If I’ve learned anything from watching horror movies, it’s if I buy a scary old house, the last thing I am going to do is start smashing tombstones in the back yard. That’s exactly what sets the events of The House on Tombstone Hill (1989) into motion, the latest release by Vinegar Syndrome. It’s also known as The Dead Come Home or, as it was so eloquently rebranded by Troma, Dead Dudes in the House, complete with a group of “Hip Hop Teens” on the cover of the VHS who aren’t even in the movie. This was the first film written and directed by New Jersey filmmaker James Riffel, who would go on to direct more recently Night of The Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil Mutant Hellbound Flesh Eating Crawling Alien Zombified Subhumaniod Living Dead, Part 5.
The film starts with the archetypal setup, seven twenty-somethings show up at an abandoned property one of them recently purchased to begin fixing it up for the weekend. They are all pretty unlikable from the get go, and when one of them smashes a tombstone in the backyard, they awaken an evil dormant spirit. No really, when they break the tomb stone you actually get to see her wake up. When the group enters the house they are immediately trapped inside as they are picked off one by one in a pretty grisly and spectacular fashion by the spirit of an elderly woman, Abigail Leatherbee, who 40 years earlier killed a man by stabbing him 37 times, after she herself had survived an attack where she was stabbed 37 times. After all of their friends have been killed off, the two survivors are forced to take on the zombified ghosts of their dead friends Double Dragon style, working their way up to the big boss, Abigail. The film has some pretty spectacular gore effects, and the old lady, who is actually one of the dead dudes, is pretty impressive as well thanks to makeup maestro Ed French.
As much as I dig Troma’s own releases, I think they tend to make some odd choices when trying to sell the films they acquire. So it’s great Vinegar is taking on some of the Troma catalog and releasing them without the Troma’s rebranding. The film comes on a Blu-ray/DVD combo, newly scanned & restored in 2k from its 16mm original camera negative, with a featurette interviewing actors Mark Zobian, Victor Verhaeghe, and Douglas Gibson. There is also an audio interview with director James Riffel. I am not going to lie, the film starts off a little rough, and the first time we see the old lady the performance feels like a weird mix of Yoda and Herbert the Pervert from Family Guy, but once it gets moving it’s a great little haunted house flick that finds some interesting ways to dispatch its protagonists, who are pretty much just a bunch of assholes. The House on Tombstone Hill is a fun gory indie romp that will make you wonder what else you probably passed on from Troma back in the day due to some of their craptacular coverboxes; thanks to this I know I’m definitely going to track down a few more of these titles in particular.
