tzaeru I feel that there is a general atmosphere of misunderstandance(sic) surrounding this beautiful film. And indeed - is it so tempting to merely write it off as a yet another substandard, mindless gore-fest, but we'd be turning a blind eye to the inner core of what forms and holds this movie at line and above the rest. What this piece of art truly is, is a complex and nuanced critique of whole modern Hollywood storytelling.Allow me to elaborate: While on one hand we've this fairly standard -- although well made -- merry-splatter-go-a-round, brilliance can be found from every crack and seam of the non-consistent takes; Brilliance oozes from every plot inconsistency and unexplained twist and poorly chosen phrasing for dialogue, for it allows the viewer to really focus on what is important. That importance is in characters and character interaction.Instead of being treated the fairly standard "actor did an emotion, lets now explain why that emotion is important and what led to it!" and "this character is like this, now lets explain why he did something that does not 100% fit the off-movie stereotype!", we're given a rather witty collection of complex, inter-character dynamics. We see a character give a promise; It gets us to wonder, given the personality of this character, if his off-beat honor will disallow him from breaking it, or if his more.. evil.. side gets the best of him. Whichever way the answer is, I can guarantee that it showcases not only the brutality of the real world, but the ultimate emptiness and meaninglessness of human action. At the same time, the movie shows how human personalities and human ideals indeed have more sides to them than what is made apparent by modern easy-to-swallow -- and very shallow -- storytelling.We see stereotypes that go all the way into caricatures, but at the same time there are surprises and depth molded into their stories. The stereotype is there merely to create the contrast. There are touches of true human life that we can all relate to. This movie is not self-explanatory. It does not make comprehension easy on you. But at the same time, it and its characters feel natural and true. Not artificial and plastic. For that -- and its experimentation and braveness -- I give it 9/10.Still not recommended if you diss gore/splatter/horror and/or love Hollywood/lack a sense of humor.

dschmeding Phew... after the incredibly bad "Dard Divorce" I am honestly positively surprised by "House of Blood" (which was releases previous to "Dard Divorce"). Again the visuals are pretty good, there is nice cinematography all over, great camera moves... Mr. ittenbach even managed to include elements to the plot that was not just working for the gore elements, some at least...Basically you get a straight horror movie about a bus of criminals on their way from one prison to the next that crashes in a car accident. After killing off pretty much everyone the psychos head for the Canadian border and end up in a house full of strange religious people like from 100 years ago. Since one of them is wounded the criminals have a doctor they kidnapped fix their pal up... well, until the inhabitants of the house turn out to be some kind of cannibal-zombie-werewolf-vampires and things get messy. Although my version of the movie is 100 Minutes and clearly says uncut I doubt Mr. ittenbach would cut away from heads being bashed in, so I'd say mine was cut and the full version delivers more gore entertainment like every Ittenbach movie does.Yet like every Ittenbach movie also this one suffers from some wooden acting. Yes, they got some decent actors like Christopher Kriesa and even Jürgen Prochnow but the fight sequences often seem clumsy and worst of all again Martina Ittenbach plays a major role and we all know she is an abysmal actor. Here she has to deliver lines in an accent that sounds like a mix of pilgrim and Romanian and is laughable (most actors don't even deliver the TH of thou, hath etc. right). Some of her looks in scenes of emotion (like the unbelievable romantic finale) are kind of funny... but I don't want to see that in a movie with the production values of "House of blood" but rather in a school play.There is some mysterious twists that lead to the doctor witnessing the events twice in a kind of time-loop which could have worked along with the straight "house full of bloodfreaks"-plot but just watch the ending and you'll understand why it doesn't. "House of Blood" is by far superior to the incredibly dumb "Dard Divorce" but it angers me again that Ittenbach trashes so much potential with a mix of good and abysmal actors and his obvious lack of talent for story writing. Please stick to FX and directing and let talented writers do that job... it hurts to see all that work and potential go down the drain every time I see your movies.

Coventry Olaf Ittenbach is a fairly gifted special effects wizard; there are quite a few movies to confirm this statement. But at the same time he's an absolutely terrible director and, unfortunately, there are several movies to confirm that statement as well. Somebody really ought to tell him - tactfully - that he isn't cut out to sit in the director's chair and that he should exclusively focus the rest of his career on make-up effects. The gory bits and nauseating effects form the only highlights in "House of Blood", as the rest of the film is one major pitiable effort, complete with poor plotting, total lacking of coherence & suspense and probably the worst acting performances you've ever seen in your life. The basic premise is already rather stupid, and then still the script has the pretension to appear intelligently structured and even poetic! The official title (although "House of Blood" is a much more suitable one) refers to the unlikely chain of reactions caused by a small event. A dead bird falls from a tree and causes a rock to roll down a hill and into the windshield of a car. This subsequently results in a collision with a prison bus and all hell breaks loose. Four heavyweight criminals escape, take a doctor hostage and end up in a farmhouse where time seemingly stood still. The people there, wearing medieval outfits and talking with a strange accent, turn out to be bloodthirsty demons and repulsively kill the unwelcome visitors. The doctor escapes, but naturally the investigating police detective (Jürgen Prochnow, of all people, he must have been desperate for work) doesn't believe his story and arrests him. Next thing he knows, the doctor is sitting in a prison transport bus and the whole nightmare starts over. What, is this supposed to be some kind of surrealistic fairy-tale or something? All the characters, whether good or evil, are insufferable and you'll secretly wish they will all die an excruciatingly painful death. Who knows, maybe your wish is granted. My best advice is to try and totally neglect the ridiculous plot and just fully enjoy the grotesque gore! We're treated – in great detail – to faces getting smashed to pus with rocks or shot to slush with shotguns, wild axe-decapitations, ripped off testicles, torn open throats and much more. Utter garbage, but exhilarating & inspiring grossness… At least it's something.

EVOL666 HOUSE OF BLOOD appears to be a slightly higher budget and more "mainstream" film from director Olaf (PREMUTOS, BURNING MOON, GARDEN OF LOVE, etc...) Ittenbach. Again, we have a relatively entertaining, but poorly acted, poorly scripted, poorly executed splatter film.A group of convicts escape from their prison transport bus when a freak accident causes the bus to crash. The cons kill the cops on the bus and kidnap a doctor who was also involved in the crash. The group wanders into the woods and finds a cabin inhabited by a family of weirdos who turn out to be some sort or vampires. The vampires kill all of the cons but the doctor escapes. The doctor ends up heading to jail because the cops don't believe his story. During the doctor's transport, the same sort of accident happens, starting the whole ball rolling again...Honestly, the concept was OK the first go-round, but got real dull the second time. HOUSE OF BLOOD isn't the worst thing I've seen, and it does have a few splattery moments - but sitting through the pathetic acting and retarded storyline is pretty tedious. Worth a look if you're a big Ittenbach fan, or if you dig cheezy low-budget horror - otherwise, pass on this one...5/10