Just Watched: House (1986)

Aunt Elizabeth is just hanging around

Combining genres within a single film can be a difficult task. The director has to try and find the right balance between them otherwise the film doesn't work. House tries this by mixing horror with some comedy and fantasy and it works fairly well but is definitely a little uneven.

The story of House is all over the place but basically we are introduced to Roger Cobb, a Vietnam vet who makes a living as a writer. After his Aunt dies he moves into her house, where his son had gone missing and has never been found. She thought the house was haunted, and maybe that's why the son disappeared. Throughout the movie we meet several characters including Roger's neighbours, his ex-wife, and some of the soldiers he fought with through flashbacks in Vietnam.

Is this v-neck funny or just disturbing??

What makes House uneven is that it can't seem to entirely make up it's mind what it wants to be. There are several scenes that are obviously intended to be funny such as a few with a zombie hand, and Roger losing it on a fish, but there are also several scenes that show war in Vietnam that don't appear to be intended as funny and are actually kinda sad when you see how they affect Roger.

There are also some characters and plots that merely seem to exist for a joke or really nothing at all. The movie was promoted showing all this action and crazy monsters but really a lot of the film is Roger writing, reflecting on Vietnam and interacting with his neighbours. Also, it should be noted that this is a comedy first, horror second. You may get a few laughs out of it, intentional or not, but you're most likely not going to get much, if any scares. However, the action does pick up at the end and the last 10 mins are great.

Definitely the best part of the movie

Availability: House is available on DVD as a part of the "Midnight Madness Series" and goes for $10-15 for new copies and under $10 if you want it used. The DVD contains the trailer and no other special features. There are no plans for a Blu-ray release at this time.

If you are looking for a relatively fun '80s horror/comedy you certainly could do a lot worse than House, but it certainly doesn't reach the levels of Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988). If you wanna be scared, shocked or disturbed then look elsewhere.