House 1986
I believe my mistake the first time watching House was thinking it is a serious, scary horror movie. This time around I realized it was supposed to be funny and I think I got more out of it then. Plus having William Katt, George Wendt, and Richard Moll in it doesn’t hurt it.
Photo Credit: New World Pictures
Released: Feb 28, 1986
Runtime: 93 mins
Director: Steve Miner
Writer: Fred Dekker, Ethan Wiley
Actors: William Katt, Kay Lenz, George Wendt
PLOT
A troubled writer with a haunting past moves into his dead aunt’s house. The house is not what it appears to be.
MY THOUGHTS
*Damn*! Come back from the grave and ran out of ammunition.--Skeleton Big Ben
There’s very little actual kills in the movie House. Technically only the aunt dies in the beginning. The rest are actually demons, already dead, or hallucinations so I don’t count it. Unfortunately it looks as if the aunt only hangs herself so nothing outstanding with that. I do like the special effects/makeup effects for the “woman” demon and Richard Moll’s gooey, skeletonized body.
As mentioned earlier we get the 80’s television stars George Wendt (Norm from Cheers) and Richard Moll (Bull from Night Court). Both nice additions (especially Richard Moll as the actual enemy). William Katt and Kay Lenz round out the decent cast. All did pretty good.
William Katt plays Roger Cobb, a successful writer who decides he wants to write about his experiences in the Vietnam War (much to the chagrin of his agent and his fans). When his aunt dies he moves back to her house to write. Unfortunately, this is the same house that his young son disappeared from, leading to his divorce.
Once he moves in he starts seeing weird and strange things. At one point he thinks he kills his ex-wife but it turns out to be one of the demons torturing him. His neighbor Harold (George Wendt) thinks he’s going crazy, but soon sees a demon himself.
While all of this is going on, Roger is having flashbacks from the time he was in Vietnam. As the movie goes on we start finding out why he is being tortured by demons and what it has to do with Vietnam.
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House overall is an entertaining movie as long as you go into it knowing that it was made intentionally funny. If you expect a serious horror movie you will be disappointed. Have fun with the special effects and the corny story and you’ll be good.
And now for your Forever Final Girl Exclusive…Did you know?:
It's difficult to discern, but the monster in the closet is designed to look like the napalmed bodies from Vietnam with bullets for fingers.
This was regarded as a "transitional" film by director Steve Miner, who was known mostly for horror films up until this time. While staying within his bankable genre of horror, this film gave him an opportunity to branch off into comedy as well, which helped him springboard successfully into other genres for future projects.
William Katt's own son visited the set on the day they filmed the scene where Roger is pulled into the closet, and the boy breaks down seeing his dad in danger.
The little boy Roger babysits is played by director Steve Miner's young son.
Most of Miner's films include a character named Fitzsimmons "because he was a kid I grew up next door to and for some reason I always want to put his name in."
This film features Steve Susskind of Friday The 13th Part III, and Ron Carroll of the original Friday The 13th.
Harry Manfredini did the music for Friday the 13th. You can hear similarities in the music cues of both movies.
Young Robert is played by Steve Miner's son. He spent the next decade being recognized on occasion out in the real world.
The war demon was an elaborate puppet measuring 18 feet. It was operated by 15 people.
Check out my other reviews here: Forever Final Girl
Let’s get into the rankings:
Kills/Blood/Gore: 3.5/5
Sex/Nudity: 0/5
Scare factor: 2.5/5
Enjoyment factor: 5/5
My Rank: 3/5
IMDB: 6.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes: critics: 5.7/10 audience: 4.6/10
Letterboxd: 3/5