Weirdness: This 1983 Short Movie Combines Horror With Donkey Kong

Long-time readers of the site will be familiar with the work of Tyler Esposito - not only have we covered his excellent videos in the past, he's also contributed to Nintendo Life with an amusing look at one of the most bizarre NES games ever made. He also runs the excellent YouTube channel iretrogamer.

Tyler's dad passed away a few years back, and has also been the subject of many of his heartwarming videos. Mark Esposito was an independent filmmaker who influenced his son in two ways - firstly, he got him interested in video games in a big way, and secondly he passed on his love of movies and movie-making.

Back in 1983, Mark produced a short film which aimed to fuse the worlds of classic horror movies with new-fangled video game culture. The result was Treasure of the Haunted House, a short movie starring comic Max Alexander in his first role.

The story of a tragic character who badly wants to beat the latest video game at his local arcade, the short involves a spooky dream sequence where the hapless lead creeps around a haunted house, taking out various famous movie monsters with a range of colourful weapons - one of which happens to be the iconic hammer from Nintendo's Donkey Kong - one of the biggest games of the era.

Tyler has had the original movie in his basement for a while, and decided to upload it to YouTube in time for Halloween. The short has a quirky quality and manages to capture the feel of classic horror films as well as incorporate video game references, such as beeping sound effects and weapon pick-ups - things that back in 1983 would have seemed quite fresh and new.

Give the film a watch and let us know what you think by posting a comment.