# Identify this Haunted House Movie (~1980) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 10, 2019, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769 "2019-05-10T10:19:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/1 "2019-05-10T10:19:28Z")
I have this memory of a haunted house movie from the late 70s/early 80s where the man of the house gets obsessed with an area of the basement and he starts busting through the wall with a sledgehammer or something like that. That part of the memory may be corrupted, but the distinct thing I remember is that one night this ghost drummer boy in military uniform (maybe Revolutionary or Civil War era) comes through the wall wandering through the house while the family is asleep. For decades I thought this was one of the Amityville movies, but I recently rewatched the first two and it wasn’t there (I’ve seen the third but not recently, so maybe that’s the one). While I’m at it, here’s another one (I don’t know if it’s horror): I have a memory of like a game show where contestants are placed in an iron maiden held open by a rope that’s being burned by a candle. The contestant is tied up or something and must escape before the the rope burns through, allowing the iron maiden to shut on them and kill them. My memory presents it as a real contest, though I know that can’t be true, I’m guessing it was part of some movie. Pretty sure I saw this as a kid in the 70s. I have a very vague memory of seeing some Houdini movie (made for TV?) around this time and I wonder if that could be it; a scene like that would certainly be consistent with a Houdini movie, but it’s only a dim memory. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help identifying either movie! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/2 "2019-05-10T13:31:58Z")
> [@Cabbage](#): > > I have this memory of a haunted house movie from the late 70s/early 80s where the man of the house gets obsessed with an area of the basement and he starts busting through the wall with a sledgehammer or something like that. That part of the memory may be corrupted, but the distinct thing I remember is that one night this ghost drummer boy in military uniform (maybe Revolutionary or Civil War era) comes through the wall wandering through the house while the family is asleep. > > For decades I thought this was one of the Amityville movies, but I recently rewatched the first two and it wasn’t there (I’ve seen the third but not recently, so maybe that’s the one). > > While I’m at it, here’s another one (I don’t know if it’s horror): I have a memory of like a game show where contestants are placed in an iron maiden held open by a rope that’s being burned by a candle. The contestant is tied up or something and must escape before the the rope burns through, allowing the iron maiden to shut on them and kill them. My memory presents it as a real contest, though I know that can’t be true, I’m guessing it was part of some movie. Pretty sure I saw this as a kid in the 70s. I have a very vague memory of seeing some Houdini movie (made for TV?) around this time and I wonder if that could be it; a scene like that would certainly be consistent with a Houdini movie, but it’s only a dim memory. > > Thanks in advance to anyone who can help identifying either movie! Neither movie rings a bell with me. Based on the description alone, is THIS your second film? > **[Horror Castle (1963) ⭐ 5.8 | Horror](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057646/)** > > 1h 24m | Unrated ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/3 "2019-05-10T13:34:45Z")
I can’t find a movie with a Civil war Drummer Boy ghost, but this might be of interest: [http://www.hauntedamericatours.com/100mostghostlytplace.htm](http://www.hauntedamericatours.com/100mostghostlytplace.htm) > [@](#): > > 1. Berkeley Plantation > Berkeley Plantation Viginia, Charles City founded in 1619 by 38 settlers from Berkeley Castle in England. The manor house was built by Benjamin Harrison in 1726. Both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were guests at the plantation. During the Civil War, General McCellan’s Federal troops occupied Berkeley after retreating from Richmond. After the war, the plantation was bought by John Jamieson, a Scotsman who served as a drummer boy for McCellan. In 1927, the estate was inherited by his son, Malcolm, and has been in the Jamieson family ever since. Visitors to the restored mansion have reported seeing and hearing the ghost of a little drummer boy. The apparition of a tall, gaunt man has been seen walking along the riverbank, sometimes walking side-by-side with the little drummer boy along the old picket fence that runs up the hill to the cemetery. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/4 "2019-05-10T14:30:40Z")
The first one had me thinking it was _Stir of Echoes_ until I read the part about the drummer boy. > **[Stir of Echoes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stir_of_Echoes)** > > Stir of Echoes is a 1999 American supernatural horror film written and directed by David Koepp and based on the 1958 novel of the same name by Richard Matheson. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Erbe, Illeana Douglas and Kevin Dunn. > In the film, telephone worker Tom Witzky (Bacon) begins experiencing a series of frightening visions after being hypnotized by his sister-in law, Lisa (Douglas). > Stir of Echoes was released in the United States on September 10, 1999. > Tom Witzky is a phone lineman... > **[Stir of Echoes (1999) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0164181/)** > > Stir of Echoes: Directed by David Koepp. With Zachary David Cope, Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Erbe, Illeana Douglas. After being hypnotized by his sister-in-law, a man begins seeing haunting visions of a girl's ghost and a mystery begins to unfold around... ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/5 "2019-05-10T14:36:09Z")
> [@Cabbage](#): > > I have a very vague memory of seeing some Houdini movie (made for TV?) around this time and I wonder if that could be it; a scene like that would certainly be consistent with a Houdini movie, but it’s only a dim memory. _The Great Houdini_ (1976) > **[The Great Houdini (TV Movie 1976) ⭐ 6.4 | Biography, Drama](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074587/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1)** > > 2h ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/6 "2019-05-10T15:02:21Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > _The Great Houdini_ (1976) > > [The Great Houdini (TV Movie 1976) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074587/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1) That is…one hell of a cast! ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/7 "2019-05-10T15:04:16Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > _The Great Houdini_ (1976) > > [The Great Houdini (TV Movie 1976) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074587/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1) > [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > That is…one hell of a cast! I remember watching this when it aired; it was excellent. ---
**Author:** ![Meltdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Meltdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meltdown)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/8 "2019-05-10T15:12:05Z")
> [@Cabbage](#): > > I have this memory of a haunted house movie from the late 70s/early 80s where the man of the house gets obsessed with an area of the basement and he starts busting through the wall with a sledgehammer or something like that. Could you possibly be conflating different movies? Because the sledgehammer scene sure sounds like this scene from the original Amityville Horror: But no ghost drummer boy. ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/9 "2019-05-10T22:14:55Z")
Thanks for the responses! There’s no way I’ll recognize the movie by title alone, but I searched around and found _Horror Castle_ on Amazon and _The Great Houdini_ on Youtube. I plan on watching those soon and reporting back here when I do. It’s entirely possible I’m conflating things. In particular, I have a memory of seeing a parody of the drummer boy scene (on SNL or similar) which makes me think it was a well known scene at the time. On the other hand, it’s possible this was merely a skit I saw somewhere and never a movie to begin with. And thanks for the extra link, **CalMeacham**! I live in VA and that looks like a place worth checking out one day. Oh, and it’s definitely not _Stir of Echoes_; I actually watched that fairly recently. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2019, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/10 "2019-05-11T21:33:40Z")
It could be “Deep Red” (1975), or “House by the Cemetery” (1981). Both had a pivotal little boy character (though not a ghost), and both had the breaking down of a blocked up house area as the climactic scene. ---
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/11 "2019-05-12T06:23:18Z")
Another drummer boy ghost story… > **[The Drummer Boy](https://creepypasta.fandom.com/wiki/The_Drummer_Boy)** > > It always scares me whenever I cross the old stone bridge going to our house in the nearby woods, especially during nighttime. It is said to be haunted by the ghost of young James Wilkeson, a drummer boy who was killed during one of the battles that... Cabbage-Did you tell ghost stories when you were kid? Have you watched the two movies? S ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/12 "2019-05-12T06:45:11Z")
The drummer boy story sounds a lot like an episode of _Sapphire and Steel_, but then again it also does not. ---
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/13 "2019-05-12T07:12:00Z")
Does anyone remember a 70’s horror movie, pretty sure it was a foreign film, where a woman gets raped by Satan in the form of a goat? I don’t want that in my search history, and I didn’t want to start a thread with rape in the title. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/14 "2019-05-12T10:35:07Z")
It’s definitely not _Deep Red_ or _House by the Cemetery_, both of which I’ve seen as an adult (the one in question is a somewhat faded childhood memory). Never heard of _Sapphire and Steel_, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be it. Any place you know that I can find that particular episode? I’ve loved ghost stories all my life and I’m sure I’ve told several (in my youth as well as adulthood). Thanks again for all of the responses! I haven’t been able to watch the two movies; I’ve been busy finishing up grades for the school year. I should be able to get around to watching them in a week or so; I’ll report back then, whether they are the movies in question or not. ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/15 "2019-05-12T10:40:05Z")
> [@saucywench](#): > > Does anyone remember a 70’s horror movie, pretty sure it was a foreign film, where a woman gets raped by Satan in the form of a goat? I don’t want that in my search history, and I didn’t want to start a thread with rape in the title. Thanks. The first movie that popped in my head was Incubus (with William Shatner and in Esperanto). It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen it; I thought I remembered a goat and I was right: [spoiler]Kia defies him and makes the sign of the cross, surprising even herself. The incubus transforms into a goat and wrestles her to the ground. After the struggle she claims, “I belong to the God of Light,” and crawls toward Marc, who immediately embraces her. The final scene shows the couple staring in disbelief at the boundary of the cathedral, with the goat gazing back at them. [/spoiler] > **[Incubus (1966 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incubus_(1966_film))** > > Incubus (Esperanto: Inkubo) is a 1966 American horror film directed by Leslie Stevens. Filmed entirely in the constructed language Esperanto, the film stars William Shatner, shortly before he would begin his work on Star Trek. The film's cinematography was by Conrad Hall, who went on to win three Academy Awards for his work on the films Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, American Beauty, and Road to Perdition. > Incubus was the second feature film to use Esperanto, following the 1964 film Angoroj... ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/16 "2019-05-12T10:54:45Z")
> [@Cabbage](#): > > Never heard of _Sapphire and Steel_, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be it. Any place you know that I can find that particular episode? There may not be a particular episode, it’s just the kind of thing the series dealt with - apparitions of historical ghosts were a major theme. It fits the atmosphere of your description, and the timeline, but not necessarily the specifics. Here’s a [YouTube playlist](https://www.youtube.com/user/sowa20001/playlists) that might jog a memory. ---
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2019, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/17 "2019-05-13T00:33:34Z")
> [@Cabbage](#): > > The first movie that popped in my head was Incubus (with William Shatner and in Esperanto). It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen it; I thought I remembered a goat and I was right: > > [spoiler]Kia defies him and makes the sign of the cross, surprising even herself. The incubus transforms into a goat and wrestles her to the ground. > > After the struggle she claims, “I belong to the God of Light,” and crawls toward Marc, who immediately embraces her. The final scene shows the couple staring in disbelief at the boundary of the cathedral, with the goat gazing back at them. [/spoiler] > > [Incubus (1966 film) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incubus_(1966_film)) Thanks Cabbage! I guess I forgot to mention a woman eats a frog, or frog’s head, during their satanic ritual/orgy. Funny thing, when I was looking up Incubus, I found the movie. It’s this one… The Antichrist (1974) L’anticristo (original title) They were calling it The Tempter when I saw it. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Gulch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/0ea827/32.png) [@Miss\_Gulch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Gulch)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2019, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/18 "2019-05-13T04:38:27Z")
“The House That Would Not Die” had a scene with one of the main characters smashing the basement floor with a sledgehammer. I’m not sure about the drummer boy, though the movie is about a haunting from the Revolutionary War. (The book this movie was based on is one of my favorites…Ammie, Come Home by Barbara Michaels (a.k.a. Elizabeth Peters.) > **[The House That Would Not Die (TV Movie 1970) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065855/)** > > The House That Would Not Die: Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey. With Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Egan, Michael Anderson Jr., Kitty Winn. A woman and her niece move into an ancestral house in the Amish countryside haunted by two ghosts from the... ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2019, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/19 "2019-06-03T10:27:18Z")
I finally got around to watching “The House that Would not Die”, “The Great Houdini”, and “Horror Castle”. None of them were the movie I was looking for (“Horror Castle” had an iron maiden in it, but it wasn’t the iron maiden scene I remember). Thanks for the suggestions, though! ---
**Author:** ![Scoobysnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Scoobysnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoobysnax)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769/20 "2019-06-05T23:14:38Z")
It might be a stretch but [House II](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093220/?ref_=nv_sr_2?ref_=nv_sr_2) from 1987 had a few similarities to your description. I have not seen it in 30 years but I do recall that they broke through a wall in the house and a bunch of weird people/creatures came out. As a bonus the cast includes John Ratzenberger. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-haunted-house-movie-1980/833769.md?page=2)