House of Horror (film)

House of Horror is a 1929 American sound part-talkie comedy mystery film directed by Benjamin Christensen. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system. The film stars Louise Fazenda and Chester Conklin. The film portion of the House of Horror is now presumed lost while the sound survives on Vitaphone discs.

Production
The House of Horrors was released both as a Part-Talkie and as an International Sound Version. The part-talkie version of the film contained a brief talking sequence at the beginning of the feature but was otherwise just with sound effects and a music score from a Vitaphone disc.

Release
The House of Horrors was distributed by First National Pictures on April 28, 1929. The film was Christensen's final Hollywood production as after completing the film he went to Denmark to handle some business ventures. Christensen had plans to make an independent production and return to the United States to follow-up with an American film but he returned to Denmark again 1934.

As of 2018, the visual portions of the film are considered lost.

Reception
From contemporary reviews, Photoplay called the film a "cheap claptrap mystery movie which is saved by the comedy of Chester Conklin and Louise Fazenda" A review in Variety declared it "one of the weakest and most boring afterbirths of pseudo mystery-comedy grinds out of Hollywood. The thing actually rants and rambles, with audience of any mental caliber at sea until the last reel when the title writer makes a supreme effort to account with cart before horse angle." Film Daily declared the film "just a dud that develops nothing in a flat mystery story with a lot of phony situations" declaring its gags as "ancient". Harrison's Reports called the film "a comedy-mystery melodrama, that does not hold the interest too much because the spectator suspects the ending almost from the beginning and is bored by the useless chasing in and out of rooms [...] The familiar hokum of trap doors, mysterious falling objects and door slamming take place"