 |
| From https://gbhbl.com/wp-content/ uploads/2014/09/House-4.jpg |
Director: Lewis Abernathy
Screenplay: Geof Miller and Deirdre
Higgins
Cast: Terri Treas as Kelly Cobb;
William Katt as Roger Cobb; Scott Burkholder as Burke; Denny Dillon as Verna
Klump; Melissa Clayton as Laurel Cobb; Ned Romero as Ezra
A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #118
[Contains Spoiler for a Plot Point Early in the Narrative]
The House series sadly ends with a less than stellar straight-to-video
finale. Being a straight-to-video/DVD film doesn't denote lack of quality, as
great films have been bumped from theatrical release or were for the bludgeoning
home media market. The bigger issue is that especially in horror franchises,
sadly this form of release method developed a negative reputation because of
films like this one which lack full creative juices and mar the format,
tainting it as a negative buzzword where everything falls over. Sadly it's the
nineties and beyond in particular where so bizarre cases take place where
franchises, once on cinema screen, dragged out into the tens in the number of
sequels they had from embarrassing straight to video entries. This is where if House had lasted as The Howling or Amityville Horror franchise things might've gotten painful and even
Arrow Video would've baulked at
releasing the full series, rather than the four, unless a huge chunk managed to
buck expectations and be good films. House
IV in its favour is definitely better than The Horror Show (1989), which was a separate film slapped with
being House III in the first place,
but it doesn't rise that far above that either.
The problem immediately starts
with casting William Katt from the
first 1985 film, as the same character I loved from that film, only to squander
him. Whatever the reason his character had to be removed after ten minutes and
only seen in occasional scenes after, be it schedule or practicality, it
doesn't help the film at all. By introducing him as effectively the same
character as before, now with a daughter inexplicably instead of a son, only to
remove him undermines the film in comparison when the films before were their
own separate, closed in stories. It causes further problems as Katt was such a virtue for the first House and, after he's still good in the
scenes he's in, his lack of presence after feels like an energy has be yanked
out violently from the beginning.
After that House IV is built from boilerplates. Where Terri Treas' heroine, as a grieving widow, is the single mother
with a precocious daughter in a wheelchair (Melissa
Clayton). That her late husband's stepbrother Burke (Scott Burkholder) wants the old family home for nefarious reasons.
That there's a friendly native American in the vicinity named who's part of the
house's supernatural history. The Native American subplot in particular feels
like the baggage of countless, pointless clichés being mercilessly dragged
across films of all genres; like so many of this kind not just in the horror
genre but others, its meant to be respectful to Native American culture, but
with how such characters are usually depicted as token minorities spouting
script improvised gibberish mysticism it can be as misguided as when white
actors used to play roles in brownface in old westerns, noble or otherwise. Then
there's the environmental message which feels arbitrarily crow barred in when
said stepbrother wants the land to dump toxic waste in. Toxic waste, that pop
culture symbol still around when I was growing up in the nineties let alone the
eighties, an unknown colourful barrel with a skull on the side, usually fragile
and prone to spilling, mutating the fishes into superheroes, and was a cheap
emotional stand in for environmental messages not told with any depth but for a
cheap enticement for viewers. The only difference, in the one odd moment of the
whole film, is that the owner of the toxic waste factory the stepbrother works
for is actually a dwarf who heads the indistinct mafia too. One who constantly has to have fluids removed
from his throat into what appears to be a milkshake glass. Abruptly in that
scene, you realise that this film is slap bang in the nineties with how wacky
its meant to be despite introducing this character late in the narrative and
rarely using him.
Snippets of the old House films appear briefly when the
rubber reality that became the early films' trademark is actually used. Where
showers spurt out blood and an ornament literally becomes a guard dog with a
lampshade sticking out of its head. But the rest of the film is incredibly
obvious and deeply saccharine, managing even to make the sentiments in House II: The Second Story (1987) more
jovial in their sweetness and like a boy's own adventure. House IV's sickly tone also has a frankly a schizophrenic tonal presentation
where there's Mafioso who have harmed and murdered people but they also are
bumbling idiots who participate in cringe worthy slapstick. Where baring the
more gentle tone, it still has the heroine having nightmares of having to sign
the papers to end her husband's life after permanent, life debilitating injury
which feel like a shock of cold water to the mood when referred back to. It
reflects a sad end for what started off pretty strong as a franchise. Sadly it
was the moment The Horror Show was
added that things dropped off when, honestly, the franchise really exists in
the first two films. House was a fun
romp in a haunted house, maybe making little sense at times but with William Katt and a bucket load of
practical effects to bring a smile to your face to sooth this issue, Katt reduced to a magical plot device in
the fourth film and the practical effects combed back. And I confess the film
that would have the most divisive reactions, The Second Story, was my personal favourite, managing with its
rubber logic and silly characters to win me over. That at least made the viewing
experience more rewarding than this one, which whilst the third best of the
lot, is a significant drop from the first two films of the series.
 |
| From https://scontent-amt2-1.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/e35/19932399_113888489235332_4380168696849498112_n.jpg |
No comments:
Post a Comment