Film Review: The Horror Show (House III, 1989)

It is never a good sign when film starts its production as one thing and finishes as another. This happened to The Horror Show, 1989 film directed by James Isaac, which had been originally devised as the third film in the series of horror comedies started with House.

Protagonist, played by Lance Henriksen, is Lucas McCarthy, police detective and dedicated family man who has managed to catch Max Jenke (played by Brion James), vicious serial killer responsible for deaths of more than 100 people. McCarthy is invited to his electrocution but the procedure doesn’t go smoothly and it takes much more time for Jenke to die; before he does he promises Lucas that he would be back from the dead and get his revenge on the policeman. McCarthy at first doesn’t think much of it and instead tries to finally enjoy some free time with wife Donna (played by Rita Taggart), teenage daughter Bonnie (played by Dedee Pfeiffer) and young son Scott (played by Aron Eisenberg). However, he gets plagued by visions of Jenke who apparently began to haunt McCarthys’ basement. Parapsychologist Peter Campbell (played by Thom Bray) explains that Jenke has prepared for his execution by taking smaller doses of electricity and that the electrocution actually allowed him to leave material plane and gain powers with which he would torment Lucas and his family. The only way for Lucas to defeat Jenke is to electrocute him again and thus bring him back to his normal form in which he is vulnerable. Problem arises when Bonnie’s boyfriend Vinnie (played by David Oliver) gets murdered by Jenke and McCarthy becomes the only suspect.

Production of The Horror Show was plagued by creative differences among its creators, which led to James Isaac replacing original director David Blyth and Allyn Warner, one of the screenwriters, distancing from the project by taking infamous pseudonym “Alan Smithee”. Most of those issues were probably related to decision whether to make this film horror comedy like first two House films or to make it a straight horror film. The producers opted for latter (although The Horror Show was ultimately distributed under title House III in Europe). The result of this decision is weak, uninspired and unimaginative film that depends of jump scares and plenty of gore. The direction style, however, points to comedy but there are very few scenes that are actually funny. There is little nudity, thanks to Dedee Pfeiffer’s stunt double in shower scene, but in general, The Horror Show is unattractive and unpleasant film, despite obligatory happy ending. What makes it somewhat watchable is good work of two great character actors who probably enjoyed opportunity to play leading roles. Lance Henriksen is good in somewhat uncharacteristic role of dedicated family man and his portrayal of world-weary policeman can be seen as test run for the role of Frank Black in Millennium. Brion James, specialist for the roles of intimidating villains, had blast playing character that was, according to some claims, supposed to become new horror film icon; on the other hand, at times Jenke’s laugh becomes more annoying that frightening. The Horror Show failed at the box office and new franchise was never made. Original House series continued after three years with proper sequel unimaginatively titled House IV.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

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