Horror House on Highway Five (1985)

I have no idea how to explain this movie to you. There are moments that are pure ridiculousness. There are scenes filled with amateur hour acting and effects. And then there's an ending that is powerful and shocking. It's really a rough one to figure out. I loved it - but it's another in a long line of movies that I don't recommend to anyone but the people I know who will get it.The old VHS box explains it like this: "A group of college students on holiday become prey for a killer and his two sadistic and demented sons. One son, an unlicensed doctor, is mentally unhinged by destructive brain parasites. The other son, a shy and lonely psychopath, falls in love with a dead girl. While the insane boys are blundering through their destructive rampage, the father stalks the night with random violence. Though he is shot, beaten, and run over by a car, the maniac cannot be defeated.One by one the students enter the horror house, where they must face the malignant forces left behind by unnatural scientific experimentations. They are hunted down, tortured and eliminated until only one girl is left to fight for her life against the trio of murderers.Directed by the notorious rock video maker, Richard Casey, Horror House on Highway 5 is filled with strange humor and wild action."We go from a typical slasher murder right to a classroom, where he assigns three of his students to go to Littletown and investigate Bartholomew, a dead Nazi rocket scientist and make model rockets.The most studious of the kids, Louise, goes to interview Dr. Mabuser, who is the one with bugs in his head. His brother (or partner) Gary falls in love with her, but they still use an iron to sear her breast in some Nazi black magic rite. While that's going on, Sally and Mike go to the quarry to smoke weed and make model rockets. And then there's the whole matter of the guy in the Richard Nixon mask who can't be killed (and who is listed as Ronald Reagan in the credits).Obviously, no one paid for the music used in this film, as it has everything from "Rumble" by Link Wray to acid rock to violins to surf rock like The Safaris to The Dictators and The Count Five playing "Psychotic Reaction."And then the ending! Seriously, the last two minutes of this film, where one of the victims thinks that she has escaped, feels like the movie that Rob Zombie has always wanted to make.

I bought this DVD for three bucks because I'm a fan of low budget horror films, sadly I was a little disappointed. At least I didn't pay that much :)BUT, I did like the first few minutes with the "housewive" being stalked in her own home by Richard Nixon and some of the FX were way better than I was expecting.My second favorite scene involved a drunk couple who run into Richard Nixon on the deserted road, that was one hell of a funny scene!The ending with the final girl bored me and I actually watched it while fast-forwarding.

This forgotten 80s slasher is truly one that has to be seen to be believed. Its got a killer in a Richard Nixon mask, a couple of Nazi brothers, a girl getting her chest ironed (!), invisible whipping weapons (think Phantasm but on a much lower budget), a teleporting disemboweled cat, brain-eating maggots, surf-rock music, and more! None of it makes any sense and by no means is it a good movie but its so bizarre you just cant take your eyes off it! Love the scene where a chick throws herself into a glass coffee table...to get away from the killer! The DVD is the quality of a VHS transfer but, in this case, it actually kinda helps the film by giving it the grainy picture effect that works well for a film of this "so bad it's almost good" caliber.

I only hope my VCR can recover. Lets rate the individual parts shall we:Acting - BAD Story Line - BAD Dialoge - BAD Cinematography - BAD Effects - BADWell, you get the picture. No, don't get the picture. This movie was surprisingly made in 1985. It looks more like an early 70's movie. You would hope at least their would be some gratuitous nudity or some gory killing. But no. The killing scenes are comical and the women remain annoyingly unexposed. The Nixon mask thing could have been more comical if the directors and producers had any clue but alas, they do not.