A review coming up for this just as soon as I take a couple of pictures…

Horror writer Roger Cobb lost his child one day, divorced his Wife and lives in the house of his recently deceased Aunt. If that wasn’t the worst of his problems, the house is haunted.

House is the second Steve Miner film on this list, after the similar-in-tone Lake Placid (He’ll be making his third appereance soon), and like that one this leans decidedly more towards comedy than it does horror. All of the traditional ‘scare’ scenes are instead capped off with a joke. For instance, take the scene where a monster bursts from the closet to attack Cobb. We cut immeadiately to a scene where Cobb has a plethora of cameras and video cameras set up, all ready to go off the moment he opens the door (Handily he has a string to open it with). If that wasn’t enough, he’s also decked out in full military regalia.

This week I’ve watched a few 80’s movies in a row, and something occurred to me. You just don’t get films like this any more. House is weird, even for an 80’s movie it’s weird. It was a pioneering time in visual effects, and it almost gave license to any filmaker to crank out anything they wanted. Lest we forget this was the same era that gave us Evil Dead and it’s sequel, which is tonally similar to House.

The only let down is, as always, the end. Once the weirdness stops and things need wrapping up the film loses a lot of its charm. Thankfully it’s one of those occasions where the film wraps everything up in about five minutes. Still it’s a fun time to be had, provided you can roll with the weirdness.

Now we just have to wait until the inevitable remake.

Up Next: The Funhouse.