The Halfway House

BV Entertainment

R1 DVD

Web: http://www.halfwayhouse-movie.com/

The Halfway House is superb Schlock cinema, it is a mix of a Cthulhu Mythos story of the Old Gods, 1950’s science fiction, a dose of a horror and, of course, girls in reform school exploitation. It is lurid, witty and great entertainment.

A girl gets kidnapped by a robed figure while jogging and not getting any answers from the police her sister decides to investigate for herself. Since some five girls have also gone missing, all from the local “Mary Magdalene” Halfway house, she goes undercover with the help of a young policemen, who she has conveniently seduced !

The seduction of the young policemen is the beginning of the wallops of sex in this steamy film; every girl seems to get her gear off at least once. There seems to be a constant flow of tits, buts and taking off clothes...

There are lots of girl on girl scenes (one with some very creative Vaseline use), a near rape with a plaster Madonna and a punk love scene where someone loses his head (literally).

There is a pervert watching the girls in the showers and a priest smacking their naked backsides with a Jesus studded paddle and more.

The halfway house is the classic vehicle for a “reform school”, “woman in prison” sexploitation plot and it is every bit as lurid as one would hope. The house is run by a priest who likes to give out spankings and keeps all manner of whips in his closet as well as a blow up doll. There is a perverse handyman called Lutkus who wouldn’t be out of place in any classic Frankenstein film and Sister Cecilia is superbly bitchy, vicious and obnoxious. All the elements are there to make this a real classic.

As the story unfolds we come to understand that Sister Cecilia had been gang raped by thirteen boys at the last school at which she taught and put out to pasture. She retired in Arkham where she meet Lutkus and together they stole the “Necronomicon” from the Miskatonic University with the sole aim of evoking the Old Gods. It seems she wants revenge on all men and aims to be the mother of an alien race by mating with a one eyed creature from another dimension !

To put her plan in practise she has returned to work at the “St. Magdalene Halfway House for Girls” and is keeping the beastie in the basement. However, he needs to be fed and girls just keeping going missing...

There is everything one would hope for in sleazy, outrageous and sacrilegious cult cinema. Kenneth J. Hall was creator of the Puppet Master series and this shows in the creature, it is a real homage to 1950’s Sci Fi monsters and just looks awesome.

It is the ultimate giant one eyed monster with a taste for young nubile flesh ! It is so B grade, so Schlock it is gorgeous. To be honest, I wish it was released as a collectible so I could have one !

It is amazing to know that this was not some sort of CGI creature but was actually built full size. The head alone was around eight foot across and each tentacles was 14 foot long and six or seven puppeteers for every shot. This is some mean puppet !

The acting is superb and the character development is damn good, there is a homage to early “woman in prison” films so you get the tough dyke, the tender young lesbian (Cherry Pie is her name!), the violent Latino Girl and so on. The “reform” school scenes are just so cool. The catfights, clashes and girl bitch attitudes fit the film so well.

On top you have the delicious look of the “cult sequences”. Sister Cecilia transformed into a “Priestess of the Old Gods” with a young girl stripped semi naked spread-eagled on a large disc ready to be devoured by a one eye monster, it is just too good to be true.

I have always adored Mary Woronov, every since seeing her in Eating Raoul and Rock and Roll High School - she has such a commanding presence and as Sister Cecilia come “Old God” Priestess she is nothing short of spectacular. She embodies the venomous old Nun who is not what she seems.

This sacrilegious element to The Halfway House also makes it’s even more salacious—the constant shorts at nuns, priests and the Catholic Church gives it a nice cynical tone which fits perfectly with the tone of the film.

Everything has been carefully plotted to offer not only a great science fiction and horror tale but a constant stream of wit and humour. Everything seems to have a humorous twist and double meaning, From the sexist senior policemen to the vicious dialogue of Sister Cecilia, for god’s sake even the young policeman is named Dick Sheen !

At the same time while it is a comedy, this is a monster horror film as well, so there are some nice gory moments including a disembowelment and a poor young man losing his head at the most inappropriate moment !

The cinematography of The Halfway House is also impressive, the look of St.Magdalene’s is all too real and really evokes that awful feeling of decaying religious institutions ruled by perverse priests and evil nuns ! The way it linger on the cross, statues and religious images and uses the darkness of the basement to its advantage really shows very superior direction.

I really love this movie! It takes elements from all my favourite genres- 1950’s Science Fiction, Cthulhu / Lovecraft tales, gore, monsters, Women in Prison, Reform girl tales and even Nunsploitation.

The original title was “Gut Eating Monsters from Hell” and it smacks of the drive-in and midnight movies and to be honest, it is the sort of film you would have driven miles to see at midnight at your local drive in in the Seventies and Eighties, but now it has been done even better and certainly wilder and has been made available in high quality on DVD.

You can see the best in sleaze and schlock in the privacy of your own living room !!

The Halfway House is presented in high quality widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.00 or 5.1.

There are also some great extras including an audio commentary, deleted scenes, an uncensored trailer, “Gut Eating Monsters from Hell” - The Making of The Halfway House and a music video.