House of Blood (2006)

I must've been 14 years old and very easy to please when I first saw this 2006 splatter flick by Olaf Ittenbach. House of Blood (Chain Reaction) is the straight forward gorefest you'd come to expect from this German fx-god. It's stunning to see what he's capable of, even up to this day I find it mind blowing.


The storyline is really basic. It all begins with a crash, causing a group of prisoners to break free and take Christopher Kriesa (playing the role of the doctor) as a hostage. They end up at a mysteriously looking house in the middle of nowhere, but they have no other choice. Ittenbach tries to shake things up a bit by switching back and forth in time, giving us some backstory but also showing us the entire crash in a couple of sequences. It takes away some of the predictable storyline which is fun but not really nessecary to my taste.

The most fun part about the storyline revolves around the 'deja vu'. I won't spoil to much but it's a smart way to add some body's to the pile of rotten and dismembered folks. I always used to think this was some sort of a ''From Dusk Till Dawn'' rip-off, but it's not really. At least not the way I look at it. Sure, the creatures show some similarities but the remaining aspects are truly Ittenbach's own.

Not long ago I watched Dard Divorce, which was poorly executed but with some really strong gore. His ''Garden of Love'' wasn't very different. But they will have to line-up behind House of Blood. His older films might be better, but this one sure found a weakspot. It still has a couple of flaws, though. The casting could've been better. Kriesa has an annoying look, it's like he has no upperlip. Also, it's cool how he always tends to cast Martina Ittenbach, but she should really learn how to speak english properly.

Dan van Husen shows up in the second part of the film. Very creepy persona, but it gets old way too soon. And what is wrong with his nose? It grew the wrong way.. I guess. Ah, what the heck. I shouldn't be complaining about someones nose when heads get mutilated in the most gruesome way and blood is finding it's way all over the room. Just some amazing work of bloody art. It's still a German splatter director so it has the typical flaws, but they will almost never get in the way of the fun...the fun of sticking a shovel into a face.

Score: 87/100