House With 100 Eyes is Brutal and Shocking [Advance Review]

In The House With 100 Eyes, Ed and Susan, a husband and wife duo with a penchant for torture and murder set out on a one night killing spree with the intent of making a ‘triple feature’. Their objective is to recruit three unsuspecting participants for a threesome and then kill each one of them on camera. Naturally, the homicidal duo gets more than they bargained for and must make changes to the plan in order to accomplish their shared objective.

House with 100 Eyes is yet another great acquisition from Artsploitation Films. Jim Roof co-directs alongside Jay Lee and the teaming proves to be a winning one. Their is no sense of two separate visions or any chaos as a result of too many cooks int he kitchen. The pair works exceptionally well together in delivering a shared vision.

It is certainly not for the faint of heart but fans of extreme gore and torture flicks will find a lot to love here. The film’s best quality is that it has strong and capable leads. Jim Roof pulls triple duty as the writer, co-director, and costar. Roof being involved on so many different levels really afforded him the chance to deliver a winning finished product. He brings Ed to life in a way that makes him somehow relatable, in spite of being utterly reprehensible on paper. I felt guilty for liking him because he is a complete creep but Roof’s performance is mesmerizing and nearly impossible not to appreciate.

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Shannon Malone is equally impressive as Ed’s wife, Susan. She comes across as meek and timid but she really comes out of her shell when the opportunity to poison a victim presents itself. In fact, she loves poisoning so much that Ed is terrified to let her serve their guests drinks or allow her to spend any time alone with them for fear that she will poison them before he can get the footage needed for their snuff film. Susan’s penchant for poisoning is played for maximum hilarity and simultaneously furthers the storyline. No opportunity is wasted within the film’s relatively short runtime. The leads are well-developed and fleshed out in such a way that we inexplicably grow to care about them in spite of the fact that they are horrible people.

House With 100 Eyes is very briskly paced and clocks in at just 80 minutes. While that may be short for other genres, I think it’s near perfect for a horror picture. The film gets in and gets out and doesn’t waste any time getting to the point.  

The picture is presented as a mockumentary. There is a disclaimer at the beginning explaining that the footage is being released to expose the twisted types that are living in our very neighborhoods. That angle is a little weak and the found footage gimmick is growing a bit tired. However, that is all but outweighed by the overall quality of the film. The strong performances from both leads goes a long way to make up for thinness of the presentation.

House With 100 Eyes is mesmerizing and wickedly funny. It goes to extremely dark places but never loses the viewer in the process. I would warn against seeing it if you startle easily or take offense to excessive violence, torture, or any combination thereof. But if you aren’t put off by that, it is an excellent film. It will be on DVD from Artsploitation on June 16th. If you can stomach the content, I wholeheartedly recommend checking it out.

WICKED RATING: 7/10 

Director(s): Jay Lee, Jim Roof
Writer(s): Jim Roof
Stars: Jim Roof, Shannon Malone
Release Date: June 16, 2015
Studio/ Production Co: Artsploitation
Language: English
Length: 80 Minutes
Sub-Genre: Found Footage, Torture