Freaky things happen in "House" (1986)

Pizza and wings, beer and nachos, mustard and ketchup, these few things are synonymous with one and other. And so is horror and comedy, but unlike the previous delicious examples, horror and comedy can have some god fearing results. Only a few names can succeed in being great at both, intentional or not. Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson come to mind instantaneously with the “Evil Dead” series and “Dead Alive” being my favourite movies from those two. This is my take on “House”, for better or worse.

Vietnam vet and horror story writer Roger Cobb (William Katt) inherits his late Aunt Elizabeth’s house. But he has had some history there; last time he stayed over his son mysteriously disappeared without a trace. Now divorced and on the brink of his writing career, Roger lives alone trying to finish his book about his experiences at ‘Nam. But the evil monsters in the closet won’t leave him be, instead they reign all kinds of terror upon him. After further investigation, there is a link between his ‘Nam stories, the haunted house and his missing son.

What kind of mess did Roger land himself into?

Duality seems to be the main theme of this movie, not only do we get both comedy and horror (quality of course is subjective), Cobb is stuck between two worlds; present day in the haunted house and past experiences with ‘Nam. There is also the presence of what is real and what is all a hallucination being played on by the monsters.  And this might be the gem of the whole movie, how the movie seemingly switches back between worlds. The transitions are smooth and never lets the movie get too dull. The plot gets real thick when the two worlds combine.

Now being a horror-comedy movie, I always feel the acting should be over the top and extra cheesy. I was not let down by Katt’s performance; he truly is The Greatest American actor. His nervous and slightly mad attitude towards his house runs perfectly parallel to what I was going through. Initially blowing all the creaks as noises old houses make, he starts to second guess if what he heard was a ghost or a mouse. But when he finally breaks and goes crazy enough to kill his wife with a shotgun is peak of his mood swing, I was left wondering. Did that just happen? He truly does carry the movie on a positive track.

One of my favourite monsters, the zombie.

The real world is utterly boring in this movie aside from the extra nosey neighbour Harold (George Wendt) who seemed to know his name, and his super attractive exotic neighbour across the street, Tanya (Mary Stavin) who is fairly blatant on what kind of fun she is into. The real fun stuff comes from within the house which leads into the next realm. The realm with ghouls, ghosts and zombies who had spooked me on the off chance they appeared. Most of the costumes for the creatures are surprisingly good and even scary (in the good way of course), especially the clawed worm. But the real menace is the final zombie. I won't spoil the movie too much but he is an integral part of the bow that wraps this story up. He also strongly reminds me of Iron Maiden's mascot, Eddie, a creature I adore!

There isn’t much to dislike from “House”, it’s a fairly 80’s movie. The montages could have been cut out without a complaint, but then again what is an 80’s movie without a montage? It is kind of cheesy when he beheads his ghoul wife and a break up song plays in the background as he disposes her. But the movie gives what it promises. The time spent in the real world can get tedious and mundane, but that is because most of the fun happens in the haunted house.

The movie came off as bit of a surprise. I wasn't expecting greatness, but I did feel that a quality movie was in order. Miner directed a couple of the Jason movies, so the quality of horror should be par at least, which it wasn't. And "The Monster Squad" own Fred Dekker wrote the script, making the comedy something that shouldn't be feared, and laughs were had. The overall package of the movie was good, but not without the typical 80's flaws. The story and atmosphere, with the help of Katt, made this movie thoroughly enjoyable.