B movies experienced a sea change in the 60s in response to competition from racier foreign films, and T'n'A became a staple feature of the genre. The tide turned again in the Bush, Sr. era as politically correct movie makers like Wes Craven cleaned house, ditching gratuitous nudity and sleaze to appeal to the more conservative leaning Gen X American teens.

THE HALFWAY HOUSE, made in 2004, is a welcome leap back in time, a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the bad ole days, when horror films were a spit in the eye of the self-proclaimed Moral Majority.

Cult mistress Mary Woronov toplines a thoroughly charming and capable cast, who play a motley assortment of delinquents, psychopaths, and cops. A stableful of budding scream queens light up the screen, eating up the pulp dialog and brightening many an adolescent boy's silver dreams by generously flaunting their bodies.

With its gleefully perverse jabs at Catholicism, including one prop gag that will have Legion of Decency crusaders reaching for their heart pills, this film is not for Bible Belt soccer moms or unreformed altar boys, but fans of 80s B classics like "REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS" or "NIGHT OF THE DEMONS" will be rolling in the aisles.

Low budget, set mainly in one location with judicious breaks throughout, the film delivers some cool sets and nicely done Lovecraftian EFX. A far cry from the typical no-budget shot-on-video fodder being cranked out by countless wannabe horror directors that choke the videostore shelves.

The story is solid enough, and the dialog is often hilarious. Mercifully, writer-director Hall whips up irony and sarcasm rather than the painful one-liner puns usually relied upon for comic relief.

This is exactly the type of film "serious" moviegoers will disdain without watching. But frame for frame, it delivers more entertainment value than most Hollywood movies made for thirty times the budget.

People of IMDb, last night was a very disappointing Halloweenevening. I've red about The Halfway House here at IMDb and I trusted most of the comment.A big mistake !!! What a crap this movie is, I'm a collector of horror movies and I have about 1800 tapes and about 400 DVD's. All horror and thriller. I've seen a lot of bad movies but this one is total crap. I can't understand why some of you like this movie. If you are a lesbian then you might like this movie. The girls are pretty,the lesbian scenes are pretty, the special effects are bad, the acting is bad, the whole movie is bad. It's not been released (yet) in Belgium, so I had to order it in America. People don't waste your money on this, there are lots of good horror movies you can buy. You don't have to buy the worst of the worst.

greets

When I sat down in 2022 to watch the 2004 horror comedy "The Halfway House" for the first time, I have to admit that I had never even heard about this movie from writer and director Kenneth J. Hall.

Now, the movie's cover does have that low budget feel to it, but still, the synopsis actually sounded interesting enough. And with "The Halfway House" being a horror comedy that I hadn't already seen, of course I found the time to watch it.

Well, "The Halfway House" is a very, very mixed bag of nuts. The movie was all over the place, and I wouldn't exactly label it as being comedy, because there were no laughs here.

The storyline combines elements from all over the place, and it feels like it was a script and storyline that was written by and for late teenagers. Why? Well, there was an absurd amount of unnecessary nudity in the movie, for starters. Then there were the more than lewd and pseudo-explicit sex scenes, which just fully and wholeheartedly sleazed down the movie to a low level. And of course, it was girl on girl action, what else would it be from a late teenager? And then out of nowhere you have a creature that looked like a death tyrant from the Dungeons & Dragons game. But as it that wasn't enough, then writer and director Kenneth J. Hall stirs in references to Arkham, Massachusetts, the Necronomicon, Charles Dexter and the Miskatonic University.

"The Halfway House" is a cheesy and campy movie. Was it worth the watch? No, not really. Well, it would have been, had writer and director Kenneth J. Hall opted to not include the pointless nudity and the lewd sex scenes. Without that, then "The Halfway House" would have been a much more enjoyable and respectable movie.

Of all the actors and actresses that were playing a part in "The Halfway House", I was only familiar with Mary Woronov (playing Sister Cecilia).

I will say, though, that the special effects in the movie and the creature design were actually rather good, surprisingly enough, taking into consideration the premise of the movie.

Sure, if you are a late teenager and if you are into role-playing games and the Lovecraft Mythos, then you might find something enjoyable here. But if you are a part of a more mature audience that wants to watch a properly entertaining and wholesome movie, then "The Halfway House" is not the best of choices.

My rating of "The Halfway House" lands on a very generous three out of ten stars.