Paul Evans Emma and Peter move into a new home with their young daughter Sophie. What they aren't aware of is that the house holds a grizzly secret, the house was a scene of murder, a grizzly murder where a man killed his wife in a cruel fashion. Strange things start happening in the house, Sophie's beloved cat Timmy is found dead, props from the past start reappearing, but the main event is young Sophie's birthday party, when blood starts flowing out of the pipes, down the walls, covering everyone.They'd never get away with making this now, but made it was, and forth years later it still contains plenty of scares. Hammer had some what of a renaissance in the Seventies, producing some cracking films, as well as this series, which admittedly was hit and miss. This isn't my favourite episode, but I certainly think it's the most memorable.The parents are abominable, and get their just deserts. There are some good scares, the most terrifying thing you'll see though are the furnishings, what on Earth were they thinking?Watchable 7/10

Theo Robertson From memory this was the stand out episode from HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR . If there's any flaws to it then it's a very conscious reworking of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR and suffers from obvious and obvious exposition where characters relate things to one another that they'd already know as in " We've been here in California for three years now and ... " but from what I've seen via my recent rewatching of the show this looks like remaining the best of a relatively invariable mediocre set of stand alone horror stories You can perhaps work out what the twist is going to be at the end and to its credit the internal logic of the story states that there's no such thing as the supernatural which is a blatant and undisguised attack on the credibility of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR writer Jay Anson and the Lutz family . There is an element of contrivance in that someone must do something such as faint in order for the plot to progress and someone has to be in the right place at the right time but the credibility just about works , probably down to the fact William Peters works as a hospital porter which gives you a large clue as to how someone can have access to blood and severed hands One amusing back stage story was from Brian Croucher who mentioned that the cast kept corpsing every time they saw the stuffed prop for Timmy the cat , something that's not reflected on screen since the death of Timmy is fairly shocking . It is very noticeable that just before the climatic scene at the children's birthday party the young cast are enjoying the fact that they know what's going to happen next and are enjoying themselves a little bit too much , this sums up the episode which is very enjoyable

dolly_the_ye-ye_bird This episode scared me to death as a kid. I had nightmares for weeks!! In fact, it's the episode that I always remembered having nightmares about, which led me to research the whole series and watch it. Not to mention, it made me a mad fan of Hammer in general. As I got older, I couldn't remember if it was a movie or TV show and it was years before I finally tracked it down online. And it was just as good as I remembered!! The birthday party scene is truly terrifying. There is enough blood and gore to keep the slasher fan placated. But not so much that those of us who prefer atmosphere cannot enjoy every minute. In all, it's very creepy and has a well thought out plot. This is the best episode of one of the best horror series ever! Too bad it only lasted a season!

Paul Andrews Hammer House of Horror: The House That Bled to Death starts as young married couple William (Nicholas Ball) & Emma Peters (Rachel Davis) & their young daughter Sophie (Emma Ridley) move into a house where a brutal murder took place several years prior. At first they feel it's their dream home but soon the dream turn into a living nightmare as horrendous events begin to happen, the cat dies, blood is seen leaking from holes in the wall, Sophie finds severed hands in the fridge & two rusty old machetes keep turning up. Is the house haunted? If so is it trying to kill the Peters & what can be done about it...The House That Bled to Death was episode 5 from the one & only season of this short lived British horror anthology series made for TV by Hammer studios, originally airing here in the UK during October 1980 & directed by Francis Megahy one has to say that The House That Bled to Death was excellent for it's first forty five minutes but then everything is ruined in the last five with a truly awful twist ending which doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The script by David Lloyd starts off really well as a great fast paced & genuinely spooky haunted house horror with plenty of incident but then that twist ending ruins everything. It makes no sense to me, what was the purpose of William's actions again? To write a book? To make a film? For the publicity? It's never explained to any satisfactory degree & where did Sophie get that machete from? Who was that estate agent guy & what did he have to do with it all? What was that book Sophie was reading? It wasn't a factual account of what happened because William admits to staging all the supernatural events, why? No matter how much I think about it I just can't square the circle, it just doesn't make any sense & if you work out one aspect of it then something else doesn't make sense which buggers your theory up. Nothing makes any logical sense & it's incredibly disappointing & frustrating after such an excellent first three quarters of an hour. The House That Bled to Death could have been the finest episode of Hammer House of Horror, as it is it's one of the worst.Director Megahy does a good job here, the early 80's contemporary British setting is nice & makes the events fairly real, there are some great sequences as the horrible events inside the house continue to escalate including the infamous scene where the guests at Sophie's birthday party are showered in blood & there's a graphic shot of a dead cat with it's throat cut as well if & if your an animal lover you should probably look away during that moment. There's a really oppressive & gloomy atmosphere, it's actually pretty creepy & unsettling at times like the pre-credits sequence at the start when the old man kills his wife & then reach for one of the huge machetes on the wall & then we fade into the opening credits. Shot on 35mm film rather than videotape as was the norm for most British TV this looks very theatrical & you could imagine it on the big screen. The acting is good except during the twist ending when the whole programme sadly falls to pieces really.The House That Bled to Death could have been one of the greatest Hammer House of Horror episodes if not for a disastrous & incomprehensible twist ending that ruins everything that has gone before.