HOUSE DVD
The inside story:
In the early 80s Fred Dekker thought up a great idea for a movie, he thought - and I
quote; "a guy goes into a house, a load of spooky things happen, and then the guy
leaves the house". He submitted the story to script writer, Ethan Wiley who liked
the idea. A little while later and Dekker was given the script for a horror comedy,
rather than the straightforward horror film he wanted. The script circulated for a
bit and then it was found by Sean S. Cunningham, the guy who brought us Friday the
13th. He fell in love with it instantly and soon it was given to Steve Miner, who
directed Halloween H20 and the rest was history.
The Film:
I bought the sequel (there are now 2 more sequels which are both crap) at a car
boot sale and have seen it ten times since, so it wasn't surprising that I snapped
up the DVD of its much better prequel, "House". House is a forgotten gem that has
a lovely dusty, far, far away feeling to it. Basically the story goes like this:
Roger Cobb (William Katz, The greatest American Hero) is a seasoned horror author who
is going through a bad stage, he has just divorced from his wife Sandy (Kay Lenz,
DeathWish 3) and is being haunted by flashbacks of his time in Vietnam, with his
friend Big Ben (Richard Moll). Anyway his old aunt hangs herself and instead of selling
the place he decides to stay there a while. It is then that we realize that his
son was "kidnapped" in that very same house and disappeared. After a while Roger
is visited by his annoying neighbour Harrold (George Wendt from Cheers) and a series
of bizarre monsters and ghouls (although it would have been nice to see a few more).
Extras:
Not an exceptional amount of extras, but the great film makes up for it. Two thearetical
trailers, photo and stills gallery, a commentary with Ethan Wiley, William Katz,
Sean S. Cunningham and Steve Miner, and a dolby 5.1 and dolby stereo version of the
film.
Rating:
10/10, you have got to check this flick out, it's no Oscar winner and it's no
bloodthirsty, gory epic but it'll sure entertain you.