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 13th
director
Sean S. Cunningham and Friday
the 13th
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.
Score:
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.
Score:
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.
Score:
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.
Score:
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 13th,
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.
Score:
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.
Score:
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.
Score:
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.
Score:
 |
| 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.
Overall Score:
- Christopher S. Jordan (Introduction, House II, Conclusion)
- Andrew Kotwicki (House)
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