‘The Postman at all times rings twice. Terror knocks solely as soon as.’
Don’t Open the Door is a 1974 American horror movie co-produced and directed by S.F. Brownrigg (Hold My Grave Open; Scum of the Earth; Don’t Look within the Basement) from a screenplay by Frank Schaefer and Kerry Newcomb. It was additionally launched as Don’t Hold Up and Seasons for Homicide.
The film stars Susan Bracken, Gene Ross, Jim Harrell, Larry O’Dwyer, Hugh Feagin, and Rhea MacAdams.
On August 14, 2018, VCI Leisure launched the movie as a part of an S.F. Brownrigg double characteristic Blu-ray and DVD combo.
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Unique theatrical trailers on each options
New 2018 commentary observe on Don’t Look within the Basement from movie historian and journalist, David Del Valle and style director, David Decoteau (Puppet Grasp III: Toulon’s Revenge)
Assorted different Grindhouse trailers
A younger girl, Amanda Publish (Susan Bracken), is summoned to the home by which she grew as much as attend to her dying grandmother Harriet (Rhea MacAdams). The place holds dangerous recollections for her; as a toddler, she witnessed the homicide of her mom there, and the thriller assailant was by no means caught.
On returning, she encounters three sinister people: Physician Crawther (Jim Harrell), who refuses to confess the sick girl to a hospital and insists on administering her treatment himself; Choose Stemple (Gene Ross), a corrupt native Justice of the Peace, and Claude Kearn (Larry O’Dwyer), curator of a close-by museum, who’s angling to inherit the outdated woman’s assortment of vintage furnishings, clothes and jewelry.
Amanda offers the three vultures their marching orders, solely to search out herself focused by a menacing telephone caller who is aware of her each transfer…
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Overview [may contain spoilers]:
Should you discover Brownrigg’s Don’t Look within the Basement (1972) and Poor White Trash Half II (1973) too depressingly claustrophobic then you might choose Don’t Open the Door, a murder-mystery that’s rather less stifling than his prior work.
This time we’re handled to glimpses of the surface world, and in a single heady second a small-town excessive avenue; fairly a distinction to the sooner movies, whose main girls might as properly have been residing on Mars for all of the social contact they loved.
The capturing model is a little bit airier too. Whereas many of the motion takes place in a rambling outdated home, the digicam is allowed just a few stunning flights of fancy. One may even marvel if Brownrigg (or cinematographer Robert Alcott) was influenced by the extra adventurous camerawork present in Italian horror (in any case, Bava’s Blood and Black Lace and Argento’s The Hen With the Crystal Plumage handed by Southern drive-ins within the early Seventies).
A scene by which the heroine ascends an ornate spiral staircase is conveyed by a digicam craning upwards by the centre, and when she enters the attic, a domed, blue-tinted room is illuminated by daylight by big red-paned home windows, the spirit of Mario Bava is sort of palpable.
Certainly, color is vivid all through the movie, with sure scenes revelling in shiny, hallucinatory hues. From Amanda Publish’s vibrant modern-day gown sense to the attractive interiors of the home and close by doll museum, there seems to have been a concerted effort by Brownrigg to shake off the squalor of the primary two movies.
One factor that continues to be a continuing in all of Brownrigg’s cinema is the music. Robert Farrar’s rating has some energetic interjections of buzzsaw guitar, interspersed with a ‘chamber-rock’ ensemble comprised of drums, bass guitar and electrical harpsichord, however followers of his work can be glad to listen to that he nonetheless insists on his trademark, the muffled flutes, a daily characteristic of his sound that delivers a heady dose of thriller, unhappiness and resignation.
Storywise, Don’t Open the Door is probably too sparsely adorned, and components such because the menacing phone caller are required to shoulder extra display time than they will deal with. Nonetheless, the phone scenes are comically sleazy and doubtless the excessive level of the movie.
To start with, Amanda seems greater than equal to the duty of seeing off the jackals circling her grandmother’s deathbed, however she quickly begins to crack when subjected to the telephone calls. Her breakdown accelerates sooner when the caller says that it was he who murdered her mom. The spacious outdated home turns into a suffocating dying lure, and in a frenzy of melodramatic laughing and psychedelic montage, Amanda turns into the third Brownrigg heroine to lose her marbles.
Nurse Beale in Don’t Look within the Basement descended into hysteria and survived because of the intervention of a lobotomised male affected person; Helen Fraser in Poor White Trash Half II sank into catatonia and appeared destined to stay within the Pickett shack; right here, Amanda Publish loses her thoughts by publicity to a telephone pervert and assassin. This places Brownrigg’s work at a fault line operating by the style.
On the one hand, in a style usually designed to attraction to younger males he locations sturdy but delicate females on the centre of his movies; alternatively these girls pay for his or her preliminary shows of power and autonomy with degradation and insanity.
Nevertheless, I might cite the gentler-than-average temper of Brownrigg’s horror movies as the most effective information to his sympathies, and though his feminine leads at all times crack below stress there’s no sympathy in any respect for the aggressive or threatening males: the plight of the lady is the director’s sole concern.
Personally I might be glad to observe one other 5 motion pictures made on this idiom by the identical solid and crew, nevertheless it’s not onerous to see how Brownrigg’s work slipped from favour within the drive-ins. There merely isn’t sufficient violence or spectacle for an exploitation sales-pitch, and the gory bloodbath that introduced his debut movie to its alarming conclusion appears far, far-off on this talky and restrained psychological story.
Don’t Open the Door might be the least gloomy, most aesthetically pleasing of Brownrigg’s movies (it’s definitely his most vibrant), nevertheless it nonetheless stays obstinately down within the dumps. The potential for cult attraction will depend on whether or not you have got house in your viewing habits for a cocktail of melancholy music, cheapskate manufacturing values, character over incident, and an ineffable sensation of unhappiness seeping from each body. Should you do, then Brownrigg is the person, the Deacon of Downbeat; in case you don’t, you’ll in all probability go to sleep.
Capturing happened for 3 weeks within the historic city of Jefferson, Texas, most notably at The Home of the Seasons, W. Austin Road (from which the movie gained its authentic capturing title The Home of the Seasons). So-called as a result of the higher flooring has tinted home windows representing the 4 seasons (inexperienced for spring, amber for summer season, crimson for fall, and blue for winter), it was in-built 1872 by Colonel Benjamin H. Epperson, a outstanding lawyer, political chief, and president of the Memphis, El Paso Pacific Railroad.
Filming additionally happened on the close by Doll Museum and Jay Gould’s Atalanta Railroad Automotive. This luxury 88 foot-long customized rail carriage with mahogany, maple and silver interiors, by which nineteenth century rail tycoon Jay Gould travelled along with his household and servants, has been a proud characteristic of Jefferson’s vacationer business because the Nineteen Fifties.
The movie performed just a few dates within the South as Don’t Hold Up and Seasons for Homicide, after which it sat on the shelf till 1979, when Capital Movies Company retitled it Don’t Open the Door (perhaps hoping that a little bit little bit of magic would rub off from the financially profitable Don’t Look within the Basement).
Lastly, a little bit conjecture. A flashback after the opening credit, displaying Amanda’s mom being stabbed to dying and her daughter discovering the physique, seems to have been shot and inserted later (if I’m proper, in all probability simply previous to the 1979 retitling). The movie’s in any other case thorough finish credit make no point out of the actress taking part in the mom, nor the younger Amanda, and as a substitute credit score two characters who’re nowhere to be present in Don’t Open the Door; ‘Native 1’ and ‘Native 2’.
In a movie this minimally populated, even a passer-by would catch your consideration, but there are not any incidental characters to whom these names may apply. I think that Locals 1 and a couple of bit the mud when footage was faraway from an early model of the movie to make room for the brand new materials. As well as, the flashback homicide appears trendily paying homage to Halloween, that the majority outstanding horror hit of the late Seventies.
Stephen Thrower, MOVIES and MANIA
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Unique Theatrical Trailer
Horror Trailers
Bio on S. F. Brownrigg
Anamorphic Widescreen Enhanced for 16×9 screens
Different opinions [may contain spoilers]:
“Director S.F. Brownrigg makes nice use of shadows within the outdated home, and even when many of the solid and characters aren’t actually probably the most convincing thespians you’re more likely to encounter on the display, not less than the film is fascinating and strikes alongside at a comparatively first rate tempo. The movie additionally efficiently pulls you in by its use off unusual imagery….” Ian Jane, Rock! Shock! Pop!
” …throws in some first rate camerawork right here and there, however the price range is low, the movie is darkish, dreary and oppressive with out actually being scary or constructing any suspense and his personal uninvolving, talky script by no means elevates this over the strange.” The Bloody Pit of Horror
” …unpleasantly compelling.” John Stanley, Creature Options
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“This straightforward stalk pic is usually okay, however is weakened by a meandering tempo that alternately picks up steam after which pulls again with out purpose. Though laidback, it’s watchable, attributable to lead Bracken who delivers an excellent efficiency because the harrassed blondie. To not point out the entire thing boasts not less than one enjoyable mallet-clubbing dying.” The Terror Lure
“Regardless of having these few distinguishing deserves, the flick is kind of an ideal treatment for insomnia. Like Brownrigg’s Don’t Look within the Basement, this flick is a sluggishly paced and lightweight on surprises and blood. There’s manner an excessive amount of of the film that’s all build-up and no payoff.” Mitch Lovell, The Video Vacuum
” …a potently weird, creepy and curiously old style movie which is, maybe, solely let down by often changing into unfathomable in its quest of the genuinely unusual.” Hysteria Lives!
Solid and characters:
Susan Bracken – Amanda Publish; Larry O’Dwyer – Claude Kearn; Gene Ross – Choose Stemple; Jim Harrell – Physician Crawther; Hugh Feagin – Nick; Annabelle Weenick – Annie; Rhea MacAdams – Grandmother
Launch:
The movie was first proven on 3 Might 1974 in Paris, Texas.
Movie Info:
The movie’s working title was The Home of the Seasons
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