Boardinghouse (1982) / Old Negative Review

 In August 2008, I rented this from Netflix. It was a Code Red release with a good interview I really enjoyed. I didn't care for the film as you will read below. But as I mentioned in my post for Sledgehammer (1983), this review just reeks of condescension and snobbery. I read it and was not happy with myself. I've tried to approach films differently than I used to, but feelings fresh and raw like below really emphasize a total dislike for Boardinghouse (1982), perhaps a bit too mean. After watching Sledgehammer, I thought of Boardinghouse (it was also mentioned by Joe Bob Briggs when introducing Sledgehammer for his Last Drive-In), went back to read my old review, and decided to retire it here. The film did get two big paragraphs from me, so at least I gave it a lot of time and thought.

A suburban house with multiple rooms, a pool out back and a chilling history of violence and death is purchased by Jim(John Wintergate who wrote and directed it)who rents it out to a number of women needing a place to stay. Victoria(Kalassu)is a model who falls for Jim and her secret nemesis is the mysterious Dee(Alexander Day), often seen digging in the yard. Victoria begins to practice "meta-physics" exercises after becoming inspired by levitation tricks performed by Jim who can move objects with the power of thought. Meanwhile members of the boardinghouse fall prey to supernatural forces which guide them to horrible demises. Something evil rests within the estate of this boardinghouse and Victoria suffers from a series of eerie nightmares where hands rise from an inferno-like hole in her bed, and some red-eyed mass of black pursues her. This red-eyed fiend is often shown appearing right before innocents are murdered. Eyes are gouged, a hand is caught in a garbage disposal with blood squirting all over the place, a person removes his guts, a victim is forced to shoot an innocent party goer and then himself, and a cat is bashed in the head with a hammer. While we realize that something beyond the natural is motivating the blood shed, there's also a physical presence also committing crime. Who is the vessel being used by the evil entity and can it be stopped? There's also a sub-plot regarding a woman, raped previously by her fiancé, who is shaken when the man she left behind finds her "hiding place."

Painful in it's amateurishness, Wintergate's film proves that not everyone has an ability to make a sound film of particular quality. Being shot on video with endless scenes that either go on too long or are cut before characters can finish their dialogue, "Boardinghouse" reeks of a lack of professional film-making ability. Wintergate does line himself with a group of ladies willing to go the extra mile for his little movie. It looks like it was shot with a camcorder, made by friends in the suburbs or just outside a city(..or in a few vacated buildings within a city)for like 10,000 dollars. It features a rotating synth soundtrack and home-made grue. The film is at times quite claustraphobically confined within rooms of the title setting. The film features no-names with a desire to enter the film-making business. It, to me, was made when a gathering of friends at a gettogether decided to say, "let's go make a movie." I'm surprised films like this are distributed, but I often wonder what Wintergate might do with the proper funding with an ability to shoot films cheap on digital. There's a market and audience for films like "Boardinghouse" and Code Red delivers a fun interview with Wintergate and Kalassu on the DVD release. This film will undoubtedly work best for fans of rancid cinema who are interested in what these type of people dressed like(..and drove)in the early 80's. The sensibilities of these characters also expose what the 80's was all about. Many of the girls in Wintergate's cast go topless, including one really weird scene in the shower where blood leaks down the dirty tiles of a shower as one of the females is showering. Also a funny scene where Jim moves a bar of soap with his power of concentration for Victoria before dragging her in the bathtub!