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The Halfway House

(2004)

A Nunsploitation.Net review

For about a year now, I've been planted at the receiving end of The Halfway House hype machine. I've found myself clinging to every tidbit of news as I followed the film from production to post production to pre-distribution.

So, by the time I finally got to see the movie, my expectations were dangerously high. In my experience, high expectations means you have a lot farther to fall when the movie fails to live up to your preconceptions.

Well, The Halfway House proved to be the exception. As high as my hopes were, it managed to surprise and delight me. I found it to be thoroughly entertaining and endless fun.

Director Kenneth J. Hall (Puppetmaster) has brought us an unprecedented blend of nunsploitation, Lovecraftian horror and old fashioned T & A.

Heading his cast is horror veteran Mary Woronov (Death Race 2000, Rock 'N Roll High School) as the eerie Sister Cecilia.

The story seems straightforward enough. Larissa Morgan (Janet Tracy Keijser) is looking for her sister Annie (Ashley Rhea) who has been missing for days. An unsympathetic police inspector (Michael Gaglio), frustrates and infuriates her so she resolves to do her own investigation.

Larissa teams up with an earnest, albeit naive, police sergeant, Dick Sheen (Shawn Savage) and goes undercover to infiltrate the Mary Magdalene Halfway House for Troubled Girls, the site of several disappearances.

Larissa's investigation yields nothing but more questions. Girls continue to disappear, Father Fogerty (Joseph Tatner) has an unhealthy spanking fetish, and what exactly is Sister Cecilia hiding in the basement?

I was pleasantly surprised at how strong this production was. Most of the cast is relatively inexperienced. Many have only a few films under their belt and there are others for whom this is a screen debut. In spite of this, the performances were strong and convincing. I actually had no trouble believing that Sgt. Dick Sheen didn't get any of the jokes about his name.

Perhaps one of the most delightful gems in this film is the performance of Athena Demos who plays the halfway house's "number one bitch," Angelina. The foul-mouthed, streetwise Angelina is one of the most down-to-earth characters of the film. Her motives are selfish and primal. It is easy to recognize the basic prejudice behind her dislike for lesbians Eddie (Monica Shere) and Cherry Pie (Stephanie Leighs) and her need for respect when she ditches her two sidekicks for a night on the town.

Of course the best scene is when she is strapped to the sacrificial slab in the halfway house basement. Athena's body is rock solid. The sight of her muscular form writhing to free herself from her bounds is worth the price of admission.

Fortunately, the movie has a lot more than just that to offer.

Mary Woronov effortlessly transforms herself into the unearthly Sister Cecilia. She is perhaps one of the most haunting nuns to grace the screen, rivaling Anita Ekberg's performance in The Killer Nun.

I was also pleased with the strength of Janet Tracy Keijser's role as Larissa. Too often, women are portrayed as air-headed, helpless damsels in distress. Although The Halfway House is sexually exploitative, its women are strong and independent. Larissa works together with Sgt. Sheen, but she doesn't depend on him to save the day. She thinks independently and she puts herself in a great deal of personal risk to further her investigation.

The movie does have its low points. There were some pacing problems. The film seemed to suffer from too much exposition. I found myself distracted by the time Eddie and Cherry make their escape attempt.

I was also disappointed in the lack of grief from Larissa when she starts to uncover the mystery. She never really breaks down emotionally when she begins to realize her sister is probably dead. There is one brief moment, when she has her final confrontation with the monster, that we do see some emotion in which she draws strength from her loss, but the moment is all too brief.

Then there's the blood... or lack of it. For a horror movie, the film is uncharacteristically sterile at times. There are decapitations and dismemberments but the victims miraculously become instantly cauterized. The lack of blood spurting from the arteries was unacceptably unnatural.

We do get to see some blood splatter in one of the movie's better FX shots. One of the victims gets devoured and as she is split in half, blood splatters across her chest. Not to be nit picky, but as satisfying as this was, it could have been better. Watching the film, I imagined that it shouldn't be too hard to actually show the victim split in two (her lower body hidden under a table) with her entrails being pulled into the maw of the monster. Then again, I'm not a film maker with a budget to answer for.

The creature was surprisingly lifelike and its tentacles were superb. I was pleasantly surprised at how mobile it was. Its tentacles showed true-to-life movement as they entangled their prey, wrapping around the neck and torso. If you've ever seen any of the live-action Japanese tentacle-sex movies like Angel of Darkness or La Blue Girl, then you've seen what disappointing, fake tentacles can look like. The Halfway House puts these films to shame.

Overall, The Halfway House is an entertaining blend of classic horror elements. It takes the best ingredients from horror staples and melds them seamlessly. An ominous nun, beautiful women, and a Lovecraftian horror merge in a way that will thrill and delight fans of all three.

Go to Halfway House database entry