House
by Steve Miner
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DVD details
Actor: George Wendt, Kay Lenz, Mary Stavin, Richard Moll, William KattDirector: Steve Miner
Brand: STARZ/SPHE
Cinematographer: Mac Ahlberg
Producer: Patrick Markey
Producer: Richard F. Brophy
Producer: Roger Corman
Producer: Sean S. Cunningham
Writer: Ethan Wiley
Writer: Fred Dekker
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 93 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-06-25
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
DVD Reviews of House
DVD Review: "Damn! Come back from the grave and ran out of ammunition."
Summary: 4 Stars
When is a house not a home? When it's trying to scare the pisss out of you, that's when. In retrospect I had to think about why I liked this flick, because it does have stuff going against it. HOUSE is cheesy and campy, and yet also fun, and I guess maybe it's fun because it's so cheesy and campy. HOUSE is very much a product of the 1980s and this absolutely includes its featured lead William Katt, the Greatest American Hero himself.
HOUSE sets itself up to be a sinister horror film with dark psychological overtones. Roger Cobb (Katt) is a popular horror fiction author who's been recently coasting on his past success. Roger's in a slump, and it's not helping that he's been so obsessed with cranking out his Vietnam War memoirs. The writing doldrums go back some time ago to when his kid mysteriously vanished at his aunt's spooky house. So to recap: languishing career, vanished kid. And, because certain things crop up in threes, Roger's hot actress wife also divorces him.
When his eccentric aunt hangs herself, Roger inherits her house and, rather than selling it, Roger decides to live in it for a while, hoping for inspiration to kick in. But an evil house does not a muse make. Soon all the weird stuff starts happening.
A lot of the movie is presented as a one-man act for William Katt, broken up by cutaways to Roger's ex-wife and by occasional drop-in visits by his nosy neighbor and his sexy neighbor. For the first half hour or so you sink into William Katt's character as he finds himself tormented by the haunted house, which is somehow dredging up traumatic memories of Roger Cobb's stint in Vietnam. There's a whiff of THE SHINING going on as we see Roger gradually going off the deep end. But then, somewhere along the way, things descend into slapstick territory. And while the story does drum up scattered scares here and there, they're undermined by the painfully obvious rubber monster suits and all the (intentional) goofiness. We get rehashed zaniness that recalls the EVIL DEAD series, but lacking that Sam Raimi's inspired frenzied touch. For a horror movie, the victim body count is practically nil. But the champion killjoy are all those Vietnam flashbacks that feel totally out of place and very dated. To me, these scenes established a jarring effect.
So why do I like this movie? I really think that a huge chunk of the reason is that I saw it during its theatrical run when I was a teen, so I'm pulling the nostalgia card. If you're an '80s buff, then you've got William Katt and George Wendt (Norm!! from CHEERS) and Richard Moll (NIGHT COURT) who in this one plays a soldier in Roger's platoon in the flashbacks. For a low budget production HOUSE actually boasts some decent acting. I like that William Katt never breaks character, even though all kinds of crazy shizzy rain down on him, and he takes on this fascinating tunnel vision mentality. You and me, the first time the house does something scary, we're probably out of there so fast there's you and me-shaped dust clouds left behind. But Roger Cobb decides to fight and beat the house at its own game. That is some impressive (and very stupid) brand of singlemindedness. And I even relish the bizarre turn which finds Roger Cobb babysitting a neighbor's young kid.
I also enjoy the film's juggling of the serious horror elements and the tongue-in-cheek stuff. What can I say, I'm a child of those times. I roll my eyes and make all the proper groaning noises, and yet I can't help but laugh with appreciation at all the kooky. William Katt takes it all so seriously, it's friggin' endearing.
Description of House
ROGER COBB IS A VIETNAM VET. WHOSE CAREER AS A HORROR NOVELISTHAS TAKEN A TURN FOR THE WORSE WHEN HIS SON JIMMY MYSTERIOUSLYDISAPPEARS WHILE VISITING HIS AUNT'S HOUSE. ROGER'S SEARCH FORJIMMY DESTROYS HIS MARRIAGE AND HIS WRITING CAREER.Bestsellers in DVD
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