Mr_Ectoplasma "Delusion" (also released as "The House Where Death Lives") follows a young nurse who goes to work at the Langrock estate to care for a dying millionaire. After the arrival of the elderly man's troubled nephew, anyone connected to the home begins to die at the hands of an unseen killer.This pseudo-psychological slasher film has mostly been forgotten, and registers as one of the more obscure of its peers, though not entirely for good reason. It's not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but it is reasonably well-shot and captures a claustrophobic, isolated atmosphere. The film falls in familiar trappings and does little to distinguish itself, but it does drum up a bit of intrigue with a couple of its murder scenes (each of which are clobbering administered by a loose table leg, oddly enough) which are well-executed. The acting is a mix of poor to decent, with Joseph Cotten playing the ailing patriarch, and Patricia Pearcy (of 1976's "Squirm"), who here seems to be overplaying catatonia a bit much, though she does a generally serviceable job. I actually found the letter voice-over narration an interesting way to frame the film, and certainly not one used often, especially in slasher films. The finale comes together a bit quickly and feels slapdash in nature, though it's mildly satisfying.Overall, "Delusion" is a middling slasher film, part psychological thriller and part murder mystery. It's certainly not original, but it is relatively well-shot and has a few moments scattered throughout that drum up a bit of suspense. Its limited locations exhibit what I presume was a low budget, but there is a hazy air about the film that leaves it feeling a bit like a fever dream. Not great, not terrible—certainly unremarkable, but worth a watch from slasher completists. 6/10.

FieCrier Meredith moves to the Langrock estate to take care of Langrock himself, an ailing man whose legs no longer work. Langrock has a son who is disturbed in some way, as well as his orphaned teenage grandson Gabriel who returns from a desert commune (or something) to live with the family. Langrock's butler has been working his way through the wine cellar for years, and the cook is proud of her granola...mmm.Gabriel is a strange young man who likes lurking in shadows, saying or reacting in peculiar ways and generally making people uneasy. Meredith is fascinated by him, but also fears he's behind the brutal death of the guard dog and the other deaths that follow.A fair amount of the movie also has voice-over by Meredith.The Embassy Home Entertainment VHS is not the best print; nighttime scenes or those in the cellar are dark and lack definition. The end credits are fairly unreadable.

lemon_magic To be fair, I have to admit to something up front: just before e I saw "Delusion/The House Where Death Lives", I happened to see the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" for the first time at a midnight movie showing. TCM knocked my socks off, and I was hungry for more rousing, scary movies that I had never heard of. In my naiveté, I assumed that "TCM" was only the tip of the iceberg, and that there many more, dozens more, as good or better, if only I were able to track them down. So when a friend and I saw this was playing at a local movie house (since gone under), we decided to take a chance, even though we'd heard nothing about it and had no idea where it came from. My reasoning was: I'd never heard of "Chainsaw" before I saw it, and it was great. I'd never heard a single thing about "Delusion" either. Therefore, it might be great, or at least interesting. The fact that absolutely no one else bought tickets for our showing should have clued us that there might be a problem, but alas, it did not. 40 minutes into the movie, both of us were sitting slumped in our seats, unable to move, brought almost to the edge of death by the boredom and sluggish pacing and dead-weight performances of this movie. I am not kidding. We both later agreed that the sensation was not unlike being drained of blood while floating in a quagmire of cooked farina. While the movie was playing, no hope or joy or animation was possible. summoning the energy to talk back to the screen or hoot in derision or make wisecracks was inconceivable. The movie went on and on and on, and nothing happened, and nothing happened, and then there was a moment where a guy was stuck in a storeroom and was scared and yelling and it was almost exciting, but then he got killed and the movie went back to being an exercise in excruciating boredom. Because we were young and vital (20-year-olds), we managed to hang on until the credits rolled. And once the movie stopped sitting on our heads and trying to kill us, we were able to summon enough energy to leave the theater and, eventually, to get on with our lives. I know I am not being fair to this movie. I went in hoping for the visceral thrills of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and got something entirely different, and HWDL suffered greatly in comparison to my 20 year old tastes. (Perhaps if it had appeared as "Delusion" instead of the alternate title, my expectations might have been different.) And I certainly wasn't used to dubbed movies or moody Gothic pieces.So if I were to watch it again (say, catching it on cable), I might have far more tolerance for the movie than I did in 1980. But I will always remember the way "The House Where Death Lives" seemed to suck the life right out of my body.

RareSlashersReviewed A young nurse named Meredith accepts a job looking after an ageing millionaire in his secluded country home. Almost as soon as she arrives strange events begin occuring. It then becomes apparent that someone is murdering all the occupants of the house and making their deaths look like bizarre accidents. It's left up to Meredith to try and reveal the killer's identity before she ends up next on his list. Firstly don't be disillusioned by the back of the video blurb that would lead you to believe that DELUSION is 'a chiller in the mould of THE OMEN or REPULSION.' This is pure whodunit? owing more of a knowing nod towards Christie than Carpenter. Although saying that, slasher fans will find the odd thrill here, including one or two decent edge of your seat jolts and a couple of brutal slayings. It looks pretty well budgeted, cleverly shot and the cast do their jobs efficiently. The flicks main problem lies in the fact that it seems to drag far too much in between murders and it began to get a little too tedious towards the end. It's nicely directed and genuinely well acted but lacks the cheese that made most of it's hack and slash counterparts from that era so loveable. Smart in places, but hardly memorable enough to ever be watched more than once. HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW is a much better effort, rent that instead.