While Dead Dudes in the House might sound utterly ridiculous and like a complete waste of time, the movie turns out to be one of Troma’s better efforts, probably because it was a joint co-production with AIP. Of some sort. It was also originally called The House on Tombstone Hill until Troma got the full rights to the film later on, thus the Dead Dudes. Whatever name you call it by, and while yes, it is still slightly ridiculous, it is a fun, briskly paced kill-fest and one cannot help but love it.

There is very little to the story, yet that does not stop the makers of this film from starting in the past, with an old lady wandering back and forth over a dead body while another woman sits in a chair watching it all. Cut to the present, where a group of friends show up, looking to renovate the place. They manage to get in, but not before idiot Bob smashes a gravestone, condemning them all to a permanent fate. Once inside, things do not go as they’d hoped, and when they try to go outside, they discover the doors will not budge, and neither will the windows. They try to smash their way out, and that is a no-go as well. It is not long before they meet old lady Abigail, unbeknownst to them, the former/current owner, who begins to kill them off one by one.

Troma, known for its campy output, does it again with this film. It is corny and silly, cheesy and crazy, and all of it great. Some performances are not quite what they could be, but put that aside, the rest is gold. Abigail is a fantastic villain. She may be old, but she still has what it takes to take care of the strangers in her house, and she is more than agile, as viewers will observe. The film rarely explains her motivations, though they have to do with the dead man at the beginning. All one really has to know is that Bob screwed it up for everyone with his desecration, and now Abigail is going to make them all pay for it. As for the rest of the characters, we know little about them beyond their unique traits, since there is no time for characterization. As a result, we get little empathy when any of them die, and for the most part, the audience looks forward to it, wondering how Abigail will do it.

In a film like this, the cast really does not matter in the slightest, as they are all just fodder to feed the machine; it is what happens and how it happens, and here, writer and director James Riffel gives it his all, making this a supernatural slasher to remember. Not only does Abigail make an excellent villain, but everyone she kills comes back as a sort of zombie, and they too end up killing for her, cutting down the group in the house faster than she could alone. The kills are pretty brutal, and Riffel holds nothing back. A few of the murders are tame, with Abigail just using a knife, but others, such as the guy who fell off the side of the house after getting his hands cut off or Bob, who got crushed and nearly cut in half by a window, are outstanding bits of horror. Topping it all off is the claustrophobia Riffel elicits: the cast is stuck in the house and unable to get out, with the house itself working against them. It adds another layer of terror to this affair and, silly or not, definitely heightens the horror.

All in all, Dead Dudes in the House is worth seeking out. The title might throw some people off, but do not let that keep you or anyone else from watching it. Offbeat, ludicrous and a lot of fun, Troma nails this one perfectly.

3.5 out of 5