House of Purgatory (2016) Poster

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3/10
Confusing
africe12 July 2019
Warning: Spoilers
The movie had good potential but the story didn't make sense. Its understandable the the teens had to face their secrets, but why torture a girl that was sexually abused by her uncle? If anyone deserved torture it should be him. This movie had potential but should have made more sense. And sadly, the ending was not really an ending
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5/10
Hit and Miss
scythertitus11 June 2017
This film starts off as promising. There is some good dialogue and the characters are generally interesting and believable. Then somehow several of the characters are just dropped as our four mains (not necessarily the most interesting of the characters introduced either) decide to ditch their party and go find a haunted house.

Once this happens things slowly start to go downhill, not only does the ditching of these other characters make their scenes at the beginning completely pointless (why not just start at the haunted house?), but it means that things that looked like they were going to come into play later actually don't. So we get stuck with the four leads as they go through this house, and even that can't hold together long.

There is just no pacing in this movie, it builds you up and then lets you down. I did quite like their approach on what is really scary in life, but most of the time it doesn't seem like the characters should really be going through what they are, which again could make sense, but the ending undoes that too. So overall this film feels like it is chasing its own tail, almost as if it had two completely different writers that had completely opposing ideas about what film they wanted to make. There is some good here, but it is buried underneath a pile of confusion and mistaken misdirection.
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4/10
No refunds.....
FlashCallahan29 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
A haunted attraction repays a portion of the admittance fee for every floor patrons are brave enough to complete, but nobody has ever made it all the way through to the end.

On Halloween night, four teenagers go looking for this urban legend. What they find is the titular house, the legend itself.

Once inside the house, the teens quickly realise the house is more than a haunted attraction.

The house knows the things each of the four keep hidden, and forces each of them to come face to face with them........

Another Halloween film that sounds really good on paper, but the final product is less than stellar, and quickly runs out of steam once we hit the titular house.

The main problems with the film is the atypical teenagers whom have all the tropes that teenagers in films have had for the last thirty years, and you can guess who's going to live and who's not before they even open their mouths.

Krause is okay as the skeleton, but he is far too serious to be the 'host' of the house. What we need here is a camp, sinister Captain Spaulding type character who plays mind games with the group, in a friendly but sinister manner.

And once we are in the house, you just find yourself yearning for the remake of House On Haunted Hill, which isn't the best film in the world, but it's a lot more fun, and is self deprecating enough to be on the verge of parody.

So instead of upping the ante once the house is entered, it's nothing more than one of the group seeing something a little ghoulish and the others looking at them in a concerned, but perplexed manner.

And don't forget that horror films with a simple but promising premise has to have some sort of mind-bending twist come the end, and in this instance, it's not needed, and feels totally out of place.

A wasted opportunity, which infuriates more than just an atypical rubbish lazily made horror film.
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1/10
Ghastly, but not good ghastly
Kingkitsch6 January 2017
Warning: Spoilers
"House of Purgatory" is based on the urban legend of a remote haunted house attraction that is so frightening, visitors get their money back if they can complete the entire creepshow. According to the legend, no one has ever finished the course. Interesting premise, unless the fabled haunt turns out to be one of those ultra-Christian spook shows that feature the sins of pedophilia, homosexuality, driving while drunk, and oh yeah, sex out of wedlock.

Four annoying teenagers (who are terrible actors in their late 20s pretending to be high school stereotypes) leave a dull Halloween party to seek out the haunted attraction, and hey bingo, they find it. Getting into the house for free is like, awesome!, so in they go. The silly scares begin to take on surreal qualities and suddenly the foursome gets split up and must confront the Evangelical evils based on their deepest secrets.

The drunk driver who's killed someone and runs away is given the shortest time and not much punishment. Evidently vehicular homicide is some pesky annoyance, like acne.

The sex before marriage "girl" gets tied to a gurney, and suddenly her Christian mommy and daddy show up. Boy howdy, now little miss open legs is hugely pregnant! Mommy, who's carrying a bible, castigates the girl for her predicament and leaves, not offering a shred of compassion. Daddy just takes off his glasses and follows mommy away. Naturally, there's a bloody painful birth with a skull-painted guy in surgical scrubs and a hoodie acting as midwife. Hooray! It's a baby made of hamburger, which is all you can guess from the 1.5 nanoseconds you can see it. At least this poor unwed teen mom didn't abort, so she should get points for that.

And now, the guy who's secretly gay although everyone thinks he's a badass jock. Like you couldn't see this coming at all. He's left to wander the high school hall, and finds his locker glowing and filled with pictures of man butt. His daddy appears, calls him all the things you know he's going to, and beats his son. Later, the jock "homo" is surrounded by his classmates and daddy, who proceed to beat him to death with what look like pool cues. There's an implied rape by daddy and his cue. Why the poor guy is killed for his secret is homophobic in the extreme. The treatment this character gets was telegraphed during the opening sequence in which three high school "girls" are carving pumpkins and getting drunk on another mommy's stash of vodka. One of these girls spends a long time reviling a male classmate because she believes he's gay.

Finally, and the most degrading storyline, is the victim of child abuse who gets another meeting with her pervy uncle and a pillow across the face while he molests her again. Why is this person is being punished for the actions of the uncle? This is revolting. Are we supposed to think she was at fault, perhaps luring the uncle and maybe enjoying the abuse?

One wonders if the director of this idiocy got money from some Fundamentalist group to vomit up this garbage, or perhaps he's got a secret of his own he's attempting to exorcise? The only real horror here is that it did get made, and although only available on direct to DVD or the shallow end of some cheap streaming service, it still sits there waiting to kill your soul by telling you what a sinner you are. Absolute crap, with a terrible ending you've seen 1000 times. Avoid.
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2/10
Utter waste of time.
starrme-932-7458616 July 2020
The two stars are for the opening which was amusing. The rest? ZZzzzzzzz. Oh and these are the oldest looking teenagers i've ever seen.
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3/10
It's was there, then it flopped...
ncallinicos8 December 2016
The start was as good as any horror film, but somewhere along the way this film lost itself. There are some good scenes in this film, but they lacked to go the distance. Maybe to explain why some of the weird happenings were happening could help. I feel they rushed too quickly into things with leaving much to be desired. About half way through I was still engaged and then I felt they dropped the ball hard. I like far out ideas and things out of the ordinary, obviously I chose to watch this film. Yet with really no attempt to create any sort of understanding of what is going on, it became disappointing. One of those moments where it ends and your sitting there thinking what crap. Not left thinking or wondering about it in a good thought provoking way. I feel if someone used the same premise, and gave more insight into the what and why of this film they could make a decent film. More time and effort maybe, I can't help to think this film was rushed. As for watching I can say you can definitely skip this one.
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1/10
What just happened?
moviepotat09 June 2019
Warning: Spoilers
It's unclear what the screenwriter is trying to tell the audience. We aren't given much depth to make us care about the characters. Two teens are punished for something they have absolutely no control over, and the other two are punished for how they responded to accidents. The only teen that actually deserved punishment we never really see get punished. Go figure. At the end of the movie, I guess I'm supposed to assume that the girl who was sexually abused by her uncle as a child is still in purgatory being punished for his behavior via some sort of time loop?

Yet, somehow not as bad as Sleepaway Camp.
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2/10
Predictably boring
Leofwine_draca13 February 2018
Warning: Spoilers
HOUSE OF PURGATORY is another predictably boring indie horror flick that feels like it mined the 1980s for inspiration. A vapid and cliched quartet of unlikeable teenage characters head off to a haunted house where they find themselves assailed by an evil presence in order to atone for their own sins. This is slow throughout and seemingly ad libbed, made without a single moment of horror - just the usual bad acting and poor production values leading to a disappointing climax.
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6/10
The end really disappointed me...
jenbug198025 October 2018
This wasn't a bad movie - it definitely had potential, but the ending left me feeling very confused and disappointed. In all honesty, the ending was stupid. It was way too sudden, and made little sense. Things started off good; it's too bad the writers didn't spend a little more time and put a little more thought into that end though. I can't say it enough...I was just getting into it then boom over - no good explanation to what was going on, and who knows how most of the characters ended up.

Anyway, I'm glad I checked it out, disappointment and all.
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1/10
Very old teenagers.
vince.smith25 October 2020
Are all American teenagers so old looking? I can't think of anything good to write about this drivel.
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9/10
Way above the norm
tylerchristensen1017 January 2017
So many cheap horror movies are made and they are all about the blood and gore. This was a film that actually asked viewers to think, which I love. It is about a group of teenagers who have secrets. And who doesn't have secrets.

I think the film maker was trying to say that we all have skeletons in our closets, and they eat us up inside. None of them are our faults, they just exist. "Secrets Secrets are so fun, your secrets here will come undone." That's haunting to me. We all have skeletons, and how terrifying it would be if we had to face them!

I love that a director makes a movie that makes us think instead of just showing blood and guts.
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6/10
Demonstrates that Cheap Doesn't Have to Mean Bad
dcarsonhagy10 January 2017
Warning: Spoilers
I will have to say I'm a sucker for "haunted house" stories. I was zipping through the menu for On-Demand and found this entry into that genre. It seems an urban legend is being passed from town to town about a legendary haunted house that is SO scary, the managers will actually give YOU money back for each floor you complete! So, off go four friends (leaving a Halloween party) in search of this house. What they find is way more than what they bargained for.

First--and foremost--I would like to compliment all involved with this film. They have proved that "cheap" doesn't have to mean awful. The viewer can easily tell this was made on a shoestring budget, BUT the direction, the makeup, and the writing push this attempt to the forefront. Each minor detail is "covered", i.e. if you're supposed to go up floors, why do you start the haunted house going down? Now, the reasons may not always be plausible, but we all know how horror movies work. I thought the acting was much better than average, especially with the caca usually attached to these films. The weakest character was the "skeleton" man (he just wasn't creepy or menacing enough for my tastes), but (thankfully) you do not see much of him.

I recommend this effort. It certainly isn't going to win any Oscars, but this installment into the haunted house genre is leaps and bounds better than most. Rated "R" for brief violence and some naked backsides.
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3/10
Interesting concept that petered out
Verona12 October 2021
Im with most of the other reviewers- it was an interesting concept and slight twist on the "haunted house" premise. But it seemed to become increasingly non-sensical. Punishing someone for being molested and another for being gay-? Those arent choices, like punishable choices in which one would be punished in a cosmic sense. Also, my understanding of purgatory was it was sort of a "nowhere", whereas this seems more like hell or tartarus. Meh.
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5/10
Not bad if you give it a shot
jackmeat28 October 2016
My quick rating - 5,1/10. We have all heard the rumors of the haunted house that is 5 floors, and if you can make it through all 5 you get your money back. I am sure there are variations of this urban myth and this film revolves around 4 kids that go looking to conquer it. But instead of a typical haunted house they stumble into a house that uses your own secrets from inside to terrify you. A good premise of a movie and to some extent it is well done. Purposely unbelievable and summed up by the great line "i don't think this is a normal haunted house" LOL. The film is more of a psychological type of terror with each overcoming the fears they hide inside. Atypical acting and good use of minimal locations to make the atmosphere seem plausible. I admittedly did enjoy this for what it was, nothing flashy and could have gone a long way with a bit more put into it.
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2/10
There are really few words...
Hallusination6 December 2016
Could have been..but no.Its like watching a movie in slow motion. Nobody is communicating and they just wonder silently on their own. U can almost predict exactly what will happen. We tried to have a good time watching this. But I think Id rather stand an hour in the snow..naked. The actors have been made ridiculously stupid (i hope,or the just suck at acting). Couple of times it looked like something maybe could actually save the poor movie,,but just disappointment again. So please..make better use of your time. Because we already lost ours. Even if you wanna watch some "bad horror" movie just for fun..This will not cut it, Merry Christmas everyone.. Except the people who made this movie!!
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1/10
What did I just watch?
ncoleby3 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
I am very forgiving when it comes to bad horror films. I can forgive bad acting, bad monsters, bad camera work, as long as the story is interesting or if I can see that someone at least tried to put some effort into a film.

At the start I thought that it may be cheesy but watchable. Half way through I thought, this is quite a bad plot i.e non existent but somehow kept watching because I was mildly amused and waited for some sense. Then the end came and my jaw fell open with confusion. You know the kind where the credits roll and you look around the room not knowing what just happened.

Basically there is no plot as such. It's about something but it makes no sense. Imagine a 'scary' cartoon, in a 'scary' setting that just is what it is for absolutely no reason whatsoever and no meaning either.

The end.
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2/10
Avoid...!
darockiz19 March 2021
Nothing horror in the movie. Some events including the ending are not explained well. Must avoid if you don't want to waste your time.
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2/10
Big Yikes
mwave-7501412 September 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I recently watched this "movie," and my words cannot adequately describe the awfulness. I can already hear you saying, "If it was that awful, why'd you give it 2 stars then?" Because the sound quality was the least awful thing about this. I hate having to turn the volume up, only to have it blow out your eardrums a few minutes later, so kudos to the only person who did a good job.

Where to begin?

* The cast's average age is north of 35 years old. One of them was 40+ years old at the time of them filming. It's jarring to see people as old as I am pretending to be in High School.

* The story is not remotely scary, especially for a movie about the most terrifying haunted house ever conceived.

* The dialogue is... let's say problematic. "Gay" is used to describe lame things. The characters even call each other retarded. I guess if their intention was to write dialogue that sounded like something high school kids would say circa 1998, then mission accomplished. It's 2022 though, and we should strive to be better.

* Every single person both over-acted and under-acted their roles. Some parts of the movie introduced new character information, seemingly at random. I'm still not sure what the 40 year old blonde had happen to her. In some parts, she's pregnant, in others, she's being yelled at by a religious mom. I watched the movie and I'm not sure she's actually pregnant, or if she was going to get kicked out for having a boyfriend. One of the male actors even appeared to have a backstory where he may have killed someone with his car, but it lasted for 15 seconds before it was abandoned and never brought up again.

As near as I can tell, the only reason this movie got made was to launder money. Or maybe they used the bulk of their budget to pay for a Fleetwood Mac sized pile of cocaine. Regardless, do not waste an hour and a half of your life.
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7/10
How did they do that?
nogodnomasters15 September 2017
Warning: Spoilers
The film opens and builds the characters of three teen girls in a nice scene where they are carving pumpkins, a nostalgia scene for me. There is then a teen party where the guys discuss the best female costume: Slutty Pirate vs Slutty Dorothy. Finally in mixed groups they discuss an urban legend about a haunted house where your get your money back in you complete it. Having no idea where it is located, a group of four drive around and find "House of Purgatory." Inside, the place is like a regular haunted house, however as they go deeper it becomes a personalized Dante's Inferno.

The film was okay. Sound track was decent. Didn't rely on jump scares, but crafted a story. Being ruined by Catholicism, I know purgatory is a place one goes to burn off their venial sins, as we pray to Mary and the Father in a 10:1 ratio,before strolling into heaven. However in this story, that is not the case. We are looking at mortal sins, and teens are being tortured for things in their life that wasn't their fault, i.e. one girl being molested as a child. This is more akin to Hell than Purgatory in my book, but I understand Hell House and House of Hell titles are far too common and on the cliché side.

Personally I think the punishment should have suited the individual's transgression. Now looking beyond my theological dissection, it was fairly decent, with decent "B" film acting and as previously stated, I loved the opening scene.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.
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2/10
Weak story...poor execution.
tbuestrin13 December 2020
It just starts off so poorly when the viewer is supposed to believe that the 3 "young girls" in the opening scene are in high school. Looking up one of them (the redhead) online it's not surprising to discover that she was 26 years old at the time of filming. You would be hard pressed to believe that they were all in college....much less high school. Aside from having a completely non-believable cast....there's nothing scary...whatsoever...in the movie. I only gave it 2 stars instead of 0 because it was filmed in Green Bay...go Pack.
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8/10
Better than expected
ravenrose23008 December 2016
I live about 45 minutes outside of Detroit. Here we do have haunted houses that if you make it through you get your money back. Hopefully they're not like this one! While there was the expected jump scares and played out horror tricks, I think all in all this was a really entertaining movie. 4 teens with deep secrets go into,a haunted house where there are no other people around. They are are told there are 5 levels but when they walk up it's just a a shed. So they figure "must be a hell of a basement." (Insert eye roll here.) As they go through it, each level has things that are deigned just for that person to see. Could it have been better? Yea. I wish I had seen more of Brain Kraus (Leo from Charmed). However I really liked this one because it's a nice slow burning movie that will leave you with the creeps even after it's over and make you think twice before driving out to the middle of nowhere for that really creepy haunted house next Halloween!!!
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7/10
Pretty decent!!
tman-212892 October 2019
I went into this movie with low expectations as it was raining out and TV sucked so I gave this a shot.

Without spoiling anything I will say this is a good flick! The story, acting and even the editing is better than you'd expect. Give it a shot.
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3/10
Boring and devoid of anything scary...
paul_haakonsen17 May 2019
Well, I had initially expected more from this movie. Granted, I hadn't even heard a single word about it prior to finding it by sheer random luck. I picked it up, saw it was a horror movie and decided to give it a chance.

Turned out that the movie wasn't halfway as interesting as the synopsis made it out to be.

The storyline in the movie was straight forward and very easy to follow, but at the same time it was also so simplistic that it felt like director and writer Tyler Christensen was treating the audience as if we had no brain functions. The movie was just horrible staged and felt like it was staggering around on uncertain ground.

The acting in the movie was good, despite the fact that the actors and actresses had so very little to work with in terms of script, plotline and proper characters. However, I can't claim to be able to single any one out as being particularly extraordinary. You get what you would expect here, I suppose.

As for a horror movie, then "House of Purgatory" was frightfully devoid of anything scary or even remotely disturbing. And the movie just trotted onwards at an adequate pace, but not really taking the audience along on any particular thrilling or memorable ride.

I managed to sit through the movie in its entire running length. Was I entertained, well mildly so. Was it a good movie? No, not even by a long shot. Is it a movie that I will watch again? Nope. "House of Purgatory" came and went without leaving as much as a dent in the chassis of the horror genre.

If you enjoy a proper horror movie, then there are far, far better choices readily available within hands reach.
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1/10
Booooooring
fdrozario13 May 2020
Bad acting terrible directing horrible story line and it's sad cause the concept was good which was what brought me to watch this movie and it could have been alot better
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4/10
Good ideas, bad execution
destroyerwod7 November 2020
By IMDB it says this movie was made with 200 000$, wich is really low budget for a movie. This is probably why they couldn't do much in term of special effects or visuals, and i think it hurt the movie. Its better than going for bad effect tough, ill give them that.

Where the movie could had shine is in the story, it start nicely, but then it drag for a while and you have a feeling of nothing happening and eventually the ending seem rushed. Very weird pace. The idea behind the movie is nice, but its execution, partly due to the writing, partly due to the budget im guessing, make it turn out to be just ...kinda boring.

But to be fair i seen worst in term of low budget horror and i watched this on Tubi. so it didn't cost me a dime. Therefore i can't complain too much. If you want an Halloween movie, this really is not it as the Halloween theme is quickly dropped after the intro. If you are a horror movie junky you may get something out of it, but i can't say i would recommand this movie.

Just another low budget horror movie among gazillions...
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