The House Of Blood (1973 Film)

The House of Blood is a 1973 horror film. It was directed by Joe Stenman, written by Charlie O'Neill, and produced by Ben Schlagel, all of whom made their debuts in the movie industry with this film.

Plot
The film takes place in and near Salt Lake City, Utah. Six Mormon sisters ("The Young Girls," which was also, at one time, going to be the film's title) are abducted by four escaped convicts. The convicts proceed to rape and murder the girls. After killing the last of the sisters, the convicts decide to "get the Hell out of Utah." However, as they attempt to do just that, their car breaks down. Pretending to be businessmen on vacation, they make their way, on foot, to the nearest house. Little do they know that inside the house are the father and mother of the murdered girls. And they want revenge...

Cast
Bill -- Robert Benson, Jr.

Lee -- John C. Butler

Billy -- Lucas Stenman

Squeaky -- Robin Mirthel

Dr. Martin Young -- Ben Nelson

Judy Young -- Ingrid LeClair

Hannah -- Jennifer Robinson

Angie -- Karin Lane

Maggie -- Maureen O'Hearne

Joanie -- Bonnie Peabody

Lucy -- Linda Macett

Ruthie -- Kathy Gordon

Sheriff Butler -- L.S. Grady

Deputy Gritts -- Kevin L. Carson

Distribution
The House of Blood was distributed by Quality International Pictures and was shown, for the most part, in Northern grindhouses and Southern drive ins. In the south, the film was frequently shown under the titles Last House On The Left Part Two, Blood Thirsty, and She Cried "No!"

Reception
Despite receiving overwhelmingly negative reviews when first released (critic John Sheilds wrote "I have seen the end of human decency and it is called The House of Blood," the House of Blood was an immediate success at the box office. The film cost $30,000 to make and ended up making $25,000,000 in its initial release.

When first released, the film was banned in the United Kingdom and remained so until 2005 when, after producer Ben Schlagel agreed to approximately 2 minutes worth of cuts, it was finally allowed to play in one London theater. Reviewing the film for The Guardian, Sir Trevor Claridge-Chapsmith MP wrote, "(W)hile the film is undeniably crude and distasteful, there is something quite gratifying in the discovery that Americans apparently kill each other with the same enthusiasm that they've shown for killing others."

Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack was an early effort from the progressive rock band Taub James Howell and Rutherford and even critics who attacked the film often times praised the soundtrack for being effectively horrifying. Reviewing the film for The Village Shopper, critic Richard Amos noted that, "the horrifying nature of the brutal gang rape sequence is only magnified by the sound of one relentless moog synthesizer commenting on the action. Later, as the killers reflect on what they have done, a flute plays a mournful song that lets us know that, as surely as the girls have lost their lives, our villians have sacrificed their humanity."

The soundtrack was released commercially but had little success in the United States. By contrast, it topped the charts in West Germany and remains the most popular Taub James Howell and Rutherford album ever released in Japan.

The members of Taub James Howell and Rutherford reportedly had mixed feelings about their contribution to the film. In a 1981 interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, keyboardist Ian Rutherford would describe it as "all being as bit of a lark, really." In another issue of Rolling Stone released that same year, drummer Glen Howell was quoted as saying, "I had objections to that from the start but the band outvoted me. I've never been able to sit through the film and it sickens me to think that the action on screen was choreographed to my drum solo." However, guitarist and lead singer Rick Taub often referred to the House of Blood soundtrack as being, "our best album ever" and for several years, he hosted an annual midnight showing of the film in Telluride, Colorado.

Controversy
While the film's extreme violence and nudity has frequently been criticized, the most frequent condemnation of the film has been that it is, as Dennis Beuckman put it in his book Sadism On The Screen, "almost a scene-for-scene copy of Last House On The Left." In a 2002 retrospective published in The Journal of Transgressive Art, producer Ben Schlagel denied this charge and said, "Charlie (O'Niell) wrote the first draft of this script back when he was still in high school so, if anything, Last House On The Left ripped us off." Schlagel also pointed out that though the films are similar, there are a few key differences. Specifically, "only two girls are killed in Last House whereas we killed six."

In that same article, Schlagel explained why it had been decided to make the girls Mormon (a plot point which led to the film being picketed whenever it played in Utah). According to Schlagel, "(T)he whole Mormon thing was just a happy accident. We knew we wanted the girls to be sisters and we knew we wanted at least five or six of them. The only way we could make it believable that a family would have six daughters all so close in age was to make them Mormon. The scenes where Billy and the gang force the oldest one to smoke cigarettes and the youngest to drink coffee, that all grew organically out of that. But the film was never meant to specifically be an attack on Mormon girls."

At the time of the film's release, a good deal of controversy arose from the fact that Kathy Gordon (who played the ill-fated Ruthie) was only fifteen at the time she filmed her extremely graphic rape scene. The film's producer and director have always claimed to have been unaware of Gordon's actual age and Gordon herself said in the Journal of Transgressive Art retrospective, "I matured pretty early." As a result of this controversy, director Joe Stenman has never stepped foot in Utah since shooting on The House of Blood wrapped. To date, Utah authorities have refused to comment on whether or not any of the filmmakers currently have warrants out for their arrest as a result of the shooting of this movie.

Video and DVD Release
Quality International Pictures released The House of Blood on VHS in 1981. In order to secure an R rating for the video release, a few scenes of blood and nudity were edited from their original version. Most specifically, the scene in which Maggie is gutted by Lee was trimmed down to just a closeup of Maggie's face and a few reaction shots from the rest of the cast. The scene in which Squeaky pulls out Maggie's intestines was cut completely which caused some of the film's later dialog to no longer make much sense.

When Quality International Pictures released the film on laserdisc, a few more cuts were made in an apparent and unsuccesful attempt to win the film a PG-13 rating. Specifically, the scenes in which Judy bites off Lee's penis were totally excised from the film. As a result, Lee appears to just disappear from the film. Also considerably timmed was the scene where Squeaky forces Ruthie to make love to Hannah's corpse.

In 2005, Anchor Bay released the "Special Bloodthirty Edition" of The House of Blood. Digitially remastered, this DVD included all of the scene previously cut and, like the original film, it was released unrated. Also included on the DVD were two of the film's trailers, a few radio spots, interviews with the surviving members of the cast and crew, and three commentary tracks. The 1st track featured producer Ben Schlagel, writer Charlie O'Neill, and assistant director Steven Katt. The 2nd commentary track featured actors John C. Butler and Robert Benson, Jr. and was notable for a physical brawl that erupted between the two actors forty minutes into the film. (The fight begins right after Butler says, "Goddamn, what a piece of shit this film was...") Despite rumors that the fight was staged, both Benson and Butler have stated that the fight was genuine. The 3rd and final commentary track features all the female cast members and it is generally agreed that this is the most enjoyable of all of the tracks. Director Joe Stenman reportedly refused to record any commentary for the DVD. However, according to Schlagel, Stenman was present while he and O'Neill recorder their commentary: "Oh yeah, he was there. He wouldn't wear his microphone so you couldn't hear him but he was there and he would not shut the Hell up."

Trivia
For many years, a popular urban legend alleged that either one or all of the six actress actually died during the making of the film. This legend was debunked in 1991 when journalist Ciara Conway managed to track down and interview each of the actresses, proving that they were all very much alive. Ironically enough, when Conway interviewed Jennifer Robinson, Robinson stated that she had heard that costar Bonnie Peabody had been murdered shortly after The House of Blood was released. Conway later engineered a reunion between the six actresses even though Conway herself later admitted, "None of them really seemed to have that much desire to see each other."

The film was shot on location in Utah. The film's shooting title was Joseph Smith, Prophet. On his DVD commentary track, producer Ben Schlagel says that the shooting title was a ploy used to get the support from local officials.

Director Joe Stenman has often said that The House of Blood was meant to be seen as a political allegory about the Viet Nam War. In an interview with The Journal of Transgressive Art, he added that the film was "about bring the war home." He also admitted to being stoned during much of the shooting.

Screenwriter Charlie O'Neill stated, in his DVD commentary track, that he originally named the film's main villian after Gen. William Westmoreland and that he viewed the Young Family as being represenative of the Viet Cong. Producer Ben Schlagel stated, shortly afterward, that he viewed The House of Blood as being America's last great "anti-communist film" and that he always believed that the character of Bill was a stand-in for Ho Chi Minh.

The only actual Mormon in the main cast was L.S. Grady who played Sheriff Butler.

According to Robert C. Benson, actors Ben Nelson and Ingrid LeClair were not happy to be appearing in the film and, on each day of shooting, left as soon as their scenes were completed. On the DVD's commentary track, LeClair did not dispute this but said that she has since come to appreciate the film's artistry.

For the scene in which Joanie was supposed to faint upon seeing the body of her sister Lucy, actress Bonnie Peabody actually fainted for real. When she revived, the first thing she saw was actors Lucas Stenman, Robert Benson, and John C. Butler staring down at her. This caused her to faint a second time,

In the infamous intestine scene, actual cow intestines were used. In the 100 degree heat of the Utah desert and already stressed out from playing the emotionally and physically taxing murder scene, Maureen O'Hearne would vomit in between takes. This led to John C. Butler playfully nicknaming her, "The Vominatrix."

In the scene where Judy castrates Lee, Ingrid LeClair was actually chewing on John C. Butler's belt.

The look of terror on Robert Benson, Jr.'s face when Ben Nelson attacks him with the chainsaw was genuine. According to Benson, the scene was not blocked out ahead of time, the chainsaw was actually running, and he and Nelson disliked each other.

The six actresses who played the sisters all had different reactions to the shoot and the eventual film. On their DVD commentary track, each of the actresses discussed these reactions. Jennifer Robinson, a method actress, actively encouraged Benson and Butler to actually injure her. Karin Lane, who was having an affair with Schlagel at the time, admitted to attempting to get her character a more prominent role in the film at the expense of Robinson. Bonnie Peabody described herself as actually being convinced that she would be killed on screen and said that making the film led to her first nervous breakdown. Linda Macett dealt with the stress of the shoot through constant drug use while Kathy Gordon, who was having affairs with both Benson and Butler during the shoot, said that she viewed the whole thing as an "adventure." As for Maureen O'Hearne, whose character Maggie suffered the most graphic abuse in the movie, she claimed to have found the whole thing "rather amusing."

Possible Sequel?
According to John C. Butler, he and Charlie O'Neill are currently working on a script for a sequel in which his character Lee returns to seek vengeance on the rest of the Young family. According to Butler, the audience never specifically sees Lee die after Judy bites off his penis. In an interview with The Journal of Transgressive Art, Butler said, "He's a psychopath with no dick! The world better beware!"