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Hero image for The Murder House

The Murder House

Short Film (Full Length) – 1998

PG
Parental Guidance

"I hope you're braver than your brother." In this darkly humorous short film, a young schoolboy (James Ordish) finds the day plunging into nightmare, when he is sent for a visit to the school dental nurse. The nurse (a sly performance from future casting director Tina Cleary) takes pleasure in other people's pain. This overheated tale for the dental-wary was written by Ken Hammon, who was part of the boys' own team behind Peter Jackson's first splatter flick Bad Taste. Murder House director Warrick ‘Waka' Attewell writes here about how he set about turning filmmaking into a game for his junior cast. 

In the New Zealand of the 1960s, dental dinosaurs walked the Earth. Armed with agonising low-speed rotary drills, poorly trained dental nurses lurked like institutional torturers on the grounds of the nation's schools. The kids back then had a name for the school dental clinic: they called it The Murder House.
– Publicity material for this short film

Key Cast & Crew

Generic Profile image for James Ordish

James Ordish

As: Sid

Generic Profile image for Jeremy Dempsey

Jeremy Dempsey

Composer

Generic Profile image for Ken Hammon

Ken Hammon

Writer

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John Gilbert

Editor

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Waka Attewell

Director

Generic Profile image for Tina Cleary

Tina Cleary

As: Dental Nurse

See all 17 credits

Produced by

Logo for Independent and General Productions

Independent and General Productions

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