Scott LeBrun Ron Foster ("Private Lessons") and Merry Anders ("Women of the Prehistoric Planet") play Scott and Nancy Campbell, a married couple hired by their friend, a lawyer named Joe Schiller (Richard Crane, "The Alligator People"), to do an architectural survey on a country estate. Soon after they arrive, they experience some strange, moderately disconcerting experiences. Knowing full well that the old crone (Georgia Schmidt) who owned the place (who's now confined to an institution) would have loathed police interference, they attempt to do their own sleuthing.This fairly lightweight, routine "old dark house" type horror film ultimately doesn't deliver much in the way of actual horror. It's certainly well made, with some excellent black & white cinematography and camera work. (The Cinema Scope aspect ratio of 2.35:1 does help a lot.) The performances are all quite engaging and the script by Harry Spalding ("Chosen Survivors") features some mildly amusing lines. The "castle" itself is an appropriate setting, adding to the atmosphere that producer & director Maury Dexter ("The Mini-Skirt Mob", "Hell's Belles") is able to create.Foster and Anders make for a personable main couple, with fine support from Crane, Erika Peters ("The Atomic Brain", "Mr. Sardonicus") and the prolific Dal McKennon ('Daniel Boone', "Lady and the Tramp"). A very young Richard Kiel ("Eegah", "The Spy Who Loved Me") makes an appearance as a mute giant."House of the Damned" is watchable enough, but it never does live up to that title.Six out of 10.

Woodyanders Architect Scott Campbell (a solid Ronald Foster) and his wife Nancy (a spunky performance by the fetching Merry Anders) check out an old castle located on a remote hillside in California. They are joined by lawyer Joseph Schiller (nicely played by Richard Crane) and his snippy spouse Loy (a charming turn by the lovely Erika Peters). Moreover, there's something else in the castle that wants them out of there pronto. Competently directed by veteran journeyman Maury Dexter, with a steady pace, stark, yet polished black and white cinematography by John M. Nickolaus (the use of fades and dissolves is quite nifty), a fair amount of creepy atmosphere, a tight 62 minute running time, a pleasingly shivery'n'spooky score by Henry Vars, acceptable acting, a cool array of grotesque circus freaks (Ayllene Gibbons as a friendly fat lady and Richard Kiel as a mute, menacing giant are both especially memorable), and an unexpected, but satisfying ending, this pleasant little low-budget quickie makes for a perfectly painless diversion.

Mozjoukine In the sixties, Robert Lippert's Associated Producers scored a contract making black and white 'Scope B movies to run with Fox's big pictures and turned loose house director Maury Dexter on them. The results were uneven but one group - the contemporary thrillers - the Los Angeles films - were more striking than most of the big films that elbowed them out of the advertising space.Along with WOMAN HUNT, AIR PATROL and the later RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA, HOUSE OF THE DAMNED spins a thin budget into something surprisingly memorable. It succeeds where the Tod Browning film FREAKS failed in making it's circus performers real rather than monsters. The film's curious gentleness is one of its surprises.The building of tension is nicely crafted - the unanswered phone, moving shots of the deserted private road, disturbing detail like the broken sculpture, the thirteen keys and the re-appearing sign.Throw in the winning Merry Anders, anticipating the self reliant seventies woman and the atmospheric Hollywood Hills mansion setting which was once actually a haunt of bootleggers. People I see this with are always surprised that such a film exists.

xrellerx A very mediocre movie that based its story too much on earlier classics like FREAKS and Robert Wise's THE HAUNTED. The acting isn't something to write home about, but at least they tried to give the characters a little background. The first part of the movie suggest more horror then really showing it and at times it works. The last part of the movie ends in such a disappointing way you can't talk about a horror movie anymore and you'll ask yourself what you just have been watching. Real horror fans should avoid this one. Proof? No one dies.