Haunts (1976) User Reviews

HAUNTS is haunting

[udar55 · 6/10 · 11 October 2014]

Ingrid (May Britt, a long way from Sweden) lives on a small farm with her Uncle (Cameron Mitchell) in a small coastal California town. The town gets turned upside down when a small child is murdered and then a series of rapes take place. Ingrid suspects it is the work of local butcher Frankie (William Gray Espy) and tells the sheriff (Aldo Ray) her suspicions. Naturally, she soon becomes the attacker's latest prey. Chances are you will figure out this psychological horror flick before the film's revelation, but that doesn't deter from this interesting film by Herb Freed (GRADUATION DAY). Britt, the former Mrs. Sammy Davis, Jr., looks pretty rough but having her in this role is pretty clever casting for the stranger in a strange town. The film benefits from the small town location shooting, reminding me a bit of THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN (1976). Perhaps the best element of the film is a wonderful score by Pino Donaggio. It really adds to the film's final haunting shot. It should be noted the end credits have a 1975 copyright date for both the film and the score.

Herb(ie) Rides Again!

[Coventry · 6/10 · 4 December 2006]

Director Herb Freed isn't exactly celebrated for his contributions to horror cinema, but personally I can't say he let me down already. "Beyond Evil" (starring John Saxon!) is a decent haunted house chiller and "Graduation Day" is an over-the-top insane & gory 80's slasher flick. "Haunts" is a whole lot less exciting than the two aforementioned titles, but Freed also clearly didn't want this film to be a gross and outrageous horror smut fest. Wrongfully promoted as a psycho-killer-on-the-loose flick, "Haunts" is actually a lot more effective as a psychological portrait about a dame in distress. Ingrid (May Britt) is a deeply religious farmer woman living on her own and suffering from a frigid sexuality as well as fear of male commitment, inflicted by some obscure childhood traumas. When several young women are found brutally murdered in the little town, Ingrid loses her sanity and starts to spot perverted murderers everywhere. Some other reviewers already made the comparison between "Haunts" and Roman "Repulsion", which is a righteous one, albeit Polanski's classic is naturally a lot more intense and frightening. Still, this is an atmospheric low-budget thriller with slow-breeding suspense and a handful of memorable moments. The scene where Ingrid discovers the corpse of her murdered woman amidst her farm animals, for example, is pretty damn creepy! The picture quality is truly poor and urgently needs restoration, but this shouldn't keep admirers of obscure 70's gems from purchasing a copy of this film. The cast features some familiar names, like Cameron Mitchell as Ingrid's suspicious uncle and Aldo Ray as the town's fatigue Sheriff. Decent thriller, as long as you don't anticipate wild gore or gratuitous sleaze.

Interesting Psychological Horror Story

[BloodTheTelepathicDog · 6/10 · 9 June 2008]

Those expecting a haunted house story or slasher with exploitative ingredients need not bother with this film, but viewers who like their horror stories with subtlety and a slow-paced sense of impending doom should check out this nifty flick. The main drawback to this film is the lack of even a single likable character in the story. The protagonist, Ingrid, played by May Britt, is a cold, self-absorbed, man-hating woman who cannot be liked. The sheriff, well played by Aldo Ray, might be the only likable character in this film but when he disregards Ingrid's claims of being attacked because he is suffering from a sickness, one can't like him that much either.

The main premise of this film concerns a serial rapist preying on the women of rural community. There are a handful of suspects, ranging from the town Casanova, the new to town drifter and Ingrid's uncle (Cameron Mitchell). When Ingrid is attacked and claims that the town Casanova raped her, the sheriff thinks he has his man until he learns that there might be more to Ingrid than meets the eye.

VIOLENCE: $$$ (Not too graphic, but there are several rape and attempted rape scenes - handled about as tastefully as a director can handle such an incident. There is a shooting and a stabbing, but when the violence occurs you couldn't care less about who is the recipient of the bad guy's wrath since everyone in this picture is unlikable).

STORY: $$$$$ (Well handled and thought-out screenplay that gives the viewer quite an unexpected twist. Halfway through the film the rapist is revealed by Ingrid but now Sheriff Aldo Ray must investigate to find out if Ingrid speaks the truth or is trying to frame the Casanova - who has just knocked up the sheriff's daughter (Kendall Jackson).

NUDITY: $ (There are two shower scenes but you see nothing. Aldo Ray also catches his daughter in bed with the town Casanova, but she scurries off screen swiftly).

ACTING: $$ (The acting is the main drawback to this film. With a more capable cast this very well could have been a cult classic - if not something more. Aldo Ray and Cameron Mitchell give the best performances in this film. May Britt, as the lead, was over her head in this film and failed to make me care for her character. Her acting talents are wanting to say the least).

Low-key rural Repulsion

[Vince-5 · 3 June 2001]

Haunts is perplexing and flawed, but still offbeat enough to maintain interest. Swedish May Britt gives a very good performance as a repressed, tormented, fanatically religious farm girl in a town plagued by a brutal sex murderer. Despite the potentially lurid subject matter, it's all handled with a very subtle approach (even in the uncut R-rated version). Well-cast (though Aldo Ray deserved better and Cameron Mitchell doesn't have much to do) and graced with a lush Pino Donaggio score and beautiful but unpolished photography, it has some standout moments; one unforgettable scene has Britt driving, with the scenic reflections in the windshield melding into a montage of flashbacks. What hurts it are too many routine passages, klutzy red herrings, a lack of momentum, and extraneous material. Sometimes it becomes quite frustrating, but patience is ultimately rewarded by a very original twist at the end. Most certainly not for everybody, but worth seeing if you're an art fan looking for a change of pace.

Trivia note: Copyrighted 1975, Haunts was shelved until 1976 when Intercontinental released it to theaters of confused moviegoers.

Haunts: I'm being generous

[Platypuschow · 2/10 · 7 September 2018]

Haunts was a random pick n mix movie for me, I had no idea what I was getting myself into and movies like this make me regret ever doing that.

It tells the story of lady who believes her uncle is responsible for a series of killings in the area with a pair of scissors, but there is more to the story.

I say "Story" very loosely, as though there is one it's an unstructured abyssmal abomination of an attempt at one.

The movie is horrifically boring, totally lifeless and at no point did I feel engaged or even remotely begin to care about a character or outcome of the movie.

Certainly one of the worst films I've seen lately, this is not a clever psychological thriller as it seems to refer to itself. It is instead a 90 minute sleeping pill (Side effects may include boredom and a severe migraine).

The Good:

Not a sausage

The Bad:

Incredibly unengaging

Muddled plot

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

The lord giveth and the lord taketh away

A cross around the neck has yet to save anyone

Just a Tiny Bit Repulsion

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 3 January 2007]

This has a Bergmanesque spareness to it that is at times OK. The plot is terribly convoluted and confusing. I don't even know if we have closure at the end. Just what does it all mean? I remember May Britt being married to Sammy Davis, Jr. She of the Scandanavian roots and the freckles. In here she is a virgin queen. She is so frumpy and cold, it's hard to feel for her. Obviously, she deserves to live as she wishes, but she has been so traumatized that we can't get close to her. In repulsion, we can't take our eyes off the girl. When Britt leaves a scene, she is pretty forgettable. There is a pretty good give and take. Aldo Ray is pretty believable in his intense wishes to solve the case. He has feelings for this woman and wants to help her out. She, like so many in horror movies, feels she can be hysterical one moment and totally independent in the next. There are lots of layers and that's fun. I didn't move away from this movie. I have the same collection mentioned by other reviewers. If they had a psychological drama box, this might fit in nicely. Anyway, as a make my way through these B and C movies, I don't see them as a total waste of time. I had never seen May Britt act before. She had some talent, but it wasn't exposed here.

So satisfied with its style that it never reaches the status of satisfying.

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 20 October 2021]

Simply just another cheaply made slasher film focusing on psychotic Cameron Mitchell and his niece May Britt and the goings-on of the farm community where Mitchell's murderous antics are just an ugly excuse for a horror film. Films with sound recording this bad are difficult to get into, and once you realize that this is going to be 97 minutes of kitty asleep bad sound and slow-moving Rama when there is nothing going on plot wise.

Soap heartthrob William Gray Espy, character actor Ben Hammer and former film hunk Aldo Ray add nothing to the cliched script that is poorly directed and moves so slow that you wish that the editors had taken the scissors to the print and chopped out a good 20 minutes. I can't even imagine watching this in a movie theater let alone try to get through it with a lot of the hideous sounds that are coming off screen including some wretched singing that sounds like a cat being drawn and quartered. This one deserves to be dipped in a vat of acid and sent to its much deserved reward: obscurity!

Whatever...

[Jonny_Numb · 3/10 · 28 July 2006]

Another day, another bad movie from the "Chilling Classics" boxed set... "Haunts" has a somewhat interesting premise (as other reviewers have stated, overtones of "Repulsion" abound): Ingrid (May Britt) is haunted by the repressed memory of her mother's suicide; she lives on a farm with her hulking uncle (Cameron Mitchell, who once again lends his seal of badness); there's a masked assailant killing local girls with a pair of scissors (in one hilarious moment, he attacks in full view of 2 policemen), and she's just met a poor-postured creep at choir practice. You see, she's a Puritanical girl who shudders at the notion of having her womanly plane violated by a sinister male ("Repulsion" again). There is a ghost-story twist to the whole thing, explained in about as heavy-handed a way as the filmmakers can muster (but still manages to make little sense). By the end of "Haunts," I was confused and apathetic...this might have had something to do with my lulling in and out of sleep while watching. The score by the usually-reliable Pino Donaggio is undistinguished and unmemorable, which is indicative of the film overall.

Haunts..so....where's the ghosts?

[vegeta3986 · 3/10 · 27 July 2009]

Once again, the 70's feels like being really weird with its titles and have them have nothing to do with the actual story. i love it. oh wait. no i don't, it's STUPID. oh well. Onto movie 9 of the Chilling classics box set.

What do we have to look forward to this time? well some ultra Jesus loving chick named Ingrid! there's a bunch of murders taking place around the area with a dude with some scissors and soon enough she gets attacked, but she gets away and then a whole bunch of zaniness begins! like rapings and crazily boring scenes that don't need be there! hooray for the 70's! Supposedly Ingrid gets raped by this guy named Frankie. i say supposedly cause...well you'll see later. anyway after a while, the sheriff (who sounds like he has a touch of the throat cancer) and his cronies discover who the killer is and the good ol boys take him out. with guns...although he's unarmed. that always makes me wonder. why is it ALWAYS sheriffs in horror movies? to this day, i have never seen a bumbling sheriff in real life. do they exist? oh well, maybe out west. anywho, Ingrid doesn't believe its over because she thinks Frankie is still on the loose. her and her uncle she's living with takes him out. and all is well........or is it? Little do we know that she really didn't get raped and she made everything up with her craziness. what a twist! oh no wait...the twist was STUPID. and then the movie proceeds to go on for 10 minutes longer than it should describing what the hell happened in the rest of the movie. another reason to show that this movie messed up. it shouldn't NEED to have that explanation, it should be obvious in the storytelling. Even though i may not be a fan of the movie "Hide and Seek", it actually SHOWED us what happened as opposed to this movie that felt it necessary to give us a 10 minute dialogue because they were too stupid to figure out a way to show it.

So the movie ends with the uncle going into the house and going a bit crazy. The end.

Now, is it just me, or for some reason, why do all 1970's movies seem to have titles that have NOTHING to do with the movie. "Bell from hell" "Medusa", etc. i don't know WHY the 70's loved doing this so much when the film's alternate titles are so much better . The alternate title for this film is "The Veil" and granted, that ALSO has nothing to do with the movie, i think overall it's a better title than HAUNTS. because haunts promises ghosts or demons or something. Veil promises...well, a veil. and if there's no veil, i'm not nearly as disappointed.

So yeah, another boring 70's movie. Not nearly as painful as Medusa, but hardly anything is.

Haunts gets 3 pairs of scissors, out of 10

Offbeat Gothic Horror

[Sturgeon54 · 7/10 · 10 July 2005]

I think the other reviewers here and elsewhere (myself included) were thrown off by the fact that the video distributors have incorrectly packaged this as another cheap '70s slasher/exploitation movie, and that's the reason for the negative reviews. This film is meant for a completely different audience. I myself started to become disappointed partway through the film when there was little action, but then I realized that this is not a typical slasher flick, but more of a Stephen King-style psychological horror film about the demons of small town life. That is when I started to enjoy it. Like King's novels, the story builds slowly, and there are several peripheral characters who may seem unimportant to the main storyline but contribute to the overall atmosphere. The movie does not have much gore or any nudity, but this is the kind of film that succeeds almost purely through its vivid, austere atmosphere, which was done so well that some of it reminded me of the work of Ingmar Bergman. The film isn't perfect, but director Freed shows a good eye for detail, and the washout cinematography is striking. I had never seen any of the actors elsewhere, but May Britt's lead performance was very competent. This is definitely not the kind of film for hardcore horror film buffs, as it doesn't fit under that genre category very well. Rather, it is a film for more serious, patient viewers who can appreciate a slower pace without instant rewards. For them, this is well-worth checking out.

Whodunnit? Who cares?

[happyendingrocks · 1/10 · 22 October 2018]

Not even the welcome presence of low-rent horror stalwart Cameron Mitchell can salvage this tedious, incoherent mess of a film that offers up neither enough gore to satisfy slasher fans nor enough thrills to qualify as a thriller.

Mitchell plays the uncle of a manic farm girl named Ingrid who has the dual misfortune of becoming the target for both a scissor-wielding serial killer and a brazen sexual predator. Ingrid spends half of the film being alternately preyed upon by these villainous admirers with such ready frequency that the viewer can only assume they worked out some sort of visitation schedule ("okay, I'll attack her on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, you can attack her on Tuesday and Thursday, and we'll trade off weekends"). When she's not being victimized, Ingrid spends long periods of the film's running time lost in nebulous flashback sequences, during which we learn that her witless caretaker may have molested her when she was a child and subsequently murdered her aunt when his transgressions were discovered. Meanwhile, the furtive slayer (who seems to be a fan of giallo movies, given his affinity for wearing an all-black ensemble complete with ski mask and leather gloves) is wandering around stabbing various ancillary characters to keep the film's meager action moving along. Naturally, the assassin is eventually unmasked, but since there's still a half hour of screen time to fill at that point, we then have to slog through Ingrid's anticlimactic confrontation with her rapist, as well as a lengthy and boring post-script meditation on her tragic final act.

Since Ingrid is clearly the film's focus, it's rather unfortunate that May Britt was the actress tapped to bring her to life. Britt's performance here is so flatly histrionic that despite the empathy our heroine's truly horrific circumstances elicit, she is ultimately essayed as a wholly unlikeable harpy--her go-to reaction throughout much of her ordeal is reeling around like an undosed mental patient and babbling incoherently. To be fair, some of these tics seem to be intentional (the movie attempts to infuse the happenings with an air of mystery by introducing segments meant to suggest Ingrid's ill mind might be manufacturing much of her nightmare), yet Britt's choppy accent and general maladroitness end up resonating as far more silly than stirring.

The willful stupidity exhibited by the supporting cast of characters is so baffling that even the most heinous deeds perpetrated in the film land as bad comedy rather than mounting tension. This is the kind of flick in which future victims have conversations about how scary it is to walk around alone at night with a deranged murderer on the loose, and then proceed to walk around alone at night mere seconds afterwards. Aldo Ray's prototypical small-town Sheriff is initially presented as a kindly voice of reason, but when a bruised and disheveled Ingrid tells the lawman she has been raped, his initial reaction is essentially, "well, wait a minute, are you sure?" However, the most obtuse groaner in the film belongs to Mitchell, who consoles a hysterical Ingrid after she has just narrowly escaped the murderer's blades by helpfully suggesting, "it was probably just a rabbit."

The story is padded with superfluous subplots in an effort to fatten the list of possible suspects, though anyone who has ever watched a murder mystery will likely identify who the killer is the first time that character is introduced. In any case, the obfuscation becomes essentially pointless when this aspect of the plot is resolved well before the credits run and the further misadventures of Ingrid retake center stage. There's nothing engrossing about any of the various cobbled-together elements, so by the time the storyline's central mysteries are tidied up, all but the most masochistic of viewers will have completely lost interest in seeing how everything pans out anyway. Whether you make it to the end or not, you won't be rewarded with answers to all of the questions the muddy narrative poses, nor will you ever get a clue as to why this film is called Haunts.

There are plenty of genre gems that currently languish in an undeserved obscurity; if you decide to investigate Haunts, be duly advised that this monotonous schlep isn't one of those. I sat through it, but that doesn't mean you have to.

Haunts

[Scarecrow-88 · 8/10 · 3 September 2008]

Herb Freed(Graduation Day;Beyond Evil)directs this psychological melodrama(..with elements of a slasher) regarding the effects on a small town, and especially troubled Ingrid(May Britt), as a sexual predator stalks vulnerable women at night with a pair of scissors after raping them. Ingrid is *haunted* by memories from childhood regarding finding her mother dead in a bathtub and possible sexual abuse at the hands of "reliable" Uncle Carl(Cameron Mitchell, whose role is minor until the enigmatic ending where he supposedly returns to Ingrid's home where memories of his own resurface after being away for a while). It seems that Ingrid is being stalked by the town stud, Frankie(William Gray Espy), who even rapes her in her own bedroom, holding scissors to her throat. Ingrid is a deeply devout Catholic who is suffering hallucinations thanks to her past(..blood is a constant)and seems incredibly uncomfortable around men. Husky voiced, alcoholic sheriff(Aldo Ray)is truly puzzled about the attacks plaguing his once quiet, sleepy little town, and is quite concerned for his citizens, innocent women who might venture out at night alone. Trying to sober up, the sheriff will attempt to find the killer, keeping his deputies on alert, watching the country roads and neighborhood streets at night, hoping to catch him in the act. Meanwhile, Ingrid battles with her conscience and religious convictions after being raped. The film also subtly hints at the idea that her mysterious Uncle Carl might be the one responsible for the attacks. Also, a mannerly, soft-spoken stranger from Baltimore, Bill Spry(Robert Hippard)enters town hoping to date Ingrid, who seems little interested in making relations with any man.

Director Freed and collaborative writer Anne Marisse craft a very tricky tale here which takes it's time building the attacks around Ingrid's story. The attacks themselves really are the Macguffen as the film centers around Ingrid, and serve to actually heighten her trauma. Through the surrounding attacks in town, Ingrid, slightly stable on a slender thread, goes off the deep end with the scissor-murders influencing her hostile fantasies. The film seems to have three endings. The police cornering the sexual sadist in a saw mill. Ingrid's confrontation with Frankie as a bound Carl tries to free himself. And, Ingrid's fate and the reactions from the sheriff and Carl relating the truth to the viewer. Freed doesn't hurry himself and the film takes it's time developing so it might can become tedious for some viewers(..such as choir practice and a bar conversation between Spry and a local gal-pal of Ingrid's who is a potential victim). I think one might also find the last thirty minutes tiresome due to the complexities of Ingrid and what is real and imagined. I found it worthwhile and thought Britt's performance was a stunner. The score from Pino Donaggio really adds quality to the tragedy ever so present throughout the film. Freed does an exceptional job incorporating Ingrid's memories within her life at the present, with Donaggio's somber music adding the right touch at reflecting her deteriorating mental state.

Truly haunting.

[KennethEagleSpirit · 7/10 · 2 February 2007]

This film has only one downside for me and that is being very slow in spots, particularly towards the end. About 15 minutes of this flick could, honestly, have been sacrificed to the cutting room floor with no real loss. Other than that its really pretty good. Cameron Mitchell plays his part very well. Aldo ray does his job as sheriff and lends quality to a well developed character. William Gray Espy does very well in his role, and both Kendal Jackson and Susan Nohr deserve recognition. But the real star is, fittingly enough, the lead, May Britt. She does a wonderful job in portraying a very troubled woman with deep seated emotional problems. The part I liked the best? It was so easy to figure out, until I figured out that I was wrong. Three times in a row. And then? SURPRISE!

May the Britt not be with you!

[Zeegrade · 2/10 · 13 February 2009]

This was a real chore to watch. I'm not exaggerating when I say that at least thirty minutes can be cut off this clunker without missing any plot lines whatsoever.

May Britt plays Ingrid, the most unlikeable main character in movie history. Not only is she the coldest fish on earth but she's also a fierce man-hater. The small town she lives in has been plagued with murders committed by a scissor wielding madman. This makes Ingrid even more unbearable to be around as every breathing man she comes into contact with is automatically trying to rape her. Number one on her list is the town rowdy Frankie who also works as the butcher in the local market when he's not having a very inappropriate relationship with the sheriff's seventeen year old daughter. This would be fine had the man playing Frankie not appear to be in his late thirties at least. What's more absurd is that Ingrid constantly refers to him as "that boy".

Ingrid lives alone (no surprise there) on a farm but is helped on occasion by her Uncle Carl played by B-movie king Cameron Mitchell. Did I mention that she also has hallucinations too? Usually the incoherent flashbacks come over her every few seconds. Rubbing a goat, flashback, feeling a bed sheet, flashback, someone closes a door, flashback. Ingrid comes upon a corpse left on her property and that pushes her off the mental edge she was teetering on to begin with. The ending is quite bizarre as Ingrid's fate as well as the relationship between her uncle and her mother are slapped across you face like a dead salmon.

I couldn't care less what happened to Ingrid because her performance was as dead as the person she portrays. We are lead to believe that she was raised in this small California coastal town yet her thick accent begs to differ. This is explained near the end as the time she spent at "a European school up the coast". What? Did they suck the life force from her too? Let's hope Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory is better.

Back in the Day

[JimMcKeny · 31 January 2008]

I voted 10 because i had a small part in the film (the bartender) and having been a big fan of Aldo Ray - younger gen's won't know that in his time Ray created the same kind of electricity in the film world for his unique approach to acting as did the likes of Dean & Brando (however short lived that electricity may have been)- I was thrilled to be able to chat and hang with him on set. Herb Freed & Anne Marisse were extremely kind and lovely people to work for and with. This was the second film I worked on in Mendocino, CA - the first one still has ghosts attached to it. Many LA film companies used Mendocino, CA as their location. Perhaps the most notable (and certainly the funniest) was "The Russians Are Coming/The Russians Are Coming". Many years later, TV came to town to shoot exteriors for "Murder She Wrote".

Somewhat Effective Ending Aside, "Haunts" Mostly Bores

[evanston_dad · 4/10 · 20 October 2014]

"Haunts" is a movie that put me in the mind of films like Robert Altman's "That Cold Day in the Park" and "Images" or Roman Polanski's "Repulsion." Stories about lonely women whose obsessions and mental wanderings leave the viewer in doubt about what is real and what's the result of the heroines' fevered imaginings, and that often end in violent acts carried out by the women in their own defense. Of course "Haunts" isn't anywhere nearly as good as any of those other films. It uses a serial killer premise as a red herring, but presents the protagonist's story literally, not even suggesting that there may be some doubt about what's real and what's not until what amounts to a surprise ending makes us realize that the woman was cuckoo all along. That ending is admittedly rather effective, but because there was no mystery leading up to it and the film itself is rather poorly made in most regards, it doesn't have much of an impact.

It didn't help that I saw "Haunts" as part of a boxed set of terrible picture and sound quality, but I doubt that high def and pristine sound would have made me like this film much more. It's mostly just boring, which is one of the worst offenses of which a film can be guilty.

Grade: D+

Precursor to Porn

[artpf · 3/10 · 6 January 2014]

May Britt plays a seemingly innocent farm girl convinced that her slovenly uncle (Cameron Mitchell) is the man responsible for the bloody scissor-murders of several local girls.

First of all, ignore the 10 point review from the guy who said the only reason he gave it 10 was cuz he was in it!

Aldo Ray is in this before he turned to porn. He's a drunken sheriff which seems like real life, minus the sheriff. Interesting side note: the movie Aldo made after Haunts was Haunted. He looks like he on a bender throughout the entire movie.

The titles on this movie make it appear like a TV film and it's rated PG so how good can it be? The sound is dismal and the picture looks like it was made with mob money for about $14,000.

It's a very slow moving film that doesn't hold your interest

Slow. Very slow.

[jfgibson73 · 4/10 · 22 March 2009]

This is a movie that asks you to stick with it to the end, purposely confusing the viewer and leaving them unsatisfied until it is ready to reveal itself. That would be fine, except the payoff really isn't worth the time you'll put into this one.

The main character, Ingrid, lives in a small, quiet community, and has always been considered to be very level-headed by the other residents. However, when she claims to be attacked several times, the police and her doctor start to wonder if she is imagining it. We eventually find out that she has some lurid family history, but we never really know what is real or imagined. The movie is mostly told from Ingrid's point of view, which proves unreliable. She eventually commits suicide and we find out some more of her past, ending with an ambiguous final shot.

I didn't really find the movie atmospheric or involving. It had a low-budget feel and looks to be marketed as a trashy thriller, but it could have been a TV movie considering the content. Nothing really stood out, not much was memorable.

Some recommendations: If you are interested in a movie with similar themes but want more something that will make more of an impact, try "Chinatown," "The Grifters," or "Angels and Insects."

Haunts

[a_baron · 3/10 · 24 September 2014]

More than one reviewer has likened this film to Polanski's classic "Repulsion". That is true after a fashion, but "Haunts" begins with the pretence to being a thriller or even a slasher film; there is a psychopath on the loose who is raping and murdering women in small town USA. This town is so small in fact that although it has a sheriff it appears not to have even one detective, yet bizarrely it sports its own TV station.

The heroine is Ingrid, who is both a stunning blonde and an old maid. There is a false lead or two, but the bad guy is tracked down by the sheriff who does a fair job of policing, when he isn't throwing up after overindulgence in alcohol or slapping the ne'er do well who has put his daughter in the club. Or perhaps that should be sheriffing? What happens next you will have to discover for yourself, dear reader, but if you can work this one out there is a job waiting for you at Oxford University, explaining to next year's intake how to crack Fermat's Last Theorem.

only for the geeks

[trashgang · 4/10 · 8 February 2012]

Haunts is one of those flicks that is hunted down by true collectors for so many reasons. First of all, it has a few famous Thespians in it that were on their downfall back then. On the other hand the director was Herb Freed who directed Graduation Day, a well known horror for the geeks. But also this flick, Haunts, never had a proper release so far. It's only available on US VHS up to this writing and I guess it will never be released on DVD because it's a bit outdated and had nothing to offer.

The only acting that could convince me was that of May Britt (Ingrid). It was her last flick she performed in. We also have Cameron Mitchell (Carl) be he couldn't convince me, not even in the final scene before the mirror. It's sad to see what he did before as an actor and I couldn't care about him here. Further we have Aldo Ray (Sheriff) but what he did here was really bad, he just said his lines without emotions. Coming from movies like The Green Berets (1968 with John Wayne) is is really a downfall. Luckily some names went further to become bigger like Ben Hammer (Vicar) who played for example the father of The Beastmaster (1982) and is still performing. William Gray Espy (Frankie) stopped acting in 1985 and only appeared in series.

It's made just before the heydays of the slashers and maybe that's the reason why it flopped. Nothing is creepy or scary there is even no red stuff to mention in it. It's more a psychological drama with a twist. Everybody in a small town do has his dirty secrets. It's also weird to see May Britt walking around a lot in her nudies but doesn't show anything. The rape scene's are tame and the stabbing isn't convincing at all. Still, it's one to collect due the actors in it and the name of the director. Easy to catch on VHS with different covers, none of them pictures on it shown in the movie.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 1/5 Effects 1/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

A little slow but well-done and interesting

[preppy-3 · 7/10 · 6 July 2010]

A sadistic killer strikes a small town using scissors to kill his victims (all women). A repressed farm girl named Ingrid (May Britt) lives all alone and thinks she may be the next victim. Her uncle (Cameron Mitchell) thinks she's overreacting and the chief of police (Aldo Ray) doesn't believe her.

This film is a little bit too slow but it is well-made on a low budget. The acting is good (especially by Britt) and there are some real creepy moments when the killer goes after her. It also has a thundering music score which is excellent but seems out of place in such a low budget movie. It starts off slow but picks up speed and has a couple of great twists at the end that I didn't see coming. It's PG so it's very tame in terms of blood and guts but it works as a psychological horror film. It didn't frighten me exactly but I can't stop thinking about it. Worth checking out. I give it a 7.

Everybody's Got Issues In Haunts

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 13 June 2011]

Although May Britt, Cameron Mitchell, and Aldo Ray have all seen better days before doing Haunts, the film was a bit better than I was expecting.

Haunts has May cast as a sexually repressed farm girl who has a lot of old memories revived when some women start being raped and killed in her vicinity. Cameron Mitchell is her uncle who has come to stay with her and Aldo Ray is the sheriff investigating the killings.

No unearthly type demons or creatures are doing these things, they're just the product of some sexually frustrated men. For a while it's starting to look like everybody in this vicinity has some issues.

The ending of Haunts is rather offbeat and I will add my voice to those who say it is like a Stephen King novel. Let's say the reason for May's problems and the killer are not one and the same.

A shocking twist

[catfish-er · 8/10 · 10 December 2009]

I am working my way through the Chilling Classics 50 Movie Pack Collection and HAUNTS is the ninth movie in the set. Released in 1977, HAUNTS is a creepy, psychological thriller about the demons of small town life.

That small town is being stalked by a deranged rapist/killer, who uses scissors as his weapon! A religious woman, Ingrid (Played by May Britt) begins to suspect that her uncle may be the killer. However, another girl believes it could be her boyfriend – bit of a cliché here – she is the daughter of the sheriff!

Others have noted that this film unfolds, much like a Stephen King novel. One of my favorite comments about his early works is that Stephen King was the "master of digression" – in other words, he introduced peripheral characters, who seem inconsequential; but, once you get to know them, they contribute to the overall ambiance.

And ambiance is what HAUNTS is all about. We peer into the memories of Brit, who is haunted by her mother's suicide; and, her own molestation as a child. We see her hallucinations, which are the psychological scars of her youth, as well as the physical scars of her abuse. Finally, we experience how she confronts the grim prospect of her own peril, with an attempted rape while walking home from church; with finding one of the victims in her own garden; her own rape at the hands of the local hood – and, subsequent re-assault, as well as the feigned incest of her loving uncle.

The film features stunning cinematography; and, evocative images. The score is better than passable; and, the acting is quite credible. The best performance in this one goes to the Sheriff, played by Aldo Ray! The plot is strong. But, best, a shocking twist brings a surprise ending!

Strange amalgam of concepts

[drownsoda90 · 7/10 · 28 November 2018]

"Haunts" follows Ingrid, a young Swedish woman living with her American uncle in northern California. Their small town is suddenly plagued by several scissor-murders and rapes; meanwhile, Ingrid finds herself recurrently assailed by a lecherous butcher in town. Are the attacks connected? Does a newcomer to Ingrid's church choir have something to do with it? Or could it be someone else?

This little-seen psychological horror film is very much in the vein of other "mad women" films of the 1970s such as "Let's Scare Jessica to Death" or Robert Altman's "Images," packed with dreamlike energy, haunting cinematography of dreary rural abodes, and a thin demarcation between hallucination and reality that cuts through it all. "Haunts" is a bit more of a slipshod production than the aforementioned two films, but it exists in the same universe.

There are definitely effective moments here, particularly the attack sequences that intersperse the melodrama of Ingrid as a character. The film does grow tedious in its last act and loses momentum to a degree, while the last ten or fifteen minutes err into baffling quasi-supernatural territory that feels underdeveloped and there simply to shock the audience (or leave them scratching their heads). May Britt is believable here as a naive and devoutly religious Swedish expat, while Cameron Mitchell turns in an odd performance as her possibly-lecherous uncle . Aldo Ray is also present as the town's sheriff investigating the crimes.

In the end, I found "Haunts" to be quite captivating in many ways, mainly due to it being rich in atmosphere. It's a very dreary and dour-looking film, and possesses the same kind of sensibility of its contemporaries that I enjoy very much. The screenplay is admittedly sloppy as the film attempts to resolve itself, and the last act throws concepts into the mix that don't really gel, but I ultimately think the film works as a mood piece more than a straightforward thriller. It is an oddity for sure, and it's somewhat surprising that it has not found an audience over all these years. 7/10.

The Unhaunting

[NoDakTatum · 4/10 · 2 November 2023]

Ingrid (May Britt) is a lonely rural woman who lives on a farm and faithfully attends church. A masked killer is terrorizing the small town and there are plenty of suspects: town bad boy Frankie (William Gray Espy), Ingrid's mysterious Uncle Carl (Cameron Mitchell), and the new stranger guy in town. The sheriff (Aldo Ray) is perplexed. He finds out his daughter was knocked up by Frankie, plus he must deal with having two Barney Fife clones as deputies. Ingrid is also having many visions/hallucinations involving her mother, who killed herself after a tryst with a strange man. Ingrid, just five years old, walked in on them and mom fled into the bathroom. It is no mystery that the man in bed with mom was mom's brother, Uncle Carl. Ingrid is attacked by the masked killer but escapes. Later, the killer murders the local town lush and dumps her body in Ingrid's chicken coop. Ingrid is later assaulted by Frankie, and Uncle Carl almost walks in on them. Frankie threatens Ingrid if she talks, and the murders in town continue. Ingrid is a fixture at church, and is almost assaulted again after an attack in the cemetery. The killer is finally revealed.

This lacking thumbnail sketch might make this sound very suspenseful, almost Hitchcockian, but it is far from it. Britt tries, but she is failed by the script. Her Scandinavian accent is explained away as she spent time in "a European orphanage up the coast." Huh? Mitchell, who has never been good in anything, is not good here. The film makers give him the world's worst fake gray hair at the film's conclusion: the chalk white goop looks like it was applied with a trowel. The rest of the cast plays their routine small town characters without adding anything new. The biggest mistake here is the convoluted script. There are at least six different places toward the end of the movie where the final credits should have started rolling. Clocking in at 97 minutes, this is fifteen minutes too long. Poor Britt spends most of her screen time either taking off her clothes, careful not to show any nudity, or hysterically running away from real or imagined men. All the males come off as horny and stupid. Ingrid is the repressed frigid queen who fantasizes about being attacked and assaulted. She is religious, and Hollywood has been telling us for years how strange and sexually repressed churchgoers are. The script never takes any chances, beating the viewer over the head with heavy-handed images from Ingrid's psychotic mind. While there is some suspense here and there, for a horror film, there is not much. The possibilities here were endless, and the film makers did not take advantage of them. This should have been very suspenseful, considering the game cast, but everyone loses to a silly script and terribly low budget. "Haunts" does not haunt.