House (1986) - film review

When his elderly aunt hangs herself, writer Roger Cobb decides to take up residence in her large old house.   Recently separated from his wife and still traumatised by the mysterious disappearance of his young son, Cobb is suffering from a severe case of writer’s block.  He hopes that the solitude afforded by the old house will allow him to complete his next book, an account of his wartime experiences in Vietnam.  Unfortunately, the house has other ideas.  Not long after he moves into the house, Cobb is visited by strange ghoulish apparitions.  Are they real or merely the product of his over-active imagination..?

Having made a pretty unpromising directorial debut with the first two sequels to Friday the 13th, Steve Miner was called upon to direct another horror film, albeit one of an altogether different kind, for producer Sean S. Cunningham.  Although Miner would later go on to prove his mettle and garner considerable respect, this early offering - a juvenile spoof of The Amityville Horror (1979) - does him few favours, mainly because the script is such a shambolic mess.   Wallowing in its own silliness, the film offers few decent laughs and even fewer frights, although it was a notable box office hit when it was first released, enough of a hit to inspire three sequels.  The popularity of House says far more about the quality of horror films at that time than the quality of the film itself.  This has to be one of the most unsophisticated horror spoofs of all time, and you have to be seriously drunk to see the funny side.

© Steve Chandler 2010

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