HORROR HOUSE ON HIGHWAY FIVE

While preparing for a night out, a young man attempts to frighten his girlfriend with a Richard Nixon mask. Outside, a killer murders him and steals the mask, before also killing his girlfriend. A short time later, Los Angeles City College students Louise Kingsley, Michael Simpson, and Sally Smith are appointed to do a research project on a supposedly-deceased German expatriate rocket scientist named Frederick Bartholomew. Bartholomew was allegedly responsible for the V-2 rocket before embarking on a murderous rampage in the small community of Littletown, slaying all who he worked with in his final days spent in America. It is also suspected he may have been a Nazi.

Sally meets with Littletown local Dr. Marbuse and his brother, Gary, to interview them about Bartholomew. Sally is unaware that Marbuse is a mentally-ill, unlicensed physician who believes parasites have infested his brain; Gary is a shy, lonely psychopath obsessed with reading tarot cards. Meanwhile, their father—who is in fact Frederick Bartholomew—prowls lonely highways at night, stalking motorists. Marbuse and Gary drug and kidnap Sally, holding her hostage in their home, and subjecting her to haphazard occult rituals.

That night, Bartholomew, dressed in the Richard Nixon mask, attacks a young couple parked in a car. After a fight ensues, the young, drunken man hits Bartholomew with his car, but it only momentarily stuns Bartholomew; however, the male driver is killed on impact. His girlfriend survives, only to be attacked and murdered by Bartholomew. Meanwhile, Michael and Louise park their van in a remote area near Littletown to begin working on a model V-2 rocket, but become stranded when their van fails to start. Michael walks to the nearest house, which happens to be the home where Bartholomew killed the young couple and stole the Richard Nixon mask; Michael finds their corpses lying in the living room.

Michael enters an adjacent home searching for a telephone, unaware this is the house where Marbuse and Gary are keeping Sally. He becomes lost in its labyrinthine, red-lit hallways. In a darkened corridor, he finds his way into an abandoned basement, and is struck by an apparently supernatural force. He grows delirious and falls onto the ground, landing on a rake that lacerates his head. From behind a window, Bartholomew observes Michael. Meanwhile, Louise, waiting at the van, is startled by rustling noises emanating from the underbrush, and flees. She also enters the house, and locates Sally. Louise attempts to unchain her, but is stopped by Gary, who bludgeons Sally to death.

Louise wanders through the house, and also encounters an invisible supernatural force, as well as finding a dead body of one of Bartholomew's recent victims. In a darkened room, Louise finds Michael, the rake still stuck in his head. When she attempts to remove it, he collapses and dies. Louise eventually wanders outside, only to be attacked by Marbuse, armed with a brace drill. He chases Louise back to the van, where she manages to bludgeon him to death. She is subsequently confronted by Bartholomew, whom she temporarily stuns by detonating the model V-2 rocket, only to find, after removing his Richard Nixon mask, worms crawling from his eye sockets, suggesting he is undead. Back at the house, Gary somberly dances with Susan's corpse.

At dawn, Louise, having fallen asleep in underbrush, awakens and wanders down a hillside toward the highway. A man driving a van stops and picks her up. Louise attempts to explain to the man that her friends have been killed, and the man agrees to stop at a call box along the freeway to phone police. The man attempts to coax Louise into the back of the van, promising her there are blankets and hot cocoa. When she opens the rear door, she is attacked by Bartholomew, who attempts to pull her into the van, but she manages to free herself by biting him. As the van speeds onto the highway, Louise lies on the side of the road, watching it drive into the distance.

Louise is attacked by Dr. Marbuse after witnessing the deaths of her friends and encountering supernatural forces in the house.

The film’s ending is a fever-dream parade of violence, confusion, and surreal menace, encapsulating its commitment to unpredictable horror and absurdity. By refusing to grant its characters safety or clarity, it anchors itself as a cult artifact that subverts tidy resolutions. The blend of supernatural touches with gory slasher mechanics leaves viewers as disoriented as the survivors—if any remain.