House (film series)
HOUSE (18)
D: Steve Miner
New World (Sean S. Cunningham)
US 1986
93 mins
Horror
W: Ethan Wiley
DP: Mac Ahlberg
Ed: Michael N. Knue
Mus: Harry Manfredini
PD: Gregg Fonseca
William Katt (Roger Cobb), George Wendt (Harold Gorton),
Richard Moll (Big Ben), Kay Lenz (Sandy Sinclair), Mary Stavin (Tanya), Michael Ensign (Chet Parker)
War veteran William Katt needs some solitude to finish his
Vietnam novel, so he does the sensible thing and moves into a creepy haunted house where an elderly woman recently hung herself.
There's bumps in the night as he is visited on a regular
basis by ghastly ghouls and nosey next door neighbour George Wendt (Norm from 'Cheers'), as well as having the odd hallucination about his dead war buddy.
The film eventually settles on cheap scare tactics (like
the clichéd cat in the cupboard making things creak only to jump out suddenly when the noises are investigated) and the final scenes are a mess of special effects and gooey makeup before the
film ends with a 'how's your father smile' from Katy as a screen capture. Pure cheese.
5/10
HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY (18)
D: Ethan Wiley
New World (Sean S.
Cunningham)
US 1987
88 mins
Horror
W: Ethan Wiley
DP: Mac Ahlberg
Mus: Harry Manfredini
PD: Gregg Fonseca
Ayre Gross (Jesse), Jonathan Stark (Charlie), Royal
Dano (Gramps), Bill Maher (John), Lar Park Lincoln (Kate), John Ratzenberger (Bill)
This sequel may have retained the original film's
writer (promoted to director as well), but the two stories have no other links at all, with no returning characters and a completely different plot.
It's the same haunted house scenario, this time with
the resident looking for buried treasure when a ghost from the Wild West emerges from the walls.
Secret passages lead to an underworld filled with
strange creatures, including some weird dog-like thing, but the whole film is more of an attempt at merging fantasy with western genres rather than a conventional horror. It doesn't
really work.
4/10
HOUSE III (aka THE HORROR SHOW) (18)
D: James Isaac
United Artists (Sean S.
Cunningham)
US 1989
95 mins
Horror
W: Alan Smithee (Allyn Warner) & Leslie
Boehm
DP: Mac Ahlberg
Ed: Edward Anton
Mus: Harry Manfredini
Lance Henriksen (Det. Lucas McCarthy), Brion James (Max
Jenke), Rita Taggart (Donna McCarthy), Dedee Pfeiffer (Bonnie McCarthy)
The first two House movies had very little in connection
with each other and this third film has even less. In fact, it's more than likely that it was to be released as its alternative title, The Horror Show, but producer Sean S. Cunningham had
little faith in it finding an audience unless he somehow tied it into something else that he produced.
The film doesn't even feature a haunted house, instead,
the spirit of a death row cellmate gets revenge beyond the grave of the cop who sent him to the electric chair. If the plot sounds familiar, it may be because Wes Craven made an identically
themed one the same year (Shocker).
You can always grade the quality of a film if the
pseudonym Alan Smithee appears in the credits (a well known alias in Hollywood circles), somebody was clearly embarrassed by the final result.
4/10
HOUSE IV: THE REPOSSESSION (18)
D: Lewis Abernathy
Cunningham Films (Sean S.
Cunningham)
US 1992
93 mins
Horror
W: Geoff Miller & Diedre Higgins
DP: James Mathers
Ed: Seth Gaven
Mus: Harry Manfredini
William Katt (Roger Cobb), Terri Treas (Kelly Cobb), Scott
Burkholder (Burke), Melissa Clayton (Laurel Cobb)
William Katt returns in this boring made-for-TV
retread of the first House movie, except this time he brings his wife and teenage daughter along for shits and giggles.
Boring, frightless, cheaply-made dross and though it is
the only sequel of a series which follows on directly from the first film, it's the worst of the lot.
4/10
