Review: THE CURSE OF HOBBES HOUSE (2020)

 THE CURSE OF HOBBES HOUSE (2020) UK 1hr 23mins

Dir: Juliane Block

The curse placed on Hobbes House goes back generations but we are brought into the story in the present day when Alexandria Dormant, a descendant of King Dormant who was the cause of the curse, commits suicide due to high debts surrounding Hobbes House. We meet Jane (Mhairi Calvey) and Jennifer Dormant (Makenna Guyler) her estranged nieces who have been called to Hobbes House by Alex's lawyer Saul (Jo Price) along with the houses grounds keeper Naser (Waleed Elgadi) and Jennifers banker boyfriend Nigel (Kevin Leslie) to find out what has been left to them in Alex's will. Before they discover this though the house's curse turns on them, leaving them to fend off hordes of the undead as the house tries to protect itself. 

This British made indie number starts off with a narrative going over the title sequence explaining the beginnings and origin of the curse done very nicely using some great animation then goes to make the main feature a story set in the present day. It's pretty well acted from all the cast even though for me Mhairi Calvey really reminds me of Davina McCall and I kept expecting her to tell everyone that "we're live on channel 4, please do not swear!" but that's probably just my own weirdness creeping in! The zombies in this were really good. They have bright blue glowing eyes which I thought was a different touch and they have some great shots of them crawling out of the ground with some eerie sound effects. Their make up is really good for a low budget and they use a mixture of practical and CGI effects. The practical effects are much more effective with the CGI being used mostly just for the blood trails etc. The zombies start off as shamblers but will run when they see you. As this is a curse rather than an infection they can turn you just by touching your skin but there is still a good bit of dismembering going on. The story is a little slow to start with and does end up being a bit disjointed but it is bearable. It is well shot and has an effective soundtrack even if it is a little "middle of the road" , it features singer/songwriter Georgie Fisher who director Juliane Block as used on a few of her other movies. 

On the whole I would say that  THE CURSE OF HOBBES HOUSE is worth a watch. It's certainly more worthy of breaking off a few fingers than pulling teeth for sure but there is one thing that really bugs me about this movie. The cover art work on the DVD is fab but some of the taglines/quotes are very misleading. One states that it has "unique undead action" which for me is pushing it a bit but I would agree that the glowing blue eyes are quite unique. However, the top tagline states that it is "Pride & Prejudice & Zombies meets 28 Days Later" which is utter bullshit as there are no period costumes in sight, no Mr. Darcy lurking in a bush and no other hint or tribute to either of these movies being any kind of influence. Marketing companies will say anything to get their movie noticed I realise this but in this case they are clutching at straws as people expecting that kind of cross over will be seriously disappointed.