Creeptober Night 15: Dead Dudes in the House (1989)

If you’ve been following along with Creeptober, then you might’ve noticed that I’ve been talking about some big themes and ideas over the past few days. I love doing that sort of thing, but sometimes I need to recharge. I need to cleanse the palate, so to speak. To do that, I like to watch something dumb. Something simple, preferably bloody, and potentially funny whether that was the original intention of the film or not. With that in mind, tonight’s Creeptober movie is Dead Dudes in the House (1989).

Reacting to Dead Dudes in the House

As I understand it, this movie has been released under multiple different titles. I’ve always called it Dead Dudes in the House because that’s the title on the DVD I bought as part of a box-set distributed by Troma a couple of decades ago. More recently I bought the Blu-ray release from Vinegar Syndrome (yes, I’m a big fan of this movie), and inside the case is a reversible sleeve that also shows the title as The House on Tombstone Hill. Also, when I start the Blu-ray up, the title in the actual movie is The Dead Come Home. So, take your pick. I’m still going to refer to it as Dead Dudes in the House, because that’s the funniest of the three titles. Anyway, let’s get to the movie.

Dead Dudes in the House is a bad movie. I know it’s bad, but I love it. This film is certainly one of the harder sells for people following along with our Creeptober marathon who aren’t necessarily into bad movies, but I urge you to give it a chance. There are a few creepy moments, and the gore is really fun. I honestly do think that there are good ideas that manage to shine through, but it’s the endearing badness that gets me to re-watch Dead Dudes over and over.

There’s a fun idea at the core of the story. It’s basically in the same category of horror as an Evil Dead, Prince of Darkness, or Night of the Demons. The film is set inside a confined location, and when people are killed they come back to kill their friends while possessing a twisted, evil version of their living personalities. Derivative, sure, but also fun. One of the big differences here is that the initial evil that kills people is an old woman who died decades ago but is woken when someone smashes her tombstone.

The biggest highlights of the movie all have to do with the gore effects. My favorite kill might be the guy who gets his hands chopped while hanging from a window, then he falls to the ground and has a pipe thrown through him. The other window kill with Bob is ridiculous too, and that’s probably my second favorite. What can I say? I like a good splatter.

I don’t think the movie is scary, but there is one moment that’s always a little chilling to me. It’s when Steve, the whistling guy, is stranded alone in a hallway while his friends are all trapped behind a supernaturally locked door. Steve sees the old lady walk down the hall, but she doesn’t come up to him. Instead she just looks at him and says in a matter-of-fact way, “it’s your turn.” Then she leaves. To me, that’s extremely creepy. I also find the moments when the undead friends don’t attack to be unsettling. Like Bob with his guts hanging out just walking by two people like it’s nothing. That stuff is more spooky than just having them attack all the time.

Those are the things the movie does well though. What about the less good stuff that I love? Well, I think the stilted dialogue is hilarious. Mark’s evil speech talking about nick-knacks and doilies. Bob’s extreme anger at Steve’s whistling. Everyone talking about the rope in the front yard. It feels like one of those situations where the writing might look good on the page of a script, but once it’s spoken it feels completely unnatural. Yet they stuck with it and didn’t try to make it flow better.

I also enjoy the parade of people trying to open stuck doors. Every single person in the main group (besides the guy who leaves to get beer) tries to open a door in the first section of the movie. It’s like a running gag that isn’t funny, but that’s what makes it funny.

The plotting is also so haphazard. The best is when, halfway through the movie, two random teens are introduced who decide to break into the house for no reason. It’s like the filmmakers needed to stretch the run time of the film to make it feature length, so they just added two more people to get killed. I suppose it also gives the “hero” of the story someone to talk to so he’s not just silent for the final scenes. It just feels so random and goofy.

Speaking of the hero, Ron, I love that they chose the guy with the least amount of personality to be the last one alive. Bob, as mean and angry as he is, is probably the most interesting character. But no, they went with bland instead, which makes the final scare right before the credits fun rather than a downer. It’s funny how things work out like that sometimes.

I guess that’s all I have to say about Dead Dudes in the House. It’s one of the many “bad and fun” movies that I have in my personal rotation, which is a fairly large list. I hope you can find some joy in it as well.