A haunted house takes it's toll on horror novel writer Roger Cobb, pushing him to the edge of his own sanity.
Our story starts out with a delivery boy bringing some groceries to the house of an elderly woman named Elizabeth. The delivery boy enters the house but Elizabeth isn't answering his calls, so he goes upstairs to investigate and look for her only to find her hanging from a noose in her bedroom.
At Elizabeth's funeral we meet our star Roger Cobb, played by that pretty boy in a red jumpsuit in The Greatest American Hero, William Katt, who's apparently Elizabeth's nephew and apparently a very famous writer who's last book, Blood Dance, has made him quite a fan base. At the same time we find that his son Jimmy has been missing for quite some time and that Roger took it so hard that his marriage failed and he loses his drive to write, which is starting to hurt his career.
One night Roger has a dream about Jimmy playing in a large wooded area as a skeleton hand breaks out from under him, which wakes Roger up in a sweat. He immediately packs his bags and heads to his Aunt Elizabeth's empty home and decides he wants to stay for a little while, to try to get his creative juices flowing.
Roger has quite a few visions of Jimmy, one of which was after he went missing where Aunt Elizabeth claims that he's not gone but that the house took him, which kinda confuses him.
One night, while trying to work, Roger hears a noise from upstairs so he goes to investigate only to find Aunt Elizabeth setting herself in the noose and with a quick warning about how the house tricked her and to beware, she jumps, hangs, and disappears.
 
The next day he meets his neighbour Harold Gordon, played by Cheers star George Wendt, who ironically enough, claims to be his biggest fan, but in turn ends up being an extremely nosey neighbour. After being freaked out a little by Harold, George goes back inside and writes a little on his novel, which is about his experience in the Vietnam War.
One night he hears another noise from his aunt's room so he goes upstairs and finds that the noise is coming from the closet, so he goes to open the door but changes his mind and walks out of the room. After a judgment call he decides to open the door anyways and goes into the room, opens the door, and there's nothing. As he walks away the door strikes midnight and he goes back to the door, opens it up, and is attacked by some evil clawed creature.
The next day he goes all camera commando buying cameras and donning his army gear, full metal jacket, in hopes to capture the creature on film, which much to his dismay, he doesn't….For the rest of the film the house plays with his mind, diving deep into the pits of his psyche, feeding on his desire to find his son and his love for his ex wife Sandy, among other things. The house attacks him mentally and physically trying to break him to the point of sanity and possibly death, so he fights for his life and the retrieval of what's most dear to him, Jimmy.
Honestly House is by far one of the best products of the late 80's, kinda putting a lid on some of the greats of our time. With an original story that doesn't cut short and a great cast as well as some excellent FX this movie is a definite classic that everyone should have a chance to enjoy, if not for the fact that it's a great flick, definitely for the fact that Richard "Bull Shannon" Moll is the bad guy of the movie. Yes Bull from Night Court, and yes he actually doesn't do a crappy job of being a bad guy.
All around this movie is great, I highly recommend this flick for all horror fans, even the youngsters, no nudity, and language isn't as bad as it could be, and not A LOT of blood, everyone can enjoy this flick and if you get a chance check out house 2, it isn't that bad.
House is a movie that holds it's own, even today. I totally recommend this movie for everyone as it's a flick that should not be missed. Highly Recommended!
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: House: Ding Dong, You're Dead
MOVIE YEAR: 1986
DIRECTOR: Steve Miner
WRITING CREDITS: Fred Dekker, Ethan Wiley
GENRE: Horror, Comedy
CAST: William Katt, George Wendt, Kay Lenz
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 92 min
RATING: 8/10
House Website/IMDB Click here
House Trailer
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