The Vine: December 11, 2007
Hi Sars,
I’m looking for a horror movie I saw on TV as a kid sometime in the early ’80s — it could even have been a TV movie. It was about a house that kills (I know, pretty generic), but two scenes stand out in my memory, a swimming pool that had a temperature dial on the wall which it turned up to boiling by itself, and an electric gate that closed itself on an old lady in a car. It scared the crap out of me, but I was like six years old. There’s a good chance it was actually a cheesy B movie.
I know that the movie is NOT Burnt Offerings. I know you will get that suggestion because it also has a swimming pool that kills, but I already rented it and it wasn’t the one.
Thanks,
This has been driving me crazy for YEARS
Dear Crazy,
It doesn’t sound familiar to me, but the readers should get it in short order. Readers?
Tags: Ask The Readers popcult
WikiAnswers has the same question here – – it suggests “The House Possessed”
I think the movie you’re looking for is “Maximum Overdrive”. I also saw about ten minutes of it when I was little and it scared the crap out of me. I still don’t like electric knives.
Could it be House, starring the Greatest American Hero?
If there’s a scene where a woman takes a shower and the water comes out as blood (or looks like blood), I’ve been trying to figure out the same thing. Reading the IMDB entry for ‘This House Possessed’ sounds exactly like what I was looking for, so I hope it’s your answer too! Some lenient babysitter let me watch this, and that bloody shower really stuck with me.
Could it have been Pulse?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095924/
It’s “This House Possessed,” starring Parker Stevenson as a rock star who rents the house to recover from exhaustion, and Lisa Eilbacher as the nurse who moves in to care for him. The house has a high tech computer/security system that allows it to do things like CRUSH THE LIFE FROM PEOPLE. The reason why is revealed by the totally (implausible) shocking twist at the end. I loved that movie….but I’ve never been known for my good taste in movies. :P
It’s not Maximum Overdrive. I’ve seen it about a thousand times and I don’t recall those particular things, though the first 15ish minutes have appliances and the like coming to life. I saw it when I was young and found it hysterical – and thus was born my love of terrible cheesey scary movies.
Any chance it’s a 1976 TV movie (starring Kate Jackson, no less) called “Death at Love House”? It might have re-aired in the early ’80s.
I think it’s definitely This House Possessed — retrojunk has a synopsis that includes the swimming pool and the gates closing on the old lady:
http://www.retrojunk.com/details_articles/751/
Definitely “This House Possessed”. Gawdawful, even for a TV movie, even for a PARKER STEVENSON TV movie, but memorable anyway.
Boiling pool, bloody shower, closing gates — yep. It’s definitely This House Possessed. My college roommate and I watched it once (during the DAY, even), and it scared the living crap out of us.
This House Posessed, no question. “Once upon a time there was a house, and it loved a little girl…” (shivers)
Seriously, I remember the “Love Boat” guy did the basso-profundo voice over for the ads and THAT was enough to creep me out as a kid.
If none of the answers are the right one, try sending an email to the FlickChick on TV guide.com: http://community.tvguide.com/blog/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ask-Flickchick/700000633
@Lisa: I, too had a babysitter that let me watch a movie that had a shower of blood, and according to the FlickChick it was Death Ship. I haven’t had as chance to watch it yet though.
Howdy, Crazy here…and y’all are right, its This House Posessed. The screencaps Sarah posted clinched it-that’s definitely what I remember. Thanks y’all-that has bugged me for decades now.
Also? Parker Stevenson. Hee.
Next question-anyone know if its ever been released on video or DVD? I would really like to see it again, just to laugh at what scared the crap out of me as a kid.
Oh, and if that aired in 1981, I WAS six years old, and I definitely remember I watched it with my mom. What the hell was she THINKING?
I am now assuming that the Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror segment where Pierce Brosnan plays the future house in love with Marge must be based on the movie. Awesome.
mmmm, unexplained bacon.
According to IMDb, This House Possessed hasn’t been released on DVD or VHS.
Re: Simpsons Treehouse of Horror with the Pierce Brosnan-voiced house is a reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the movie Hal, the ship, has an “eye” and he takes over the shop. Just an FYI. Very significant movie for all it’s cultural references…you should see it…
smmoe1997: Thank you for that link! I found the title of a movie there (yet another trauma-inducing, age-inappropriate-at-the-time 1970s horror flick) that I’ve been trying to remember for a couple of decades now. I’m so relieved to finally have that mystery solved.
Ferretrick/Crazy, I hope you find it. I remember my first scary movie at around age 6 that left me up at night (The Body Snatchers). Watching it again as an adult and seeing that it was pretty cheesy brought “closure”. Hee.
Haha, the movie that got me (at a 4th-grade sleepover) was “Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell” starring Richard Crenna and Yvette Mimmieux. (sp?) About a bunch of Satanists who let a Central-American devil impregnant a German Shepherd, which then has devil puppies. Further freaky? The kids who get one of the devil dogs are Tony and Tia, from Witch Mountain fame! The kids paint devil pictures in the attic, mom sleeps with everybody, the puppy burns up the Mexican maid (“Senor, I no like that puppy!”) and dad has to go meet a mountain man/witch doctor who tattoes some symbol on his hand, allowing him to send the devil back to hell for 10000 years. CLASSIC CINEMA!! Still scares me to death when a dog’s eyes reflect the light at night. *shudder*
EB– “The House of Whacks” segment from Treehouse of Horror XII was based partly on 2001, and also on a movie called “Demon Seed”, starring Julie Christie, with Robert Vaughan as the voice of the house.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_Seed
Ugh, I was utterly traumatized by one of those “house possessed, bleeding shower” movies. Turned out to be a fake “possession,” organized by the leading lady’s boyfriend for fame and money. Unfortunately, during the course of the “possession,” he murdered the little girl’s cat. The little girl overhears the discussion, realizes it wasn’t the house that killed her kitty, aaaaand the knives are nearby …..