What makes the ‘House’ series one of the strangest horror franchises around? The fact that each of the four films is completely distinct from the others, with the exception of the title. There are few returning characters, and even when they do, their backstories in the films are vastly different, despite the fact that they are all played by the same actor. The directors should be commended for being unconcerned about the franchise’s continuity. The first film, written by Ethan Wiley and directed by Steve Miner, was released in 1986 and received the highest score of the four films that make up this strange franchise. Steve Miner is most known for directing the sequels to “Friday the 13th,” as well as “Lake Placid.”
William Katt, George Wendt, Richard Moll, and others star in the film. The story revolves around a novelist named Roger Cobb who goes to live in his aunt’s house after she dies and encounters monsters there. The sequel to “House 2: The Second Story” written and directed by Ethan Wiley and based on a story by Fred Dekker, was released in 1987. Jesse and his pal Charlie have chosen to uncover his ancestor’s body in order to find a powerful old Aztec skull. Arye Gross and Jonathan Stark play key roles in the film.
James Isaac and David Blyth directed “House 3: The Horror Show,” which was released in 1989. Lance Henriksen, Brion James, and Rita Taggart feature in the thriller, which follows police officer Lucas, whose home is haunted by an executed killer. “House 4” is the final installment in the franchise, directed by Lewis Abernathy and starring Terri Treas, William Katt, and others. It follows Roger Cobb’s family as they accidentally move into a haunted house. Let us go over the plots of each film in the “House” series one by one.
Horror has found a New Home – House (1985)
The movie’s first scene displayed the house of “House,” which was actually in Monrovia, California. The production team spent four weeks remodeling it according to their requirement. As the grocer boy entered the house to deliver, he was horrified to find that the owner of the house, Elizabeth, had committed suicide. We are then introduced to the protagonist, Roger Cobb, who was an author and the nephew of the deceased Elizabeth. He was under pressure to write another novel by his publisher. But to everyone’s disappointment, Roger decided to write a book on his experiences of the Vietnam War.
Roger appeared to be pretty troubled and frustrated as his son went missing from Aunt Elizabeth’s house three years ago. After the incident, he left the house and had looked for his son in every possible way for the past three years. Roger’s life had come to a standstill, and no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to concentrate on his writing. He had even grown very distant from his wife Sandy, who was an actress.
Roger visited his aunt’s house with a broker the following day, which he initially thought of selling. On visiting the garden, he remembered the day three years ago, when he was looking after the plants, and Jimmy was playing nearby with his toys. Suddenly, Jimmy had vanished, and when Roger started looking for him, he found Jimmy drowning in the swimming pool. Roger had immediately dived in the pool to save Jimmy, but he seemed to have vanished from the pool. The police didn’t believe that Jimmy could disappear from such a small pool and were sure about being kidnapped. Meanwhile, Aunt Elizabeth insisted that the house was responsible for Jimmy’s disappearance, but everyone thought that she was mentally unstable.
The broker took Roger into the storeroom where he saw the last painting by Elizabeth. The artwork displayed a grandfather clock exactly at 12 ó clock and a closet opening to another dimension. A part of the painting was covered, but Roger didn’t pay any more attention to it. Instead, he recollected the beautiful moments he had spent with his family and decided to start living in that house again.
Roger started writing about his experiences in the Vietnam War, remembering his team and his comrades, especially Big Ben, who was killed in the war. He was engrossed in writing when he heard his son’s voice. He followed the voice and opened the closet and guess who was there? A deformed monster attacked him as Roger somehow managed to escape. He set up many traps to fight the monsters and even told his neighbor Harold everything, but Harold thought that Roger had just lost it due to excessive stress.
Soon, strange things start happening in the house. Roger was attacked by a swordfish hanging on the wall, followed by tools like axes, hammers, and others. Then he was visited by his wife Sandy, but even she transformed into a monster and was killed by Roger. In the meantime, Roger befriended another neighbor Tanya, who left his son Robert with him for babysitting. As Roger left little Robert to watch T.V, three little critters appeared and tried to take Robert through the chimney. Roger somehow managed to save him and put him for a bath.
Consequently, Roger convinced Harold to fight the monster with him, but he was frozen with shock while Roger was taken back with the monster to the time when Big Ben was dying. Ben had begged Roger to kill him before the enemies laid their hands on him, but Roger was unable to kill him. The enemies took him and tortured him for seven days before killing him.
When Roger returned to the real world, he carefully watched Aunt Elizabeth’s painting, and when he removed the covering from the top corner of the artwork, he saw Jimmy’s face painted behind the bathroom medicine cabinet. He broke the mirror of the bathroom cabinet and landed in another dimension where he found Jimmy locked in a cage. He brought Jimmy back to the real world, and this time the skeleton of Big Ben appeared, who was the actual mastermind behind all these incidents.
He was desperate to take revenge on Roger, who he thought was responsible for his suffering. As Roger stopped being scared of Big Ben, he grew weaker, and Roger finally threw a grenade at him, which caused a massive explosion. Sandy arrived at the spot, ecstatic to reunite with her son. Roger smiled victoriously as the house kept burning.
This horror-comedy comes as a pleasant surprise from the producer and director of serious slasher films like “Friday the 13th”. In fact, the original screenplay by Fred Dekker had no humor at all. Ethan Wiley added all the comedy as he rewrote the script. The film was made on a budget of about $3 million, while it bagged about $22 million at the box office.
Seventeen special effects artists designed the seven monsters that appeared in the film for three and a half months. Despite being a comedy, the film managed to generate some scary moments, while the innovative storyline, including Roger’s post-war trauma, makes ‘House’ a great watch. Director Steve Miner received a Critics Award for the film, while also being nominated for the International Fantasy Film Award.
A Whole New House with All-New Owners – House II: The Second Story (1987)
We have a whole new house for you in “House II: The Second Story”, which belonged to our protagonist Jesse Mclaughlin. He arrived at his ancestral mansion with his girlfriend Kate and was soon joined by his goofy friend Charlie Coriell and his girlfriend Lana. The house bore a sad memory as Jesse’s parents were murdered by an unknown entity when he was a baby, though Jesse seemed to have a gala time in the mansion with his friends. In reality, the mansion used in the movie is called ‘Stimson House’ and is located in California, built-in 1891, and was the home to Chicago business financer Thomas Douglas Stimpson.
While meddling through the old things in the basement, Jesse found a photo of his great-great-grandfather, standing in front of an Aztec temple, holding a crystal skull in his hand whose eyes were made of sapphire. Another person was also in the photo, who Jesse learned was Slim Reeser, former partner of his great-great-grandfather. But Reeser had turned into a bitter enemy over the dispute of the ownership of the skull.
Hoping to retrieve the skull, Jesse and Charlie decided to unearth his ancestor’s grave when the corpse attacked them. After revealing his identity as the great-great-grandson, Jesse managed to befriend the corpse and took the cowboy zombie back to their mansion. He was nicknamed ‘Gramps,’ while he was absolutely horrified to discover his degenerated looks, blaming the skull for not rejuvenating him properly.
It is hard to believe that Royal Dano, featuring Gramps, had heart surgery before filming as he seemed to put his entire heart in his role. Gramps enthusiastically narrated stories of the Old West while he added that the stones from the Aztec Temple had been used to build the house where they were living. The rooms of the house acted as a hidden doorway to a different dimension, while the skull was the key to that door. He warned them against the evil forces desperate to acquire the skull and handed them the charge to defend it.
Soon, Charlie decided to throw a Halloween party where Gramps also showed up, but his appearance was merely taken as a Halloween Costume. Unfortunately, a barbarian sort of a person arrived at the party from the Stone Age and stole the skull. Hello everyone! He is not an ordinary person. He is Kane Hodder; you must have seen him featuring as Jason Voorhees four times. Well, he was also the stunts coordinator in most of the films.
Jesse and Charlie followed him into a room, leading them to a Stone Age jungle. The man was about to kill Charlie but an animal killed him, and well, I don’t know what that animal was! Later, a pterodactyl snatched the skull and carried it to its nest, where a baby Pterodactyl was playing with it.
As Jesse tried to retrieve the skull from the baby Pterodactyl, Jesse and Charlie crashed into another room of the mansion. The baby Pterodactyl carried the skull and an adorable caterpillar dog was also retrieved from beneath the rubbles. I never knew that such creatures existed in the Stone Age. Amidst all the commotion, there was a misunderstanding between Jesse and Kate, while Kate left with her boss and Lana.
At least Gramps was happy that he got back his skull. But no! Few Aztec warriors appeared out of nowhere, hit Gramps, and went away with the skull. This time, an electrician cum part-time adventurer, Bill Towner, came to repair a faulty electrical line, broke a wall, and reached the dimension where the Aztec warriors took the skull and were about to sacrifice an Aztec virgin. Jesse, Charlie, and Bill fighting the Aztec warriors was a piece of cake, as they took the skull safely back to Gramps once again, and the virgin seemed to like Jesse and fell for him.
As they all sat for dinner, from the dining table emerged the final antagonist, Slim Reeser, who shot Gramps, took the skull, made the Aztec virgin hostage, and escaped. Finally, we find the link between the two films of the franchise. Like the previous film, the leading antagonist appeared just before the climax. Slim also revealed that he was the one responsible for murdering his parents.
Enraged, Jesse jumped through a window and landed in the Old West and ensued a vigorous battle with Slim, where he finally managed to blast his head. The police finally shot the headless Slim and killed him. Gramps gave a final warning about the skull’s power to Jesse and passed away. Afterward, Jesse traveled back to Old West, kept the skull in Gramps’ new grave while he drove away with Charlie, his new girlfriend, and the two pets on a new adventure.
“House II: The Second Story,” with a PG-13 rating, is a family film where the kids can also enjoy the movie. There was hardly any horror element or gore in the film. Even a comic book was adapted from the film by Marvel Comics, which Ralph Macchio wrote; a different Ralph Macchio mind you, not the Karate Kid. Ethan Wiley was given only two weeks to write the script. Though the film did reasonably well in the box office and didn’t get a fair review from the critics, overall, the film is quite light-hearted and entertaining. After all, the kids require a horror movie once in a while.
This Time We’re Not Kidding – The Horror Show (1989)
If you consider “House” and “House II” as the North Pole, then “House III” or “The Horror Show” is definitely the South Pole. In fact, the producers have also marketed the film as unrelated to the House series. There is absolutely no comedy at all. In fact, it is an intense slasher horror standalone film with nothing- I mean nothing linked with the previous films apart from producer Sean S. Cunningham and a haunted house.
The film commenced on a dark and windy night. Detective Lucas got out of his bed, restless, as he started checking his house thoroughly. He checked on his sleeping son Scott, but before he could look into his daughter Bonnie, he was bothered by some noise. He followed the noise with a gun but finally found his cat, Cosmo, making the noise. Yet, Lucas went into the basement to ensure everything was fine. As he stared at the fire in the furnace, we were taken to the flashback and informed about the reason behind his restlessness.
Earlier, Lucas and his partner Casey followed the infamous serial killer “Meat Cleaver Max” Jenke. As Lucas entered Max’s house, we soon realized how deadly, brutal, and demented our antagonist was! There were body parts everywhere, in the fryer, grinder and even a decapitated head of another detective was on a plate. Later, Max also chopped off Casey’s arms while he decapitated the young girl who was his hostage. Lucas was awakened from the nightmare and also started strangling his wife, Donna, as Lucas hallucinated her face as Max’s. We understood that Lucas had been tormented with frequent nightmares and hallucinations, for which he was also undergoing psychotherapy. It was not clear whether the incidents were nightmares or flashbacks, but one thing was clear that he was the officer who had finally captured Max.
The next day, Lucas went to watch the execution of Max, whose last request was to be buried with the meat cleaver that he had used to slaughter most of his victims. But, no matter how much they increase the voltage of the electric execution chair, Max wouldn’t die and only get stronger. Finally, his body caught fire, and before dying, he warned Lucas that he would be coming back for revenge. In the crowd, there was professor Peter Campbell, who went to the morgue. There, he experienced sudden electrical impulses and power surges and realized that Max had turned into a supernatural being. Eventually, supernatural Max entered the furnace in the basement of Lucas’s house. Campbell even tried to warn Lucas about his experience and Max’s return, but Lucas didn’t pay any attention to him. We could see that his hallucinations about Max continued while he was about to collide with a truck.
Meanwhile, Bonnie’s boyfriend Vinnie was hiding in the basement, hoping to spend the night with Bonnie when her parents went out for dinner, but was brutally murdered by the physical manifestation of Max. When Bonnie actually went down to meet Vinnie, he was nowhere to be found. She started looking for Vinnie throughout the house with Max when Lucas received a threatening call from Max. As Lucas went to the basement, the furnace haunted by Max, started threatening Lucas again. Lucas shouted,” You stay away from my daughter, you piece of ….” Bonnie and Scott were certain that Lucas had found Vinnie and was furious with him. When Bonnie confessed to her family about Vinnie hiding in the basement, Lucas confirmed that he was not talking to anyone in the basement.
The life of Lucas and his family turned into a nightmare when Lucas began to see Max’s face everywhere around him, even in the roasted turkey and television shows when Lucas finally freaked out and started getting violent all the time. He went back to his therapist and decided to visit Max’s home. And who did he meet there? Professor Campbell, as he stated his theory about the present situation. So, Campbell had been working on an understanding of a pure evil form of electromagnetic energy. Max had used his homemade electric chair to build his resistance to the electric execution chair and forced them to raise the voltage, which didn’t actually kill him but put him on a higher level of existence with ghostly powers. Who would have thought that Max had such in-depth knowledge of science?
Back at Lucas’s house, Bonnie received a call from Vinnie calling her to the basement, where Bonnie discovered the mutilated corpse of Vinnie. The primary suspect was Lucas, as police arrested him for questioning while informing him that Campbell was also dead. After all the hide and seek, Max finally revealed himself and commenced his attacks on Scott, Bonny, and Donna. Lucas escaped from police custody and reached home, where he found his kids in miserable conditions and his wife kidnapped. Through the furnace, Lucas got pulled into Max’s afterlife dimension, where Campbell’s decapitated head instructed him to put Max through more electric shocks and bring him back to his physical form before his head exploded. Lucas and Donna acted exactly the way they were told. They managed to electrocute Max to an extent where he was back in his physical form, and Lucas managed to shoot all the bullets to finally kill the devil after all. The family sold the house and moved on, as they all lived happily ever after.
“House III” is back with adult horror and bloody gore, brutal murders, and spine-chilling terrors that are expected from a horror movie. The best thing that happened to the movie was Lance Henriksen taking the responsibility of the entire film on his shoulders. The concept of the electrical ghost was quite innovative, but the plot slackens at many points. The movie could have been a lot more interesting with a better antagonist without the hideous laughter, though Brion James loved his character. The film is one of the three films released in 1989 and 1990, that had the plot of a serial killer come back to life after being executed. The other films were “Shocker” in 1989 and “The First Power” released in 1990. The movie also had to delete several scenes to avoid an ‘X’ rating. “The Horror Show” may not have lived up to the expectations of horror fans, but hey, we have seen worse.
Step Into Terror – House IV (1992)
With this movie, we come to the end of the “House,” I meant the “House” franchise, of course. “House IV”, popularly known as “House IV: The Repossession,” sees the return of William Katt as Roger Cobb but with a different wife, Kelly, a daughter Laurel, instead of Jimmy, and a different house inherited from his father and not from his dear aunt Elizabeth. However, his step-brother, Burke, intended to sell the house for a lot of money, but Roger was not interested.
As the family happily organized the house, they were visited by an old spiritual guide, Ezra, who told them that “The Great Spirit” would guide them in the house, while he seemed genuinely happy that Roger refused to sell the house. Burke tried to convince his brother once more, stating that he had already made a deal with someone about the house, but Roger intended to keep the family house. Burke finally said goodbye to his brother and got inside the car. We could see that two goons were also in the car. As Roger and his family left the house, Ezra went inside. In the basement, there was a secret chamber containing a mystical seal.
As the family drove, their car had a tire burst and the car toppled and crashed. Kelly somehow managed to save Laurel, but before she could save Roger, the car exploded and Roger was dead. Kelly decided to move into Roger’s ancestral house with Laurel, whose legs were now paralyzed due to the accident. As the mother and daughter tried settling down in the house, Kelly injured her hand with the glass of the window.
She tried washing her wound, but the taps were all clogged. Suddenly, a woman, Verna Klump, appeared from nowhere and claimed to be the housekeeper of the house. Kelly was sure that her father had arranged for the housekeeper for her convenience. As Kelly went to the basement to check out some noise, she fell, and her flashlight slipped onto the mystical seal. Kelly couldn’t see the seal, but she lowered her wounded hand to get the flashlight. Soon Kelly found that her wound had magically healed itself.
Kelly decided to go for a yard sale where Burke showed up again with the dangerous men and tried every possible way to convince Kelly to sell the house. Soon, Kelly started experiencing different spooky incidents like a hand grabbing her from the floor and a pizza turning into a monster face.
This is just a small note to inform you that the monster pizza face was Kane Hodder, making a special appearance one more time. After the massive fight with the pizza, Kelly went to get a hot shower, but the audience could see the red-hot blood coming out of the shower. As the paranormal experiences drive Kelly crazy, she decided to consult Ezra about it. Ezra stated that all these activities occurred because Roger’s spirit was stuck between the living and the dead, as someone else was responsible for his death.
We now see that Burke had made a deal with Mr. Grosso, a bad guy, who wanted to possess the house to expand his forbidden business of toxic wastes. This time, Burke sent the goons to attack Laurel, but soon a lamp which Laurel had named Algernon, turned into a dog and chased them away.
However, Laurel fell down the stairs in the process. As Laurel was admitted to the hospital with a not-so-serious injury, she admitted that she didn’t want to go back to the house. So, Kelly called up Burke to make a deal about the house. As Kelly slept alone that night, the projector started on its own, projecting the videos of the sweet moments the family had spent there, and Kelly realized that she had been haunted by her husband all along.
Kelly also realized that it was Burke who had initiated the accident and was responsible for Roger’s death. So, she canceled the deal with Burke. But he would not give up so easily. Desperate Burke sent his men to burn down the house, but these people had forgotten that they were up against a ghost.
They were manipulated to shoot themselves, but the house still caught fire. Kelly somehow managed to reach Laurel, and as they tried to pull themselves away from the fire, the mystical seal exploded with magical water, which didn’t put out the fire but cured Laurel of her paralysis. Burke was arrested as Verna Klump was actually a secret agent disguised as a housekeeper.
“House IV” returns with the usual, fun-filled comedy horror that is expected from the House” franchise, though there is some blood and nudity associated with it. The house itself is quite spooky and is very appropriate with the storyline. The special effects are pretty good, generating some spooky moments occasionally. Terri Treas gave an excellent performance as the central character. It is considered to be the weakest film of the franchise, with neither prominent comedy nor horror, or the supernatural aspect of the movie. Yet once in a while, it is OK to watch a movie like this, which is made for sheer entertainment.
Why should you watch the House Movies?
You should watch the House movies just for fun, with the exception of the third film, which can be watched for the sake of horror. The first two films are pretty enjoyable and light-hearted and will lift your mood. You should definitely see its end if you have started on a journey. Hence, if you have seen the first two movies, you can at least try to complete watching all the franchise films. It is your “House”; you can do whatever you want.