I've seen some crazy films with absurdly far-fetched storylines in my days, but I can safely state that "The House in Nightmare Park" has one of the most bonkers and wickedly convoluted scripts I ever beheld. Well, actually, I'm not sure there even was a script! It looks as if the film may be adapted from a stage play but, I swear, it often feels as if the plot simply got improvised as they went along! Don't get me wrong, though, it's a hugely entertaining and immensely creative hybrid between whodunit-mystery, comedy and horror, but it's practically impossible to write a half-decent synopsis! The titular house is the gathering place for four siblings that are awaiting the death of their oldest brother Victor and greedily look forward to the inheritance. The patriarch Stewart (the fantastic and versatile Ray Milland) hired the clumsy but good-hearted stage actor Foster Twelvetrees; - supposedly to provide some distracting amusement during the evenings, but it's quite evident that Twelvetrees got lured to the house for other and much more macabre reasons! Absolutely nothing or nobody in this house is even remotely normal. The silent and grumpy sister nurtures an impressive collection of killer snakes in the basement, the entire family performs in genuinely spooky dance/sing-along acts and their hatchet-wielding old hag of a mother is locked away in the highest attic! The gags and comical aspects nearly don't always work, but when they do "The House in Nightmare Park" is downright laugh-out-loud funny. I'm personally not very familiar with lead actor Frankie Howerd, who resembles Albert Finney but with goofier grimaces, but he's good and carries the film rather well. The patience of horror fanatics is tested for quite long, but when the first murder occurs the rest quickly follows. The biggest trump of "The House of Nightmare Park" is definitely its originality. The plot is full of surprising and ingenious twists, like the final one, for example! The ending is truly one of the most mischievously joyful ones I've ever seen.
Review of The House in Nightmare Park
