The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Here is another example of a small-budget thriller given a fresh look by means of clean, sharp direction and photography and a cunning awareness of audience gullibility. Basically, the film is a collection of corny haunted house tricks – mysterious sealed doors, looming shadows, strange confrontations – yet the tension is artfully sustained as one red herring gives way to another. It also confirms that Maury Dexter is the most capable second-feature director working in Hollywood at present (an embryo
Corman perhaps?), who is able to make a compact and professional job from very limited means. The appearance of genuine freaks at the end is both surprising and rather touching, and makes a change from the usual blood-letting finale."
Boxoffice wrote: "At best a feeble imitation of some of the fondly remembered adventures in nail-chewing, seat-gripping suspense-shock yarns, this Maury Dexter produced-and-directed effort ... carries little distinction and will get its best reaction as supporting fare. Harry Spalding's screenplay is a relatively shockless conglomeration of events and episodes all too familiar to the crowd ... Since the pattern of plotting isn't particularly imaginative, the force of impact is little, if any. Maury Dexter, valiantly striving to provide a stream of modest-budgeted attractions for API, directs spiritedly enough, but he is handicapped from opening to closing shots by a hopelessly inept screenplay." Author and film critic
Leonard Maltin awarded the film two out of four stars, calling it "Modestly suspenseful" but criticized the film's ending as being "surprisingly wistful". Brett Gallman from
Oh, the Horror! gave the film a mixed review, commending the film's moody cinematography, atmosphere, and occasional chills generated by the title house's tenants, but criticized the film's underwhelming revelation, and "failure to deliver on its intrigue". ==References==