Line #92 Film/DontGoInTheHouse


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/DGitH_1082.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:[[SchmuckBait You know you want to...]]]]
3
4	-> ''If you do... then don't say we didn't warn you.''
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6	''Don't Go in the House'' is a 1980 horror film. It was released in France under the name ''Pyromaniac''.
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8	After his father died (or merely left) young Donald "Donny" Kohler became the subject of much abuse at the hands of his mother, an apparent [[TheFundamentalist religious fanatic]]. She would verbally abuse the boy, and repeatedly burn him when she believed he was being bad, or even just ''thinking'' about mischief. She convinced herself and Donny that she was "burning the evil out of him" and that fire was the ultimate cleanser, causing Donny to grow up with both a deep fascination with and fear of fire.
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10	As the years pass, Donny and his mother live in a shaky state of co-dependence in their slowly rotting New Jersey home, supported by Donny's job at a garbage incinerator. Due to his upbringing, Donny is a meek, awkward, and submissive shut-in. The closest thing he has to a friend is a co-worker named Bobby Tuttle, who continually tries to get Donny to be more outgoing, only to be brushed off at every turn.
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12	One cold winter day Donny witnesses the death of a co-worker named Ben when he is engulfed in flames when a heated aerosol can explodes. Donny stands by idly instead of helping the burning man. Donny is told off by his boss for his inaction, brushes off another request for a night out with Bobby, (in an attempt to cheer him up), returns home, and discovers his ailing mother has died.
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14	At first shocked and saddened by his mother's death, Donny soon realizes that with her gone he can now do what he wants. He finds himself receiving messages from disembodied voices, who tell him that with his mother dead, he is now "the keeper of the flame" and the one who can use it to punish "evil". At the insistence of his new "friends", Donny takes some time off from work, steel-plates one his rooms, and purchases a fire retardant suit and a flamethrower. Once he is done with the preparations, Donny uses what little charm and social skills he possesses to get a florist named Kathy Jordan into his house where he burns her to death in the steel room, keeping her charred corpse as a "guest" in his home.
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16	His mental state deteriorates. Donny murders more women, the voices growing more insistent, and he begins suffering hallucinations of his overbearing mother. As Donny spirals, local priest Father Gerritty, who Donny confides in one day, grows worried, as does Bobby, who continually tries to get in touch with his friend.
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18	Creator/QuentinTarantino has apparently stated this is one of his favorite films, and one that really disturbed him when he first saw it.
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20	'''Not''' for the pyrophobic.
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22	----
23	!! If you do go in, expect to find the following:
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25	%%* EightiesHair
26	* AbusiveParents: Mrs. Kohler, and the mother of the boy shown in the epilogue.
27	%%* AmbiguouslyGay: The clothing store clerk.
28	* BadSamaritan: Donny poses as a helpful passerby in order to lure young women into his home and kill them.
29	* BigNo: Donny lets one out when Farrah's attempt at pulling him onto the dance floor causes him to flashback to his mother yanking his arms into an open flame.
30	* BlatantLies: After getting attacked by Anthony, Donny picks up Suzanne and Patty, and tells them his injuries were the result of him easily fending off a trio of knife-wielding muggers using skills he acquired in a military special division.
31	* BystanderSyndrome: In the beginning of the film, Donny meekly watches a co-worker get horribly burned instead of intervening. He's justifiably called out for it by his boss afterwards. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], since Donny is violently psychotic and has a fearful reverence for fire.
32	* CastAsAMask: A trio of dancers played the victims after they were burned, since their petite frames were better suited as charred borderline skeletons than the original actresses.
33	* CatapultNightmare: Donny has a disturbing one where he's attacked by the charred corpses of his victims.
34	* ChildByRape: Donny, possibly. He tells Father Gerritty his mother told him he "was born of an evil deed" but considering how unbalanced she appeared to be, it was possibly just a plain old SexIsEvil mentality.
35	* CompletelyDifferentTitle: ''Pyromaniac'' in France.
36	* CoversAlwaysLie: The above really does look like the cover of a HauntedHouse film, doesn't it?
37	* CreepyChild: Michael, the abused boy shown at the end.
38	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: "''In a steel room built for revenge they die burning... in chains.''"
39	* CurbstompBattle: Anthony attacking Donny after Donny non-fatally burns his sister Farrah in the disco. Donny doesn't get a single punch in and runs away in shame after a terrible beat-down.
40	* DangerousWorkplace: Donny's job at a garbage incinerator is shown to be unsafe at the start of the movie, when an employee is badly burned by an overheated aerosol can.
41	* DisappearedDad: Mr. Kohler is only mentioned once, and his status is not elaborated on.
42	%%* TheEighties: The nightclub scene is so eighties it hurts.
43	* EvilMatriarch: Mrs. Kohler functioned as one for Donny, abusing him by burning his arms for misbehavior, real or imagined.
44	* FanDisservice: Kathy is naked when Donny burns her.
45	* FatalFamilyPhoto: Right before being engulfed in flames, Ben mentions having a child. [[SubvertedTrope He survives, though]].
46	* FireBreathingWeapon: Donny creates his own flamethrower to kill people with.
47	* {{Flashback}}: Donny has a recurring one involving his mother burning and verbally abusing him.
48	* {{Hallucinations}}: Donny has multiple over the course of the movie. They start off as just auditory, but quickly escalate to visual.
49	%%* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Suzanne and Patty.
50	* HearingVoices: Donny hears two; one is of his mother continuing to taunt and abuse him after her death, the other a mysterious unexplained voice that encourages him to act on his violent thoughts and fantasies.
51	* HeCleansUpNicely: Donny, after a little shopping spree.
52	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Donny dies when he has a complete psychotic meltdown, and is engulfed in a fire of his own creation.
53	%%* HollywoodAtheist: Bobby, possibly.
54	* HooksAndCrooks: The victims are suspended by chains before being set alight.
55	* HopeSpot: Donny, after visiting Father Gerrity, puts in an effort to change and actually takes the initiative to call Bobby and see about going out somewhere. [[spoiler: It seems to be working until Donny’s date unwittingly pulls his arms over a candle, triggering a flashback to his mother’s abuse of him and a subsequent freakout, leading to the date getting said candle to the face leaving her hair on fire, and Bobby getting beaten up by her vengeful brother.]]
56	* HystericalWoman: Suzanne does not take being captured by Donny nearly as well as Patty does.
57	* ICantDance: Donny refuses to dance at the disco, telling his "date" of the evening he doesn't dance. Her attempts to get him up from the table causes him to have a meltdown and burn her face with a candle.
58	* ImprovisedWeapon: Donny subdues Kathy by bashing her with one of his mother's statuettes, and later jams a burning candle into Farrah's face while having an episode.
59	%%* IronicNurseryTune: Played at several points.
60	* {{Jerkass}}: Donny's boss, Vito. There's probably better ways of reprimanding an employee than shoving them and calling them a "crazy son of a bitch faggot".
61	* KillItWithFire: Donny's modus operandi as a serial killer.
62	* LaughingMad: When Donny first starts playing with matches after the voices tell he is "the master of the flame" now.
63	* LockAndLoadMontage: Occurs offscreen, when Donny stops by a military surplus store (a "serial killer shop" as one review put it).
64	* MalevolentMaskedMen: Donny's fireproof suit has a mask that gives him this vibe when he dons it.
65	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: For the entire film, we assume the voices Donny hears are simply auditory hallucinations, though as he burns to death, they denounce him as a failure, and later another abused child is depicted as hearing disembodied voices identical to the ones Donny heard.
66	* MonsterMisogyny: The only man Donny tries to kill is Father Gerritty, who was attacked in a rage, and probably survived.
67	* MummiesAtTheDinnerTable: Donny treats the corpses of his victims and his mother like they're still alive, usually ranting and screaming at them when he's not treating the former like his guests.
68	* MyCarHatesMe: The second victim is a woman whose car broke down.
69	* NiceGuy: [[DownplayedTrope Although implied to be an adulterer]], Bobby still fits, given that he constantly tries to reach out and be a friend to Donny, whom he feels bad for. He even tries setting up a date for Donny, and when that goes disastrously, goes to Donny's house first to try and reason with him instead of immediately going to the cops.
70	* NightmareSequence: Donny dreams about being on an exploding beach at night, and wakes up after being attacked and dragged into a chasm by his charred victims.
71	* NoSocialSkills: Donny struggles when interacting with other people and notably fumbles when trying to lure a girl to his house after trying to help her carry her groceries; even after getting told no, he keeps asking her and gets in her way.
72	* OldDarkHouse: Very [[Film/{{Psycho}} Bates]]-ish.
73	* OminousMusicBoxTune: Used in the trailer.
74	* PeekABooCorpse: Patty stumbles onto Donny's corpse collection while looking for Suzanne.
75	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Donny, if some of his language towards women ("You're all bitches! Selfish and vain! Don't you dare laugh at me!") is any indication.
76	%%* PornStache: Ben.
77	* PosthumousCharacter: Mrs. Kohler is dead by the time the film starts, but her actions in Donny's past are what spurs him to be the [[SerialKiller person he becomes]].
78	* PsychopathicManchild: After discovering his mother's body, Donny, after the initial freak out, becomes giddy with excitement at the thought of being able to do whatever he wants. He then proceeds to crank up his music, bounce on the furniture, light up some cigarettes, and put them out on his mother's statuettes.
79	* PummelingTheCorpse: Donny punches a body during a fit; the attack is, oddly, shown from the corpse's POV.
80	* {{Pyromaniac}}: Donny, being a serial killer who burns people to death.
81	%%* ReactionShot
82	* RealAfterAll: While the film is shown primarily through Donny's POV, and thus subject to UnreliableNarrator in regards to the disembodied voices he hears and the visions of charred corpses he sees, the ending implies that at least one of those voices wasn't just the product of his decaying sanity; another abused boy named Michael starts hearing the same voice that Donny heard, telling him that they'll help.
83	* SanctuaryOfSolitude: As his mind begins to go, Donny visits a church, to confide in Father Gerritty. Unfortunately, it doesn't take.
84	* SequelHook: A boy named Michael, who is heavily abused by his mother, starts hearing the same voices that guided Donny.
85	* SerialKiller: Donny, albeit one who uses fire instead of more traditional methods, like knives or firearms.
86	* ScareChord: Whenever Donny has a hallucination of his mother.
87	* ScarsAreForever: The burns on Donny's arms, caused by his mother's abuse.
88	* SoundtrackDissonance: The disco tune that plays over the credits.
89	%%* TheStoic: Father Gerritty.
90	* StuffBlowingUp: In Donny's nightmare, everything seems to be exploding or on fire.
91	* ThousandYardStare: Donny is quite prone to them, especially if fire is involved. This is most prominent in the opening, where seeing his colleague get set on fire accidentally only causes Donny to stare blankly.
92	* TortureCellar: The steel room was built by Donny specifically for this purpose, to be the place where he burns his victims to death.
93	* TwoFirstNames: Kathy Jordan.
94	* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Donny's reaction to Ben catching on fire, and most of the patrons failure to notice Farrah when Donny sets her hair on fire, and burns her face.
95	* VillainousBreakdown: Donny's final meltdown at the film's climax, where the burnt corpses of his victims attack him, and he sets everything around him on fire, causing his own death.
96	* VillainProtagonist: Donny, the {{Pyromaniac}} SerialKiller of women, is our POV character.
97	* VisualPun: A woman is briefly set on fire on a dance floor. "Disco Inferno" anyone?
98	* YouHaveFailedMe: Essentially what the voices say to Donny before he dies.

Context Film / DontGoInTheHouse