Within the context of 1970s made for TV horror (a category unto itself among horror fans), The House That Would Not Die has never attained the status of "classic," as have Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (a classic among horror movies as a whole, whether TV or theatrical) and The Night Stalker; nor the cult following of Gargoyles (1972); nor even the minimal honor of a DVD release, as bestowed upon of one of the lesser-known 70s TV supernatural thrillers, Horror At 37,000 Feet (a comparably good, overlooked TV horror in its own right).
Nonetheless, The House That Would Not Die is a decent little TV ghost story which happened to air before any of the aforementioned. It does not pretend to have a complex plot, and the story is anything but original. That's not the point, though. The movies goes for a comfortable, familiar kind of supernatural suspense and achieves it. The actors are solid and earnest, all of them taking their tasks seriously, and the production design includes liberal use of ghost-induced wind effects, all of which elevates the simple story. But because it is not as compelling as the other movies noted above, nor the 1981 made for TV classic, The Dark Night Of The Scarecrow, which perhaps marked the end of the cycle of great TV horrors of the decade prior, House That Would Not Die usually goes unmentioned even among fans of that period. You can find House That Would Not Die streaming online, or as of 2015, included in DVD multi-paks of otherwise sub-par horror movies sold on Amazon.
Nonetheless, The House That Would Not Die is a decent little TV ghost story which happened to air before any of the aforementioned. It does not pretend to have a complex plot, and the story is anything but original. That's not the point, though. The movies goes for a comfortable, familiar kind of supernatural suspense and achieves it. The actors are solid and earnest, all of them taking their tasks seriously, and the production design includes liberal use of ghost-induced wind effects, all of which elevates the simple story. But because it is not as compelling as the other movies noted above, nor the 1981 made for TV classic, The Dark Night Of The Scarecrow, which perhaps marked the end of the cycle of great TV horrors of the decade prior, House That Would Not Die usually goes unmentioned even among fans of that period. You can find House That Would Not Die streaming online, or as of 2015, included in DVD multi-paks of otherwise sub-par horror movies sold on Amazon.