The Haunted Casino: A Retro' Review

Director: Charles Band.

Writer: August White.

Cast: Wes Armstrong, Michael Berryman, Kristyn Green, and Sid Haig.

Plenty of standard locations are popular choices for horror movies -- graveyards, summer camps, schools -- but The Haunted Casino is one of the few horror B-movies out there set in a casino. Casino games play a big role in this flick but these are played for life and death and not just by someone trying to pick up a few extra bucks on a weekend trip to Vegas. If you like truly terrible horror movies shot on a tiny budget, this might be a movie to check out but don’t expect to pick up many B-movie survival tips here as most of the cast busts out and they lose their lives in the process.

Horror movie legends Sid Haig and Michael Berryman play bit parts in this Charles Band film which lives up to his reputation for cheap, schlocky thrills and scares. The basic plot and premise is pretty straightforward: after inheriting a casino from his great uncle - who was tied to the mob - a young man and some friends decide to check it out and spend the night. Unfortunately for them, past employees of the casino who have been killed by the uncle haunt the place and they are eager to get their revenge on the new owner.

As you’d expect, things go south pretty quickly with the vengeful ghosts wreaking havoc and what might have seemed like a fun night at the casino and a chance to play casino games for our young hero, his girlfriend, and friends quickly turns sour. Scanning reviews at IMDb reveal pretty much universal agreement that the acting, plot, and special effects could all use a lot of help. There is not a lot of meat left on the bone for anyone expecting much of a memorable movie experience from The Haunted Casino.

As far as a taste for what you’re in for, here’s one of the more eloquent reviews: “The effects are laughably poor. At one scene the 'foxy chick' encounters an equally sexy female ghost who, prior to dispatching the hormonal annoyance, metamorphoses into a rotten fairground corpse, replete with -get this- eyeballs that roll like one-armed bandits, displaying two death skulls. The soundtrack is hideously inappropriate and it seems to have been hived from the abortion floor of 'Diagnosis Murder'. As we'd expect, our plucky heroes and heroines consistently ignore the basic rules of not getting snuffed in a horror movie. Though for this watcher's eyeballs, thankfully none of them did, as it would clearly have prolonged the agonising torment.”

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