Don't Open the Door! (1974 film)

Don't open the door... it could be a creepy shadow!

So, yesterday, we reviewed Don't Look in the Basement.  Today, we'll be seeing a few familiar faces, because Don't Open the Door! was brought to us by the same director, using some of the same actors as before (some directors like to use talent again and again... look at Tim Burton with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter!).  Out of the three I recognized, two of them get a bit larger roles, while the other only appears in a couple scenes.  So, let's get into it!

The film starts off with a man and woman discussing whether to call "her" or not.  The woman wants to call, while the guy doesn't.  Finally, she leaves and places a call to Amanda to let her know her grandmother's not doing well, and to come back, but not let anyone know.  After an opening credit sequence with a bunch of dolls and doll heads (and a very abrupt music halt), we cut to a flashback to when Susan was a little girl and her mother was murdered.  Thirteen years later, and she hasn't gone back there since.

She arrives to her grandmother's mansion and finds her grandmother in bed, and three men in the house... Judge Stemple, Claude Kearn (a museum curator), and Dr. Crawther, her physician.  Upset over both how her grandmother's been treated and how Stemple and Kearn are both trying to get ownership of the house once she's gone, Amanda orders all three of them out, then calls her friend, Nick, to try to get some help for her grandmother.  Later that evening, however, she starts getting strange, breathy phone calls from an unknown man...

This film was interesting, in how it deals with mental strain and the consequences of it.  The stress of suddenly needing to help her grandmother, plus the repeated phone calls and pressure from the other two to sign over the house to them all drive Amanda to the breaking point.  As for how this happens... well, I can't tell you that, it'd be spoiling!

All in all, a pretty good film, another representative for the Grindhouse style.  Not a whole lot of blood in this film, but a lot of suspense.  I give it a 4 out of 5.  Up next, well... we've been warned not to open the window or door, and not to look in the basement.  Now, we're not even allowed in the building!  It'll be Don't Go in the House!  Until then, this is Red Hawk signing out!