You have to thank the good people at Vinegar Syndrome for bringing Hollywood Horror House out of obscurity and into the light again. While it's far from perfect and came at the end of the "Baby Jane"/crazy old dame phase, it's one of the wilder entries into that subgenre with a surprising amount of effective gore.

It all plays out a bit like Sunset Boulevard if the Joe Gillis character was a serial killer who kills older women because they remind him of his mother. He latches on to a faded film star played by Miriam Hopkins and becomes her assistant, confidant, and perhaps her lover. As various people in Hopkins' life start to suspect this homicidal grifter of ill will, he kills them.

Hollywood Horror House appears to have a had a somewhat sizable budget given the sets, quality of actors, lighting, and special effects. After all, how many of these low budget films features a Christmas parade sequence with seemingly hundreds of extras? The film does lose steam towards the end and the ending isn't the most satisfying, but the journey to get there is wonderfully wild.

An ageing, alcoholic movie star employs a young man to assist with the staff at her Hollywood mansion but he turns out to be a drug addicted, scheming, woman murdering maniac. Miriam Hopkins play the faded star perfectly, and this was to be her final role; David Garfield convincingly plays the handsome psychopath. As others have said this is "Sunset Boulevard"/'Baby Jane" but with plenty of bloodshed plus some psychedelic drug sequences. It is something of a curiosity, trashy but fun. I can find very little written about this in my various movie books, sad because it is a film that deserves to be better known. I have the original British VHS, released by Vipco and they weren't shy in pushing this as a gory slasher movie. I guess for 1970 it was quite explicit. Available on DVD as Hollywood House of Horror.

The influence of a Mother fixation a la "Psycho" is obvious in this intriguing horror film. The hatchet wielding psychotic is played, with a rather mundane performance, by David Garfield. Forget about him though and enjoy the great acting of Gale Sondergaard and Miriam Hopkins, who exude much class in their acting. The film is very atmospheric, has little blood, and is relentlessly downbeat from beginning to end. The clash of faded Hollywood with the psychotronic 60s/ 70s is used to great advantage, making this a treat for old film buffs, but dubious entertainment for the slasher crowd. Though lacking "Hitchcock" caliber excellence, "Hollywood Horror House", is nevertheless an interesting relic that deserves attention. - MERK