review for Boarding House on AllMovie

Boarding House (1983)
by Donald Guarisco review

Some movies are so bad they're good, some movies are so bad they hurt and some movies are so bad they represent a mind-altering experience. Boarding House is one of those films that occupy that rare third category. This shot-on-video production is a truly scatterbrained affair: sometimes it goes for shock horror, sometimes it goes for goofball laughs and other times it seems to be a vanity project for director/star John Wintergate and his wife Kalassu (she also provides several rock songs for the soundtrack and performs during the party-scene finale). Boarding House changes moods and styles so many times (without ever getting any of them right) that it might leave the viewer feeling they have been drugged. As a result, Boarding House isn't scary in the least but it gets under the viewer's skin in a way a more coherent effort ever could. That doesn't mean Boarding House is any good -- it definitely is not -- but it is a truly brain-frying experience that is likely to fascinate those with a yen for low-budget dementia.