







Producer Sean S. Cunningham will forever be immortalized in horror history as the guy who took the earliest cues from the still-just-budding slasher genre and perfected them into a wildly successful franchise formula that more or less defined mainstream horror for the entirety of the 1980s. But after he had set the Friday the 13th saga in full swing, he did something even more interesting, and with arguably stronger (or at least more unique) results: he subverted the tropes of the horror genre and, in an era when most fright films weren't exactly known for being funny, he gave us one of the decade's best horror-comedies. That horror-comedy was House, and was co-written by none other than Fred Dekker, who that same year gave us the equally wonderful genre spoof Night of the Creeps. A haunted house movie unlike any other, House marked the beginning of another franchise for Cunningham, although it didn't prove to be as lucrative or long-lasting as his Friday the 13th films. Three sequels followed, with House II likewise becoming a cult classic in its own right. It was with House III that things started to go awry, as the series' apathetic new distributor sabotaged the promising Lance-Henriksen-led shocker by deciding to distance it from the franchise and market it as a standalone film instead, called The Horror Show. The result of their decision was that most viewers never knew that it was a House film at all, and assumed that the franchise had vanished after the folding of its original studio home, New World Pictures. A straight-to-video fourth installment did little to revive the wounded series, and Cunningham's House closed its doors without ever growing to the stature of his better-known franchise, even if it really did deserve it. But at the very least House and House II have carved out a solid niche in cult-cinema history as popular favorites that made a big impression on anyone who grew up with 80s horror.





Arrow Video has honored that place in cult film history by giving the first two House movies a long-overdue special edition blu-ray release in North America, as a very impressive box set that includes a hardcover book about the films. Let's take a closer look at this lavish release of these fondly remembered horror hits.









House (1986)





Years before Bruce Joel Rubin’s long gestating Jacob’s Ladder fused the horror genre with the post-Vietnam War PTSD drama, Friday the 13 th director Sean S. Cunningham and Friday the 13 th Part II and III director Steve Miner grounded the premise in a decidedly different form of horror: the horror-comedy. Spoken of the same breath as Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II and Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive , the film begins as a relatively tense PTSD tale of prolific horror author Roger Cobb (William Katt) whose ghostly visions inside the house he takes refuge in may or may not simply be madness. Gradually however, the film reveals itself as an out-and-out screwball comedy with some brilliant practical effects makeup, elaborate puppeteering and a wicked sense of humor.





Initially intended to be a kind of anthological horror film ala Twilight Zone: The Movie before boiling down to one story to tell, House (not to be confused with the Japanese horror film Hausu ) feels like a standard haunted house thriller until the prosthetic makeup effects and gifted puppeteers take over, giving viewers an inspired horror comedy which went on to spawn three sequels and went on to gross $22.1 million against a relatively meek $3 million budget. One of the charms of the picture is the tongue-in-cheek deadpan sense of humor, notably coming from the author’s neighbor Harold Gorton (George Wendt of Cheers ). We’re led to believe after a terrifying vision of a spirit bursting through a door we’re watching a horror thriller and then everyman Harold shows up shows up to subvert our expectations with his dry sarcasm, allowing viewers to laugh at parts instead of the whole thing.





"I've been sent to talk to you about the overdue rent..."

As it stands, the film is a comic horror blast with some inspired makeup effects and a unique approach to the PTSD thriller. Most of House isn’t to be taken all that seriously, but the premise of an author trying to exorcise his postwar trauma in a domain already overstuffed with demons of its own is a clever, almost meta concept. Like Twilight Zone , it toys with our expectations and perceptions of what’s actually happening onscreen. Is the house Roger Cobb is inhabiting really truly haunted by dormant evil spirits or is he just one step closer to criminal insanity? Filled with a bevy of riotous sight gags, a unique mixture of horror and comedy and above all a bona fide adoration for the genre, House is a textbook example of the 80s horror comedy and proof positive that you can tell a compelling horror story with a sharp and consistent sense of humor about itself.





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The Video:





"The horror... the horror..."

The long awaited blu-ray release of House from Arrow Video gets a 2K restoration created from the original 35mm interpositive after being scanned on a pin-registered 4K Lasergraphics Director Scanner at Deluxe Burbank. Picture grading was completed on a DaVinci Resolve with picture restoration performed using PFClean software. The end results look rich and filmic while free of unnatural print damage. Some scenes like the dark portal are a tad bright however, revealing matte lines though I can’t be sure if this was inherent on the theatrical master. That said, colors are strong and the image is stable and free of wobbling. Fans should most definitely be pleased with the restoration work done here.





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The Audio:





As with the Anchor Bay DVD set, House comes with the original 2.0 mono track and a newly remixed 5.1 surround soundtrack, presented here in DTS-HD. As with most 80s horror films recorded and mixed in mono that have since received a 5.1 bump, the 5.1 mix is mostly front loaded, though the music and certain scenes involving those pesky spirits roaming about take advantage of the rear speakers. Though not altogether a very active mix with only occasional directional use, the sound is clean and free of distortion or drop outs and should provide listeners with a pleasing sonic experience. Nothing earth shattering but not that a wildly immersive audio remix was altogether necessary for this kind of film either.





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The Extras:





"Nothing kills the grimace."

The audio commentaries, trailers and vintage featurette from the Anchor Bay DVD set have been ported over to the new Arrow set with one key new extra, Ding Dong, You’re Dead! The Making of House , a one-hour retrospective documentary chronicling the film’s journey from script to screen. It’s an engaging little documentary which brings some of the cast and crew members back while shedding light on the genesis of the project as well as how few horror films at the time tried to address the Vietnam War and it’s postwar effects on veterans. The other key new extra in the set is a 60-some page book which goes quite in-depth into the production of House and its sequels (though obviously the focus is mostly on the first two entries, present in this set). The book is very interesting if you're a fan of the series, and is also a very well put-together package, similar to the one included in the new Donnie Darko set.





As with most Arrow releases, the disc itself comes with reversible sleeve art with one side containing newly commissioned artwork and the other containing the original theatrical poster artwork. Also included is the original first-draft screenplay and the short story which served as the basis for House . Though much of what’s here was previously available on the DVD, the new extras and ornate packaging should offer fans an invigorating plethora of bonus content, rounding off this Arrow package as a solid addition to anyone’s horror film collection.





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House II: The Second Story (1987)





While House began its life as an abandoned concept that Fred Dekker, Ethan Wiley, and Steve Miner had come up with for an anthology horror film, House II brought the series back around to that concept, in a grand-scale way. Five years after Halloween III failed to do this, and almost twenty-five years before American Horror Story would find massive success with the formula, Sean S. Cunningham and company came up with the idea to make an anthology series in which each film was a unique standalone movie generally based around the same concept. The possibilities could have been endless: imagine a series as long as Halloween or Friday the 13 th , but with each entry being a totally unique, but equally off-the-wall, haunted house flick. That was the idea. Unfortunately, the House series quickly proved – again like American Horror Story – that it was much better at concepts than execution. Don't get me wrong: House II is a lot of fun, and the fond nostalgia that a whole generation of horror fans has for it, based on VHS rentals and cable TV reruns in the late-80s and early-90s, is totally justified. But while the original House is legitimately a very good, very clever and well-made entry in its genre, House II is 100% campy guilty-pleasure. It may be a lot of fun... but if we're honest, it isn't a good movie.





House II has much of what made the original film so memorable: a whole menagerie of excellent practical effects, Gregg Fonseca's wonderfully atmospheric art design, Mac Ahlberg's cinematography, Harry Manfredini's musical score, Ethan Wiley's goofy sense of humor. However, it is missing two of the biggest things that made the first House so good: strong character development, a cohesive plot with compelling themes, and genuine pathos underneath the humor. Everything in the original film, as off-the-wall as it may seem, comes back to the central themes of Roger Cobb's wounded psyche and the two things that have damaged it so badly: his Vietnam War traumas, and the disappearance and presumed death of his son. Here, it's just off-the-wall. None of the characters have much depth beyond the immediately-identifiable first impression we pick up upon meeting them (The Hapless Nice Guy, The Wacky Best Friend, The Smarmy Music Producer, who happens to be played by a young Bill Maher), and none of them really go through character arcs of any significance. In fact, a good few of them are guilty of the movie sin of behaving in extremely hard-to-believe ways simply to move the plot along. But as for the plot... there kind of isn't one, except in the vaguest sense. It feels more like the set-up for an anthology film, actually: a guy inherits his dead relatives' house – complete with an undead relative still living there – and the house happens to be some sort of odd cosmic anomaly where different rooms have portals to different points in time. People or things come out of said rooms trying to get their hands on the artifact that gives the house its strange powers, and thus we get a series of largely unrelated segments with different, equally outlandish and colorful villains. The only real through-line is a suplot involving two undead Old West gunslingers - the kindly and charming Gramps (Royal Dano, giving easily the most memorable performance of the movie) and his sadistic outlaw rival Slim Reezer, but even this only occupies a small part of the film, and the bulk of the runtime has nothing much to do with it.





"Only the baddest outlaws stand right on your food..."





But with all that said, each of the individual vignettes/set-pieces are a ton of fun in their own right. The variety keeps the film lively and unpredictable, and the art design and effects are great. This really cannot be overstated, especially considering the low budget that this film was working under: this is all seriously impressive stuff, from a technical standpoint. There's claymation, puppetry, awesome costumes and makeup, and sets that look extremely grand in scale for a low-budget genre flick. The villainous Slim Reezer looks particularly good: a hybrid of great makeup, prosthetics, and stop-motion which adds up to one memorable villain. It's just a shame that he is so underutilized. Still, this awesome assortment of effects set-pieces should be plenty to make House II a lot of fun for horror fans who dig these types of visuals; it certainly stops the film from ever being boring, even when the plot and characters are sorely lacking. If only the script were are good as the effects, this would be a very solid movie indeed. But alas, it really is not.





In the end, House II will likely work best either for those who saw this when they were young and have genuine nostalgia for it, or those who love 80s practical effects or cheesy genre films. But if you're not already fond the movie from seeing it through younger and less discerning eyes, or if you're not able to take in the cool effects and be forgiving of the cheese that surrounds it, it becomes clear fairly quickly that it just isn't all that good. It is the cinematic equivalent of junk food; tasty at the time, but not very filling. It is a collection of fun scenes that adds up to less than the sum of its parts. But still, it's worth a look for fans of this era in this genre, and since it comes packaged with the original, you can't go too wrong by switching off your brain and enjoying the madness.





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The Video:





House II: The poor man's Indiana Jones.

As with the original, House II is presented here in a brand-new 2K transfer made from the interpositive through exactly the same restoration process. Everything that was said about that transfer is generally true here too: the transfer is very strong, with great clarity and color, and a distinctive 35mm appearance with plenty of film grain. The film looks great, and while some of the visual effects limitations are made a bit more obvious in high def, most of the effects look cooler than ever. However, there are some picture defects visible here and there, likely inherent to the source material. Strangest is that every now and then throughout the film, a subtle line of discoloration pops up at the right edge of the frame, going up much of the height of the picture. It would be easy to overlook, and I suspect it was a flaw on the interpositive that couldn't be removed entirely, but it is nonetheless there if you look for it. Aside from that, though, House II looks better than one might expect; visually, it has aged fairly well.





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The Audio:





Once again, what was said about the first House is largely true here: we have a choice of the original stereo or a new 5.1 mix. The audio has been cleaned up quite well, and it all sounds quite robust, within its low-budget limitations. I don't have a 5.1 setup, so I cannot confirm whether the surround mix is any livelier than the more limited mono-to-5.1 mix on House, but the original stereo sounds solid.





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The Extras:





"No no no, THIS was the poor man's

Indiana Jones...

Once again, all the extras from past DVD releases have been ported over – although in this case, the only previously-existing extra is a commentary by Cunningham and writer/director Ethan Wiley. But once again Arrow has produced an excellent new one-hour documentary about the production of House II, and this makes up for the lack of any other vintage extras. The doc is very detailed, and will definitely answer any questions that fans have about the film's production, in a very entertaining way. Just about all of the actors (except for Bill Mahr and Cheers' John Ratzenberger) and major crew members return, and it is clear that all of them had a pretty great time making this movie. The special effects team in particular are a lot of fun to listen to, as they go into detail about how they created the film's memorable creatures. Writer/director Wiley is also refreshingly honest about the film's shortcomings, much of which stem from how quickly the film was rushed into production (it was released only a year and a half after the original). He says that his one major regret about the film is that he wishes he could have had more time to improve the script, which he was given all of two weeks to crank out. That explains quite a lot – and I wish he could have had more time too, as the doc makes a strong case for how good the behind-the-camera team was, and how much better the film probably could have been if they could have had the time they needed. In addition to the documentary, once again the hardcover book in the set provides further insights into the film's production, and its place in the series in general.





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Such caterpillar. So puppy.

Very practical. Much puppeteering.

Wow.

Of course, there is one specter hanging over Arrow's House: Two Stories box set, and that is the fact that fans in the UK get to enjoy a four-story House, while ours is only half that size. The European version of the set contains the complete franchise, while such a complete set proved an impossibility in America due to rights issues. House III is currently owned by Scream Factory, and has its own blu-ray with them, under its US title, The Horror Show. Unfortunately their disc only contains the US theatrical cut, which is missing a minute and a half of additional gore effects exclusive to the European House III version found in the Arrow set. As an aside, the Scream Factory blu-ray finally gave Cunningham the chance, in the disc's audio commentary, to clear up the long-standing debate about whether the film was a true House sequel that got its name changed in America, or an unrelated movie that was called House III overseas as a cash-in. It's official: The Horror Show always was supposed to be the third House movie, but MGM/UA changed the title because they didn't think the franchise name had enough box-office draw. Hopefully it being included in Arrow's House collection will help cement its rightful place in the series, even if American viewers don't get to enjoy that context. House IV, meanwhile, is apparently owned by Warner Bros, who are notoriously difficult when it comes to licensing out films. This is particularly unfortunate since House IV has never even been released on DVD here; it has been out of print since the VHS/laserdisc era, and is very rare indeed. However, the UK House: The Collection set happens to be region-free (even though parts III and IV were supposed to be region-B-locked – lucky for us!), so if you are willing to import you can easily get your hands on the uncut version of House III/The Horror Show and the disc debut of House IV. But if you're content with the first two films – or if the British 4-film set sells out, as it is a limited edition – the Two Stories box set is nonetheless a great special edition of the first two movies. The transfers are very good, the new documentaries are excellent, and the hardcover book just makes the whole package even better. If you're a fan of this series, it is certainly worth picking up, whichever version you get. Highly recommended.





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- Christopher S. Jordan (Introduction, House II, Conclusion)

- Andrew Kotwicki (House)









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