House Stories: House IV: Home Deadly Home

Welly, welly well, I am back my fine readers. This time around writer/director Lewis Abernathy (DeepStar Six, House IV and Terminal Invasion) this flick fell under direct-to-video comedy horror and produced by Sean S. Cunningham and composed by Harry Mandfredini which should have been House III but apparently if some of the crew members and a killer haunting a house but we have Roger Cobb reappear. This is House IV: Home Deadly Home.

So that writing gig blew, on to repairing projectors.

Also known as House 4: The Repossession, the reappearance of Roger Cobb (William Katt of Carrie, The Greatest American Hero, House, Daddy's Girl, Mother Teresa: In the Name of God's Poor, Jawbreaker, Justice League, Gamers and The Man from Earth) with a new family? Yup continuity said screw you former wife Sandy and son Jimmy. No real explanation at all for that. Thankfully he washed his hands of "those people", yeah I said it! Anywho, Roger now has wife name of Kelly (Terri Treas of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Santa Barbara, Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell, Alien Nation, Roger Corman's Frankenstein Unbound, Alien Nation: Dark Horizon and Alien Nation Millennium) and daughter Laurel (Melissa Clayton of Caddie Woodlawn, House IV, Stay the Night, A Child Lost Forever: The Jerry Sherwood Story and Land's End) and a step-brother?? Yes only child Roger Cobb magically has a step-brother name of Burke (Scott Burkholder of Crimson Tide, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Bandits, Swordfish, Impostor, ER and Six Feet Under) who WE HAVE NEVER HEARD OF, gets in touch with Roger about dead old dad (of which we didn't know who he was prior) passing and leaving him a creepy house...say ain't that familiar? I like to think of this as Earth-2 Roger Cobb with a different story arc than from the first movie. Maybe this one did in Big Ben slitting his throat from ear to ear. Moving on the house could be sold but Roger refuses to sell it while Burke wants to buy the house with his company's scratch so they can bulldoze it down make the land more profitable because it doesn't look like there is a neighbor for over two miles in the frickin' desert!!!!

Why am I hanging with you white devils again?

On the way home, Roger and family have a car accident that puts Roger in a coma, daughter Laurel in a wheelchair and somehow Kelly is completely unharmed minus a sprained wrist or some such. Roger is so messed up that Kelly has to decide whether or not to pull the plug (SPOILERS!!! Yeah she does) so it was really worth dragging William Katt back to the franchise. Kelly's wisdom on the whole scenario is to selling the house of their dreams and moving in the creeper old house for the sake of her dead hubby. Burke comes around and pesters Kelly to sell and she refuses. Later on, kooky supernatural events like: objects moving, portal opening, general whackdoo.

A vision the spirit of Roger is trying to warn Kelly that the car accident was actually a murder attempt to gack the lot of them to claim the house. Kelly views this logically and hires a Native American spirit guide Ezra (Ned Romero of Hang 'Em High, I Will Fight No More Forever, Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice and Expiration Date) who points out the spirits want to help her against Burke and his "associates". Will Kelly have piece of mind? Will Roger get more screen time than 10 maybe 12 minutes overall?

The house looks very similar to the family house in Bad Dreams. The movie formula is back to a R rating giving it the near equivalence of the original in the sense that it is a horror comedy and has a house. Aside from that though, yeah this is not for those that have eyes, a soul or even a brain stem. Loved seeing Charlie Blackfoot (Ned Romero)again but yeah this was kind of a waste of time.

Jason Vorhees, Victor Crowley...Pizza Man.

House Stories: House a.k.a. Ding Dong, You're Dead

Welcome one and all. Well folks I have gotten write backs from both a star and the writer/director of Camp Blood 4 and 5. Goes to show you never know who is reading this blog. That being said, the guys were good eggs in spite of my candid and goofy takes on the film. Say, one could almost think of interviewing them for Rotten Ramblin' On.

This week it is all about House. Yes, the confusing series that has brought us 1,2 and...4? Huh? Yeah that has been a mystery for more than 20 years for me and trust me when I say, I was a tad disappointed at the discovery.

Told you to open the door and get me a beer!

Today's film comes from the mind of writer Fred Dekker (Night of the Creeps,The Monster Squad, If Looks Could Kill, Ricohet, Tales from the Crypt and Star Trek: Enterprise) produced by a teenybopper slayer/director/producer Sean S. Cunningham (Friday the 13^th, A Stranger Is Watching, Spring Break, The New Kids, DeepStar Six and Terminal Invasion), directed by a man of TV and movie sequels, director Steve Miner (Friday the 13^th Part 2, Friday the 13^th Part III, Soul Man, Warlock, Elvis, My Father the Hero, Halloween H2O: 20 Years Later and Lake Placid) and music composed by writer/jazz soloist/composer Harry Manfredini (Here Comes the Tigers, Friday the 13^th, Swamp Thing, Friday the 13^th Part III, Spring Break, Friday the 13^th: The Final Chapter, The Hills Have Eyes Part II, Zombie Island Massacre and Slaughter High) bringing you the horror comedy that is House.

Roger Cobb (William Katt of The Rookies, Ironside, Carrie, The Rainmaker, The Greatest American Hero, Perry Mason Returns, Perry Mason: The Case of the Shooting Star, Swimsuit, White Ghost and House IV) is a novelist that delves into horror mostly thanks to his experiences in Vietnam (Cue Hendrix music!) whose luck has gone terribly sour. His books aren't selling as well as they could, he is separated from his wife and his son disappeared mysteriously. Overall, a suck life thus far. His aunt Elizabeth (Susan French of The Sting, Airport 1975, Jaws 2, Captain America II: Death Too Soon, Flatliners, Younger and Younger and Fist of the North Star) who raised Roger for many years after his parents' death has passed away leaving her house to Roger.

Robert Culp furious with the revenues of Greatest American Hero.

Roger is being pressured to finish his book project to increase his sales and get him back on top. Haunted to this day about events of Vietnam we see why Cobb needs to end the book to bring the demons to rest. Cobb holds onto the house as this is where his son was last seen and is convinced the house itself is the culprit as childhood memories of the house were disturbing. His now ex-wife Sandy (Kay Lenz of American Graffiti, Breezy, The Passage, Swan Lake, Stripped to Kill, Death Wish 4: The Crackdown, Fear and Streets) checks on him when he shuts down or keeps people at bay and you get the vibe she genuinely misses and loves him still but the loss of their boy put a huge gulf between them.

Determined to finish his Vietnam horror novel, he investigates the house itself as every night at midnight something different, warped and ominous happens. His nosy next-door neighbor Harold (George Wendt of Cheers, Fletch, Space Truckers, Spice World, Wild About Harry and Saturday Night Live) turns out to be a huge fan of Cobb's and the two then check out the barrage of monsters and demons ebbing their way into the house. Can Cobb deal with the ghosts of the past?

With some camp moments, the pace of the story takes you on and makes a leisurely pass to realms brushing against one another. Creatures manifest in the house harming Roger and damaging his mind and soul. You get the vibe this could go completely Jaccob's Ladder but skirts off into Evil Dead 2 territory. With amazing prosthetics, stop motion animations and a bit of blue screen you are in for a bizarre time. You know the seriousness of a dismembering scene has been made fun of as our protagonist buries the remains of his wife turned demon to the tune of Linda Ronstadt's You're No Good.  I think I belted out laughing. Dated perhaps but still valid for some good scares and good story telling.

Aunt May??  NOooOOOoOoOO!!!!!!