It’s so appropriate that this picture was made in Wisconsin, land of cheese, by one of America’s cheesiest filmmakers, Bill Rebane (Giant Spider Invasion, Blood Harvest, Monster A-Go-Go) and this one really takes the (cheese)cake. The small town of Ludlow celebrates its bicentennial by unveiling a harmonium once owned by the town founder. After it’s played, freaky stuff starts to happen and people get killed…sometimes by floating objects…sometimes by visible vengeful colonial ghosts. Why? It’s a long, convoluted, confusing story, elaborated upon endlessly between murders. Just about every haunting/possession cliche is used, along with an overwrought score and plenty of cheap gore and optical FX. In the climactic (and my favorite) scene, the harmonium’s keys bleed, a ghost moves under its “skin” (a la A Nightmare On Elm Street) then it levitates…about two feet off the ground…crashes down an self-destructs like the Poltergeist house. Whew! It must’ve taken Rebane a week’s worth of video rentals to come up with this one…
