House

House title

Tag Line : Horror has found a new home...Enter at your own risk.

House Friday the 13th stalwarts Sean Cunningham and Steve Miner teamed up once again to bring us this enjoyable horror spoof about a horror novelist who gets more than he bargained for when he takes over the home of his late aunt.

Author Roger Cobb (William Katt), is a respected horror writer. Having just separated from his actress wife Sandy Sinclair (Kay Lenz), he decides to move into the house of his late aunt whilst he works on his latest novel about his experiences during the Vietnam war. His aunt always claimed that the house was haunted, but of course Roger never believed that. Until now that is.

It starts off right after he moves in, with him seeing ghostly visions of his missing son. Then strange creatures start emerging from the wardrobes, the tools in the tool shed apparently come to life and proceed to start chasing him round the house, strange troll like creatures try and snatch the young boy he's looking after when he gets lumbered with babysitting, and to top it all off his ex wife apparently turns into one of the Evil Dead!

Matters are not helped by nosey neighbour Harold (played by George Went, AKA Norm from "Cheers") who continually pops round to stick his nose into Roger's affairs. It soon becomes evident that the strange goings on in the house are somehow linked to his Vietnam flashbacks, but how is this happening and why?

Friday the 13th fans may wish to check this one out. It's not rip-roaringly funny, but it certainly has it's moments, particularly the scene where the neighbours dog digs up a dismembered zombie hand which then runs amok round the house. Some may find the film a touch slow in places, but overall I found it quite entertaining.

Overall Marks : 6/10.

Other Information.

Alternate tag line, "Ding Dong, You're Dead".
Sean Cunningham, who is well known for his work on the original "Friday the 13th", and the later sequels, made his film debut by producing the infamous exploitation pic "Last House on the Left", which was directed by Wes Craven.
Director Steve Miner has worked with Sean Cunningham on numerous projects including "Last House.." and "Friday the 13th". He also directed some of the earlier "Friday.." sequels and went on to work on such diverse films as "Soul Man", "Warlock", "Forever Young", the US version of "My Father the Hero", "Halloween H20" and "Lake Placid". Although he is probably best known for his works on the popular US TV series "The Wonder Years" and "Dawsons Creek".
The films budget was £3 million.
Michael Ensign, who plays Chet Parker, also played Father Nolan in "Children of the Corn 3".
Look closely at the two police officers who turn up at Roger's house after the shotgun incident, one of them is a young pre "X-files" Steven Williams, who also appeared as Creighten Duke in "Jason Goes to Hell : The Final Friday". The other is Alan Autrey who played the religious freak national guardsman in the cult film "Southern Comfort", he also starred as Officer Bubba in the TV series "In the Heat of the Night".
George Went is undoubtedly best known for his role as bar-fly Norm Peterson from "Cheers".
The Police officer in the flashback scene who is investigating the disappearance of Roger's son, was played by Ron Carroll, who also starred as Sgt Tierney in the original "Friday the 13th".
The music was composed by Harry Manfredini, who also scored virtually the whole Friday the 13th saga of films.
William Katt is probably best known for his role as "Paul Drake" from "Perry Mason".
Fred Dekker, who co-wrote the story, also worked as writer and director on the popular "Tales from the Crypt" TV horror show. His other credits include "Night of the Creeps", "The Monster Squad" and the ill fated "Robocop 3".