The House of Lost Souls – Cauldron Films (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1989
Director: Umberto Lenzi
Writer: Umberto Lenzi
Cast: Joseph Alan Johnson, Stefania Orsola Garello, Matteo Gazzolo, Laurentina Guidotti, Gianluigi Fogacci, Hal Yamanouchi, Licia Colò, Costantino Meloni, Charles Borromel, Dino Jaksic, Marina Reiner, Beni Cardoso, Fortunato Arena, Massimo Sarchielli, Fabio Branchini, Giulio Massimini, Vincenzo Menniti

Release Date: May 13th, 2025
Approximate Running Time: 87 Minutes 27 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Italian, DTS-HD Mono English
Subtitles: English, English SDH
Region Coding: Region A
Retail Price: $34.95

"A group of young geologists get stranded in a dilapidated old hotel when their path home is washed out by the rain. This proves to be a wrong turn as the hotel comes alive with the vengeful spirits of the dead, hell-bent on taking their head chopping revenge upon the living. No one is safe in The House of Lost souls! " - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5

Here’s the information provided about the transfer, "2K restoration."

The House of Lost Souls comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 40.4 GB

Feature: 27.4 GB

The source looks excellent; this film has never looked better on home media. The flesh tones appear healthy, the colors appear correct, the image clarity, black levels, and compression are solid, and the grain remains intact.

Audio: 4.25/5 (DTS-HD Mono Italian), 4/5 (DTS-HD Mono English)

This release comes with two audio options, a DTS-HD mono mix in Italian and a DTS-HD mono mix in English. Both audio tracks sound clean, clear, and balanced. That said, the Italian language tracks sound more robust. Included are English subtitles for the Italian language track and English SDH subtitles for the English language track. It should be noted that subtitles can only be chosen via the audio setup menu, and they cannot be turned off while watching the main feature. Also, you cannot toggle between the two audio options while watching the main feature.

Extras:

Extras for this release include an interview with FX artist Elio Terribili titled Working with Umberto (18 minutes 37 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with composer Claudio Simonetti titled The House of Rock (14 minutes 21 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an archival career spanning interview with director Umberto Lenzi from 2001 titled The Criminal Cinema of Umberto Lenzi (52 minutes 213 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an audio commentary with Samm Deighan, and an audio commentary with Rod Barnett and Adrian Smith.

Extras not carried over from the limited edition release for this standard edition release include a poster, and a rigid outer box.

Summary:

The House of Lost Souls is one of four made-for-television films known as The Houses of Doom. The other three films are The House of Clocks, The Sweet House of Horrors, and The House of Witchcraft.

Lost and needing shelter for the night, a group of friends stay at an abandoned hotel.

With The House of Lost Souls, Umberto Lenzi takes a The Shining-like scenario and makes it his own. Outside of the opening setup and one other moment, the bulk of the narrative takes place inside of the hotel. Its isolated location and decrepit-looking decor greatly enhance the mood. That said, the way in which Umberto Lenzi exploits this location is a textbook example of low-budget filmmaking that maximizes its resources.

This time around, Umberto Lenzi is clearly making a film geared toward a teenage audience. Like some other horror films he made around this time, Nightmare Beach and Hitcher in the Dark, there is a slasher-like vibe going on, albeit with a supernatural twist. Unfortunately, anyone looking for anything new will be disappointed since The House of Lost Souls is a film that relies heavily on well-worn horror cinema tropes.

Where past decades of Italian genre cinema relied on star power, often from foreign countries, to draw a wider audience, by the late 1980s films like The House of Lost Souls had casts who remained unknown. Though some blame can be attributed to dubbing, in either language the cast of The House of Lost Souls are lacking screen presence. Costantino Meloni, who portrays Gianluca, is another in a long line of annoying kids in Italian genre cinema. Massimo Sarchielli (The Conformist), who portrays the cemetery caretaker, a character who looks like one of the Super Mario brothers.

Though The House of Lost Souls is lacking in exposition, it tries to make up for it with its murder set pieces. Fortunately, when it comes to moments of carnage, this is one area where Umberto Lezni always delivers. The kills come by way of decapitation, the most memorable of which is a boy whose head is caught inside a washing machine. One of The House of Lost Souls' most durable assets is Claudio Simonetti’s score, which does a superb job heightening the mood. Ultimately, The House of Lost Souls is a predictable horror film that even this genre's most diehard fans will find a chore to get through.

The House of Lost Souls gets an excellent release from Cauldron Films that comes with a solid audio/video presentation and a wealth of extras.

Written by Michael Den Boer