House

'House' stars William Katt as Roger Cobb, an accomplished novelist who moves into his creepy aunt's house after her suicide. In bits and pieces, the audience discovers that Roger once lived in the house, as well, along with the aunt, Roger's wife, and their now-missing son, Jimmy. Roger believes that Jimmy is trapped somewhere in this mysterious house, which just happens to be some sort of portal between past and present dimensions...I think? Anyway, the audience becomes involved, well, at least myself and the rest of my company became involved, and you start to feel for this poor guy who has really sorry luck...in all areas. Roger, our tattered hero, has the pretty neighbor Tanya, who likes to come and swim in his pool, and who ALWAYS catches him at the worst times. Then he has the nosy neighbor Harold, played by George Wendt, who might be out to exploit him or may just be generally concerned. I don't know. Then there is the neighborhood dog who likes to dig up Roger's "saplings"....

Overall, I find this to be a fairly underrated little horror movie. It's definitely one of Steve Miner's more innovative attempts, and the music, reminiscent of the F13 music and performed by the same man, Harry Manfredini, is thoroughly haunting. Also, most importantly, the acting is believable. Major points for that. None of this movie is hokey. It could have been...but it wasn't. 7/10 is my vote.

I don't know when I first saw this movie. I know I was young, ten or eleven maybe. I remember being scared, and probably had some trouble turning off the light that night, but it never traumatized me. I've picked it up every so often ever since and always enjoyed it. It was one of the first R rated horror movies I saw, and now I'm hooked on the genre.

This is a great film when introducing children to "harder" horror. For those ready to move on from Scooby-Doo but not ready for Night of the Living Dead or The Exorcist. It's scary and suspenseful but never terrifying. Tension builds and there are plenty of jump scares, but the frights never last for long. Take the closet monster for instance. Tension builds as Roger goes to the door and there's a big scare when it comes out. But afterwards it becomes almost silly. Same with the fish and witch. It's a lot like Evil Dead 2 in that it's never too scary to not be funny and never too funny to not be scary.

There's also a good story to go along with it. It follows Roger Cobb who grew up with his aunt in a haunted house. He went to war and saw horrible things. His son disappeared at the haunted house and he's separated from his wife. Obviously, all this ties together in some way when the aunt dies and he moves back into the house. None of it ever becomes hokey or clichéd. The film allows time to get to know Roger before the haunting begins so we like him and understand his plight. There's also an interesting aspect regarding whether all the hauntings are real or just caused by the stress of his life.

George Wendt from Cheers plays the lovable neighbor that Roger befriends and helps. He isn't that much different than Norm but provides lots of humorous moments. The only thing I wish they did better is to make the supermodel neighbor more interesting. She's fine for some T&A and the house does something with her (which I still can never get whether that was really her or if it was just the witch), but she never really serves the story well. It's little more than a cameo just to have a model in the movie.

Each of the actors do well in their parts. All are great, though Richard Moll hams it up just a little too much in his Vietnam scenes. It features William Katt, who genre fans would know as the prom date from Carrie. This film certainly shows some range for him. The film is made by the crew who did Friday the 13th, Parts 2 and 3 and has the same visual style.

The special effects work very well for the story. The "ghosts" are practical effects using puppets, like Star Wars, which looks a lot better than stop motion. As I said before, they look scary at first but grow silly the more they're seen. The walking hand is equally disturbing and funny.

The movie may not be a classic of the genre, but it's well worth checking out. It's a descent ghost story with plenty of suspense. As I said before, this is a good movie to test children before showing them something like The Shining or Nightmare on Elm Street. Those used to more terrifying horror should know that this isn't the scariest thing on store shelves. It's a good, solid B-movie that won't really disappoint.

Regarding the sequel, I say skip it. As light as this movie is, House II is much lighter and far campier. In fact, it's more like Weekend at Bernie's than Evil Dead. It's more of a fantasy-western than horror and never scary. If you're watching this movie and want more, go with the Bruce Campbell trilogy.

Roger Cobb is a newly divorced horror novelist whose young son has recently mysteriously disappeared. He moves to his aunt's house to write a book about his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam. The trouble is that his aunt killed herself there in strange circumstances and before long Cobb starts to experience malevolent paranormal activity in the house. House was produced by Sean S. Cunningham, the man who directed the hugely influential slasher Friday the 13th (1980) and produced the notorious rape-revenge exploitation shocker Last House on the Left (1972). It would be fair to say that with House, he was involving himself with something decidedly less controversial. This is in actual fact a horror-comedy which is not so far off being family-friendly. While it does admittedly have its share of horror moments such as demonic creatures and some suspenseful events, it certainly plays its comedy hand with more certainty. The result is a very likable film.

This is a film which is not so well remembered now but it was a sizable hit at the time it was released from what I can recall, after all it did manage to spawn three sequels. It benefits quite a bit from very good performances from William Katt as Cobb and George Wendt as his friendly neighbour. Both have good comic timing and work well together, while Katt has to be given extra credit for still being capable of acting while wearing the most 80's V-neck sweater I have ever seen. Aside from the two leads there is also a lot of really good 80's effects and make-up for the various demons who plague the house, including a monster in the closet which I daresay haunted many a little kid who happened across this flick back in the day. It was also an interesting idea to combine the 80's movie staple of the Vietnam War in with a haunted house scenario. These strange bed-fellows are amalgamated pretty successfully I thought though, giving the movie a distinctive angle. Ultimately, House is a fun movie without ever being an essential one. It does display a certain craft and care though and, even if it is a bit limited in some ways, it's a film which is difficult to dislike and one which offers a fun 90 minutes for genre fans.

I always enjoyed this horror/comedy when I was a kid and upon viewing it again, I still enjoy it. The film just clicks for me and there is a lot going on in this one. I watched two other horror films recently, and more happened in this film than happened in those two films combined. Not saying they were bad as one was a horror film from the 70's and there are a lot them that are slow burn and rely on a last disturbing scene to make the film. The other one was kind of bad as it was a monster film that did not feature the monsters much as all. This one shows us monsters, has flying tools that want to chop you up and has a Vietnam vet returning from the grave! It also stars a lot of actors that were more known for their roles in television rather than film as it has William Katt known for, The Greatest American Hero, George Wendt from Cheers and Richard Moll from Night Court. The comedy is pretty good, but they still keep quite a bit of horror in this one too. The second film in the series would rely a bit more on comedy and action rather than horror.

The story has a man named Roger Cobb who is a writer. He has been having trouble writing since his son turned up missing one day. His aunt kills herself in the home where the boy seemingly disappeared in the pool and Roger soon moves into the old house. He meets his neighbor who is a fan of Roger's and everything proceeds normally enough...for a couple of minutes anyway! Soon Roger is being assailed by hellish creatures in the closet of his aunt's room, being attacked by the tools in his shed, sees his ex-wife turn into a grotesque monster and has to deal with many other things in the house full of craziness. All through the movie he also tries to write his latest novel which is a true story about his time in Vietnam. He also has to babysit a kid he doesn't even know and he and Harold (the neighbor) try to fight off the 'racoon' in the closet.

This film would spawn a sequel that would feature John Ratzenberger in a small role, so this one featured Norm and then the next Cliff. There is no true part three to the series as they named a completely unrelated film named, "The Horror Show" the title House III for its non U.S.A release, but here instead of naming the next actual House film, part III they went straight to IV. That film would not be a success, but if you have seen it you can easily see why as it has none of the charm of this film or second film and was just horrifically bad! This was the best of the House films I have seen. Never saw the not really a House film, Horror Show, but considering it was not really meant to be a House film I guess it really does not count. Though I am interested in seeing it if they ever release the full version of it. Apparently, its initial cut was so gruesome it garnered an X rating! This one could almost be PG-13 as there really is not too much gore in it, no nudity and minimal cussing. Still, it was a very fun horror film to watch. I loved the whole strangeness of the House, as there are monsters in it and strange portals to strange dark realms!

The successful writer Roger Cobb (William Katt) is trying to write a book about his experience in Vietnam, but he is blocked after the disappearance of his son Jimmy and the divorce from his wife, the actress Sandy Sinclair (Kay Lenz). When his beloved Aunt Elizabeth (Susan French) is found dead hanged in her bedroom, Roger inherits the house and moves to live there. His snoopy neighbor and fan Harold Gorton (George Wendt) gets close to Roger and learns that his aunt claimed that the house is haunted. Further Jimmy disappeared in the swimming pool on the back of the house. While writing his memories from the Vietnam when his pal Big Ben (Richard Moll) was captured and tortured by the Vietcong, weird things happen in the house and soon Roger leans that the place is a gateway to a hellish dimension.

"House" is one of the best haunted house films ever made. The plot is funny and recalls "Twilight Zone", with surrealistic situations. William Katt is great in the role of the writer that wants solitude but finds monsters while haunted by his past. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "House - A Casa do Espanto" ("House - The Frightening House")