Don’t Go in the House | 1979 | USA | Joseph Ellison

Another of the ‘Don’t’ titles which were focused on for some reason, Joseph Ellison’s bleak serial killer film is rather raw on the nerve and quite stark in its dark tone. Donny is a young man living with his abusive mother, who frequently burned him for supposed evil behaviour. When she passes away, Donny is left to do whatever he wants and he takes out his maternal frustrations by luring other women into the house and burning them to death with a flamethrower. Influenced by the likes of Psycho, Ellison’s film was exhibited at UK cinemas with the most shocking sequence of immolation removed but the uncut print was used for the Arcade VHS release, so it was seized upon by the police.