This is one of the most tonally insane movies I've ever seen lol. A heightened children's fairy tale rendition of capitalism, gentrification, and class/racial tensions in LA but also just a plain nasty little gothic horror with all of Craven's interests in American horrors painted over by middle-class & suburbs literally punching their way to the surface. It's an obvious message picture but with a real campy attitude about its satirical elements (Ed and Nadine from Twin Peaks playing their incestuous, hoarding landlord cannibals like they're side characters in a Tobe Hooper movie) and a real eye for the horror. Craven crafts suspense like few others, the eerie wide shots, the odd stilted angles, the directional mood lighting, and of course the house itself which his camera vividly explores every nook and cranny of; the cobwebs, crumbling brick, dusty surfaces, splintered wood, the eventual grotesquely detailed crawlspaces, trap doors and secret passageways used as a cleverly improvised means of barely surviving the physically inflicted class horror. All contributing to this gothic dungeon labyrinth that was created to contain, abuse, and feed off the underclass (which Craven doesn't shy away from depicting with gore either) until it, of course, rises up in vicious, cathartic community violence.full discussion on episode 126 of my podcast SLEAZOIDS.
