Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'The House of Seven Corpses'

Written by Scott Edwards

​Adding reality to a story is something that every good writer wants to do. It makes the characters into real people that the audience can identify with, along with a story that cannot be passed up. But how far would a story teller go to capture this sort of reality if they have never seen nor witnessed anything dealing with the occult? It could be a dangerous proposition if you do not truly understand what you are dealing with, especially if you have been lucky enough to find some of their old reading material that houses ancient spells and chants. Just do your research when it comes to this, and if you are lucky enough to have the problem of running into some old relics, you will at least know which ones hold power, while others can be joked around with.

Eric Hartman is ready to make one of the greatest movies of his career, one having to do with a true story. As he has been fascinated by the old Beal murders that took place years ago, he is now lucky enough to have secured the house where they happened to film the story. But not everything is bubble gum and rainbows for the director as the caretaker of the house will not let the story of the murders be told the wrong way. After interrupting a scene, the caretaker takes Eric and his cast on a tour of the old house and makes sure that everyone knows more about the seven people who died, along with the method of death they came by. 

Young producer and actor David seems to know a lot about the old Beal house as well and when looking around is not afraid to have his voice heard. When arriving in one of the bedrooms, the cast finds a secret door that leads into the library that they have previously shot in. Taking a better look around this time, David finds an old book, The Tibetan Book of the Dead which has all kinds of spells and chants that would be perfect for the movie and make it just that much more real. Reading the book in his free time, he is able to bring a couple of lines to Eric who gladly passes it off to his actresses and the group is ready to make this the best telling of the Beal murders as humanly possible. 

All it is not what it seems around the house after Eric tells off the caretaker and he is spotted in the graveyard entering a grave. The cast gets a little bit spooked, but continue on with their work since they only have to spend a few days in the creepy old house. During his downtime, David continues to read the old book, looking for something else that can be used in the movie, but winds up becoming obsessed with it during the night. Being broken free from a trance, David finds another chant that would be perfect for the shoot, but what he does not understand is that it actually works in bringing the dead back to life. As the final scene of the movie is filmed, the nameless member of the graveyard is brought back to life and the cast and crew are in grave danger of becoming the next victims of the Beal house.

I am a sucker for a movie that has to deal with the occult, mostly because I am still undecided if the old stories you hear about it are true. There is always a bit of truth behind these types of stories and it is up to you to decide which part it is. The opening credits of this movie sets the mood for the film going forward as you get to witness that madness that took place in the house so many years ago and with the stories being retold throughout, you are left waiting to see what will happen to the visitors. In reality, the movie is based around the director and the troubles he has to go through to make his movie, but then the spooky stuff really starts to happen during the final scene. It might not be one the scariest movies ever made, but you do not feel cheated when the final credits roll since the payoff is unexpected. Stay Scared.

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