained rats that were capable of being called to attention in a line which made for some creepy moments with hundreds of rats looking down from the rafters.

Cons: The movie is older so as I said, it doesn't have a lot of special effects if that's what you're into. The concept is cool but from what I understand, deviates significantly from the way it was originally written by Stephen King.

Since it's not all that scary I'll rate it 2.5 screams out of 5 but I still highly recommend checking it out.

You can check it out on FearNet On Demand (or the website) and netflix.com. As always, comment with your thoughts!