Much better than its reputation
Don't Go in the House (AKA The Burning, AKA The House of Living Corpses ~ 1979)
US serial killer horror that posed the question 'What if Norman Bates had a flamethrower?' - and promptly got banned as a 'video nasty' in the UK.
Dan Grimaldi (The Sopranos) stars as Donny Kohler, a man in his early 30s, who lives at home with his domineering mother. As a child he was psychologically and physically abused by her, to the point where as a punishment she would hold his bare arms over the flame of the gas stove. One day he returns from work to find his mother has passed away. Shock gives way to elation as he realises he is 'free' to do whatever he wants. And what he wants is to get revenge on her, by killing women who voices in his head tell him represent her. His chosen method of doing this is - naturally - by fire. He obtains a fire-protection suit and helmet and a flamethrower, fireproofs one room of the house by completely lining it with sheets of aluminium, and starts looking for victims...
This surprised me. It's far better than its reputation suggests. Grimaldi (in his first ever film role) gives a very good performance, whilst Robert Osth as Bobby - a work colleague of Donny's, and the closest thing to a friend he has - is excellent. The film's notoriety really comes from one scene - the first (and only onscreen) kill of the movie. When a girl that Donny has abducted wakes up she's naked, hanging by her arms from a chain in the aluminium-lined room. Donny appears - encased in fire-suit and helmet - and douses her in gasoline. He then leaves before returning with the flamethrower. As she pleads for her life he switches it on and blasts her, burning her alive. That all sounds grisly enough - but what sells it is the effects work. Once Donny has returned with the flamethrower the camera moves to the girl and stays on her in one continuous shot. She's hanging there, screaming and writhing (so, not a dummy) before the jet of flame appears from offscreen and hits her. The camera never 'flinches', as she continues to writhe and scream whilst completely engulfed in flame, until eventually she stops moving and hangs there silently burning. It holds up incredibly well, and obviously shocked people hugely at the time (in an interview one of the producers explains how it was done - sheer, simple genius). Donny abducts several more victims, who are killed in the same manner; their deaths aren't shown, just their burnt corpses (which Donny dresses in his mother's clothes and seats in a circle in an upstairs room), but the impact of that first kill is so strong that you don't need to see the other deaths. Less is definitely more.
Several shots clearly pay homage to Psycho (low, upward angles at the ominous house that Donny and 'mother' live in; 'mother's' body filmed from behind, where all you can see is the top of her head over the back of her chair). In fact Psycho and Don't Go in the House would make a terrific double-bill. Later on we get some possibly supernatural scenes (or are they in Donny's head?) which also come as a real (and very effective) surprise. Watching interviews with Grimaldi, the producer I mentioned, and one of the writers, it's clear they all put a lot of care and effort into what they were doing. For me it really paid off. 7.5/10