CLOSET SPACE (2008 dir Mel House)

*Pre-Release Festival Edition Review

A professor and his students doing research in a house out in rural Texas believe they have a found a doorway to the other world in a closet inside the house. After the professor and the students mysteriously disappear into the closet, a group of highly experienced researchers take a trip out to the house to find out what happened to the group. Behind the closet door is a dark tunnel with different passageways. The group gears up to go on an expedition through the tunnel to find the professor and students. Soon enough, the group is beset by bizarre occurrences and eventually they have run-ins with slimy, tentacled Lovecraftian creatures. The creatures also have the ability to absorb and imitate human beings a la John Carpenter's THE THING (1982). After several members of the group fall victim to the closet world creatures, the hero and heroine of the story soon find the horrible truth behind the disappearance of the professor and students. The outcome is not very pretty. It appears the otherworldly beings have an agenda of their own and it becomes clear that you can't always trust the appearance of things you see in our world.

CLOSET SPACE is a well-crafted low budgeter that poses questions about what lies beyond our world. One movie that comes to mind while watching it is Stuart Gordon's FROM BEYOND (1986) which was based on an H.P. Lovecraft story. The creatures in the film definitely resemble creations from Lovecraft's mind and the film's concept is very Lovecraft in its execution and style. Marcus Koch and his crew did a splendid job with the make-up effects and creature designs. They're just as good as anything created by Screaming Mad George. There are lots of monsters with tentacles on display as well as some cool transformations, blood barfing, a brutal looking insemination scene, a neat head-splitting scene, a vagina with teeth, and a stomach with a mouth and breasts with eyes. Oddtopsy FX really outdid themselves with this one.

Overall, CLOSET SPACE is a very creative and entertaining second effort from Mel House whose other directing credits include FADE TO BLACK (2001) and WITCHCRAFT 13: BLOOD OF THE CHOSEN (2008). I certainly look forward to his next effort WALKING DISTANCE. Thanks to Mel for providing a copy of the film. Here's hoping a good distributor in the U.S. picks it up and gives it a proper release very soon. In the meantime visit www.closetspacemovie.com