House (1986)
Starring: William Katt, George Wendt, Richard Moll
Writer: Ethan Wiley
Director: Steve Miner
****Spoilers****
Vietnam Vet turned horror novelist Roger Cobb is in a world of jeopardy, as the mysterious disappearance of his son has ultimately lead to a divorce and a career decline. After his Aunt is found hanging from a noose in an upstairs bedroom, Roger moves into her house in an attempt to work on a new book detailing his past experiences as a soldier. Equally creepy to the Aunt's apparent suicide, the backyard swimming pool is the last place his son was seen alive. Plagued by visions of warfare and of the day his boy went missing, Cobb seems to be stepping over into insanity, and the house appears to be the cause. Not to mention monstrous phantasms start showing up like they own the damn place.
Produced by Sean S. Cunningham (Friday the 13th, A Stranger is Watching) adapted by Ethan Wiley (House II: The Second Story) from a Fred Dekker (Night of the Creeps, The Monster Squad) story, Steve Miner's nifty little horror comedy ending up being quite an impressive hit back in 1986. It debuted in the #2 spot at the box office, just barely losing out to Pretty in Pink, but still almost doubling its budget opening weekend. Ultimately, House ended up making it into the top 50 grossing films of that year. This was roughly about the time that Horror-Comedy was really starting to build a fan base in the mainstream. In years prior to 1986, we had films like Fright Night and Return of the Living Dead, which were fairly successful. Plus, there were more family oriented smash hits like Gremlins and Ghostbusters. All of these made use of horror elements with care and love for the genre, unlike parody films. I think a Horror-Comedy should be a faithful representation of horror, and not a talentless scheme used to purely make money by making a fucking joke out of it. Though, I guess there are a few exceptions, if you want to consider the Scream series a parody, for example. Anywho, back to House!
Some things I would never guessed by looking over House is what was filmed on a stage and what wasn't. The exterior of the house of course is real (with some modifications), but the interior was a two story stage set, designed with wide corridors to make easy access for cameras to get chase shots. Also a set was the jungle shown in the Vietnam flashback sequences, a rather small set, at that. Many of the trees were constantly rearranged to give off the effect that soldiers were fearing through a massive wooded area, and not in a confined space. I was convinced!
House overall looks beautiful, with great production design, perfect lighting for creature FX and tons of various angles, via multiple-camera setup used for nearly every second of the film. Exterior shots of the house itself aiming almost directly up are brilliant, giving off a towering and sinister feeling that the place might just swallow your sorry ass in one gulp. There's also a cool crane-cam used in the opening that takes you from the backyard to the side, slowly lowering so that a steady-cam operator can step off and escort you around to the front.
Now, about the comical aspect of House; I only half like it, unfortunately. Sure, as a youngin' I remember eating this whole thing up, giggling at every little goofy detail the film had to offer. Today, I find most of the monster's humor extremely annoying, particularly Cobb's vision of his ex-wife turned blubbery, nasty as a butt-pimple witch. Had they just kept this monster silent, I would be fine with it, as I am a fan of the uber-cheesy suit design. But no, they had to throw in some high-pitched voice that makes fingernails running down a chalkboard sound pleasing. I get it, I know it's supposed to be humorous... but it isn't. It is for lack of a better word, lame. I feel the same way about 'Zombie Big Ben' in the finale. I'm not sure if he is supposed to come off creepy and intimidating or funny as shit, because he just sounds ridiculous and not in a good way.
Thankfully, the human characters in House are still hella delightful. Let's start with William Katt (Carrie, Greatest American Hero), as Roger Cobb. More of a sympathetic soul, the funniness comes from how he handles the bizarre events happening within his aunt's house. For instance, when he does a test run of escaping a room that he's filled with cameras in the hopes of catching a monster on film... excellence! Equally amusing – his attempts at burying a creature in the yard when he's interrupted by an insanely hot neighbor. Katt fires on all cylinders here, creating a character impossible to dislike, and I wholeheartedly felt sorry for the guy, as well.
George Wendt (Cheers, Gung Ho) plays Harold, the next door neighbor. Instantly a big loveable teddy bear, he simply kills in the performance- a man wanting to be Roger's friend by showing a deep amount of concern for his well-being. Wendt and Katt are great together, and the duo make up many of the film's best moments. Richard Moll (Night Court) has more of a smaller role, as Big Ben, and old war buddy of Cobb's that constantly shows up in flashback sequences. Kay Lenz (Trial By Error) portrays the ex-wife/soap actress, Sandy Sinclair. Not a lot to do with the part, but she does just fine. There's a ton of familiar cameo's and very minor parts; Mary Stavin (former Miss World, A View to a Kill) as Tanya, an ever so lovely neighbor, Michael Ensign (Hotel Manager in Ghostbusters) as the home seller, and Alan Autry (In the Heat of the Night) and Steven Williams (The X-Files, Jason Goes to Hell) play police officers. Everybody is great, no matter how limited their screen time may be. And, while not a character in the film, Kane Hodder (Jason freakin' Voorhees) did the stunt coordination.
James Cummins (Enemy Mine, Deepstar Six) and Backwood films were the creature FX creators, and I was impressed with the lot of it. While I previously mentioned not diggin' on the actual personalities given to the characters of the 'Witch' and 'Zombie Big Ben', their appearances are a blast. But for me, nothing really beats the animatronic creature that dwells within a closet in one of the upstairs bedrooms. The design consists of an exoskeleton wrapped with latex rubber, made to look like a discombobulated mess of war-torn napalmed bodies with bullets for fingers. All mechanical. The thing has limited screen time, which is effective, because if shown more abundantly would probably have ended up looking pretty fucking hokey. Aside from creature FX, the scenes of hardware tools chasing Cobb around the house are amazing. Said to be a rather tedious task, knives and hedge clippers were sent flying across the screen attached to transparently painted wiring (something that would be purely CGI these days, and doubtfully as impressive), while a shovel was handled by an effects technician hiding under the camera's eye. Love it!
I've always been a big fan of Harry Manfredini's film scores, from this film to damn near all Friday the 13th entries... the man never disappoints. His sound has always reminded me of orchestral death metal or mathcore. Much like in his Friday work, the arrangements for House are concentrated chaos during action-esque moments, then out of nowhere come the textbook Manfredini screeching halts that are so surprising, you nearly need to be harnessed onto your couch so your face doesn't smack the floor. Dude fuckin' rules... 'nuff said.
So, other than my little nitpicking of the Yo Gabba Gabba- Tiny Ugly Germs sounding aspect of the witch, as well as the non-funny/non-creepy voice of 'Zombie Big Ben', I still really enjoy House. It was a whole lot of fun re-visiting, though, the DVD commentary wasn't as informative as I had hoped. Sean Cunningham comes off sounding like he never even watched the flick in its entirety, and I kinda find that sad since he served as a producer. Nevertheless, I'm talking about the movie here. I love Steve Miner's earlier work, but felt he kind of fell flat with H20 and especially that Day of the Dead “remake”. While he was in the director's chair for what I think are two of the most solid Friday the 13th sequels (2 & 3), this is his best effort for horror, in terms of style and creativity.
Trivia snipet- there's a for sale sign in front of the house during the first half of the film.... Company name: Craven Realty. Either that's a nod to Wes, or I really over analyze things. Well, duh.
