Open House Movie Review 410

Open House is a 1987 horror movie directed by Jag Mundhra and starring Adrienne Barbeau and Joseph Bottoms.

This movie begins with a real estate agent showing a client around a house. She happens to look in the bathroom and she finds a dead body in the shower. SOLD is written in blood. Another real estate agent is showing a house when she and her client are brutally murdered. Dr. David Kelley is a radio psychologist and a weirdo called Harry calls his show and talks about the murders. He thinks that the victims deserved what they got. David has a girlfriend called Lisa and she has her own real estate business Grant Realty. She has a rival called Barney Resnick who is battling her for the properties all of the time. He has his own company. David tells Lisa about the call in to his show today. 

Meanwhile, the local cops are working on the real estate murderer case. The lead detective is called Shapiro(Robert Miano)and he has no clues at all. His boss thinks that they should get Kelley to help them profile the killer. Resnick threatens Lisa and she is uncomfortable. He hints that he might have vandalised some of the houses that her company were showing to clients, but she has no proof. The killer strikes again. The cops want to tap the phone line at the radio station so Kelley has no choice but to help them. They wait for Harry to call, but he doesn't. David is spooked when he thinks that someone is watching him. Lisa tells him that she thought that someone was watching her too.
Is it the killer? Things come to a head between Resnick and Lisa and he threatens to get revenge on her. She is worried that he might be the killer.

Resnick arrives at a house that he is interesting in selling for the client. She happens to be a dominatrix and she invites him in. Unfortunately, the killer is there and he disposes of Barney and the woman.  This proves to David and Lisa that Resnick was not the killer after all. At the radio station, David, Lisa and the cops wait for Harry to call.The killer is at the radio station. He calls David from inside the building. He kidnaps Lisa and calls David to tell him that he has forty five minutes to find her. David looks around and he finds the killer with Lisa. The killer is a homeless guy who is angry at the realtors who tried to sell the house that he was living in. He wants the media to show up so he can tell his side of the story. He is going to kill Lisa when Shapiro shows up and shoots him. He falls down, but he isn't dead. Shapiro ends up knocking him off a balcony and he dies.

This movie wasn't great. It had an interesting premise. I mean, how many films have you seen about a psycho killing realtors? But, it was a bit dull in parts and the killer was not threatening at all in the ending. I expected someone much darker. There were some good parts in it and the killings were pretty bloody, but all in all, this was not scary and there were not many creepy moments either. It is a mediocre 80's slasher which is worth a look if you enjoy slashers, but don't expect too much. I will give it a 3/10.