One of the things I love most about Scream Factory is all the double features they release. This allows them the opportunity to release more obscure, or at the very least, less popular films on Blu-ray. It’s quite possible this is just my perception. All I know is that when they announce a double feature release its usually two movies I’ve never heard of. And I always love that because nothing is better than discovering a new movie for the first time. Scream Factory’s recent release of The House Where Evil Dwells and Ghost Warrior allowed me the chance to make two discoveries at once.

The House Where Evil Dwells

Ted Fletcher (Edward Albert) moves to Japan with his wife Laura (Susan George) and their young daughter, Amy. Alex (Doug McClure), a good friend of the family who appears to be some sort of American ambassador living in Japan, gets the family an excellent deal on a Japanese home that is over 200 years old. The home has everything the Fletcher’s want, but rumor has it that the house is haunted, which explains why it’s been abandoned for so long. Still, Ted is convinced the house is right for them and the family moves in.

It takes a few days for the family to adjust, as one would imagine, but eventually they get settled and everything looks like it’s going to work out just fine. But of course, the house is haunted and eventually a haunted house is going to cause problems.

Roughly 150 years before the Fletcher family moved in, a samurai used to live in the house with his wife. One evening when the samurai came home he caught his wife in bed with another man. Naturally, he was very upset about this and in a fit of violence killed both his wife and her secret lover. Shamed by all that happened, the samurai took his own life. These three ghosts are now haunting the house and in a way they take over the bodies of Ted, Laura and Alex. The ghosts then treat the three like puppets in an attempt to re-enact their fateful night.

This early 80’s film is sort of silly but it’s oh so much fun. Director Kevin Connor (Motel Hell) treats the material very seriously, so even despite the overall silliness the movie never becomes a campy parody. It plays as a pretty straight forward ghost story with samurai elements blended in. It never gets really scary, but it’s creepy at times for sure, particularly in a scene featuring giant crabs. The highlights though are the samurai fight scenes, of which there are two, and they get pretty bloody.

Susan George freak outs may be a bit underrated in the history of cinema freak outs. She has some good ones here. I almost recommend the movie just for them. If George losing her shit isn’t enough to sell you, then how about a sword fight between Trampas from The Virginian and the son of Oliver Wendell Douglas from Green Acres? I know, you’re all in.

Rating: 3.5/5

Ghost Warrior

1984’s Ghost Warrior, the only film directed by J. Larry Carroll, is even sillier than The House Where Evil Dwells and a lot less fun. Yoshimitsu (Hiroshi Fujioka) is a samurai who just before being killed jumps off a cliff and into a lake of water. The lake freezes over and 400 years later a couple of hikers stumble upon Yoshimitsu’s frozen body. They take his body back to Los Angeles with plans to unfreeze him and run some tests.

When Yoshimitsu awakens he obviously freaks out a bit. A lot has changed in the last 400 years. The world is completely different. But as much as things have changed, they’ve stayed the same because Yoshimitsu still finds himself trying to fight for his life. Helping aid Yoshimistcu in this fight is Chris Welles (Janet Julian), a doctor that works for the men who found his body.

This early Charles Band production has some cool ideas and moments, but ultimately is kind of boring. It really lacks a strong villain. You know the dudes that found Yoshimitsu are bad, but you never really know what their plan is. Or maybe I missed it because I was so bored? I don’t know, I just never managed to get invested in this one.

What I did notice about Ghost Warrior is that the production values are pretty solid. And this is how a lot of Charles Band movies used to be. Yes, they were B-movies. Yes, most were less than great. But most had a lot of heart and a lot of fun and looked pretty good. Band movies don’t really look like this these days so in that respect this was a pleasant callback to what Band productions used to look like. Outside of that though, the movie was just ok. Not terrible, just not great.

Rating: 2.5/5

Overall, I think this is a good release. You get two movies for the price of one and because of that it’s ok if one doesn’t work as much as the other. I kind of see it this way – I’m getting The House Where Evil Dwells, and it’s a fun movie, and Ghost Warrior is just a tossed in bonus. Both films look great, but sadly there are no bonus features. I recommend picking this one up still, even if just for The House Where Evil Dwells.

Overall Rating: 3/5