House of Horrors

House of Horrors is a 1946 American horror film released by Universal Pictures, starring Rondo Hatton as a madman named "the Creeper". Plot Struggling sculptor Marcel de Lange (Martin Kosleck) is depressed about events in his life, and decides to commit suicide. Just as he is about to kill himself, he sees a madman known as "the Creeper" (Rondo Hatton) in the process of drowning and saves him. Taking the disfigured man into his care, he makes him the subject of his next sculpture and calls it his best creation. When critics denigrate Marcel's work, he has the Creeper start killing them. Marcel becomes obsessed with Joan, a beautiful female reporter who believes the deaths are related. When Marcel invites her over and she sees Marcel's sculpture of the Creeper, she suspects that Marcel knows the killer. Later, Marcel decides that Joan knows too much and commands the Creeper to kill her. The Creeper is reluctant to do so, however, when he discovers that Marcel plans to turn him over to the police. The Creeper kills Marcel, and is about to kill Joan when he is shot by the police. Cast Production On November 8, 1944, an article in The Hollywood Reporter stated that producer Ben Pivar was relieved of all his lower-budget films on his shooting schedule and was going to focus on a larger budget film featuring new horror characters. This included a series featuring actor Rondo Hatton as "the Creeper". The authors of Universal Horrors suggested this report of a higher budget was either fabricated or the state of the production changed when House of Horrors was developed, it did not have a larger budget than the average Universal B-film production.