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Contents

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4 INTRODUCTION VI

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6 HOUSE 84 HOUSE III: THE HORROR SHOW
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109 HOUSE III: THE HORROR SHOW – PRESS MATERIALS

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47 HOUSE – PRESS MATERIALS

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60 HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY 114 HOUSE IV: THE REPOSSESSION
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81 HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY – PRESS MATERIALS VI 137 HOUSE IV: THE REPOSSESSION – PRESS MATERIALS
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Introduction

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I was not yet a teenager when I first discovered House (1986) among the racks of low-

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budget horror, fantasy and comedy at my local video shop. Already a fan of William Katt’s

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reluctant crime fighter Ralph Hinkley in The Greatest American Hero (1981-3), and with a
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burgeoning interest in horror, I was beckoned by a puffy, black, clamshell VHS case depicting

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a decaying skeletal hand pressing a doorbell. From the first frame, I was enthralled by the

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soundtrack’s stirring cello and the stark contrast of red text on black between glimpses of

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Victorian gingerbread. The macabre tale of troubled writer Roger Cobb became one of my

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earliest experiences in the frightfully funny world of the horror-comedy. In fact, upon hearing
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that I was writing this companion, my elder sister did not hesitate to remind me that as a
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kid, the shocking reveal of the demonic incarnation of Roger Cobb’s wife caused me to recoil

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several feet across the living room floor before breaking into fits of laughter.

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The original House had been a hit theatrically, and so by the time I discovered the film on

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home video, House II: The Second Story (perhaps the greatest name for a sequel ever), was

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already available. Two further sequels, House III: The Horror Show (1989) and House IV: The

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Repossession (1992) followed, despite diminishing commercial and critical success.1 With the
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arrival of eBay in the mid-1990s, I began to indulge my rabid House fandom by obtaining press

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kits, stills, props, and other memorabilia. I created a website called ‘Roger Cobb’s House’, a
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portal for House fans, which allowed me to become friendly with writer/director Ethan Wiley

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and other talented folks involved in the films, such as Fred Dekker and Chris Walas.2 My

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fascination with all things House now presents me with yet another opportunity, as the author
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of this companion for Arrow Video’s definitive release of the House films on Blu-ray. You are

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therefore cordially invited to join me for an in-depth exploration of the entire House franchise, VI

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but remember, don’t come alone!

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Simon Barber
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[Link]

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1 - For reasons we will deal with later, House III is known as The Horror Show in the United States. Photo courtesy of Andy Hargreaves.
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While the slasher had proven its commercial power during this period with titles like John
Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), Sean S. Cunningham’s Friday the 13th (1980) and Wes Craven’s

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A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), the marriage of horror and comedy was never far from the

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have been entertaining audiences ‘almost as long as movies themselves’.5 Indeed, during the

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first half of the 1980s alone, the horror-comedy subgenre had amassed such entries as An
American Werewolf in London (1981), Creepshow (1982), Ghostbusters, Gremlins (both 1984),

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Between the late 1970s and mid-1980s, a cinematic repertoire of unrelenting villains like Re-Animator, Fright Night and The Return of the Living Dead (all 1985), darkly humorous

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Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger (as well as a multitude of not-so-

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tales of werewolves, ghosts, vampires, brain-eating zombies and killer critters that love Snow
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memorable maniacs) dominated the attention, and hard-earned cash, of moviegoers with their White. Hence, Cunningham responded quickly when Steve Miner, who had served as an

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slash and stab antics. As the producer of Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left (1972) and VI associate producer on Friday the 13th (1980) and had directed Friday the 13th Part II (1981)
having directed and produced Friday the 13th (1980), Sean S. Cunningham was well-placed and Friday the 13th Part III (1982), sent him a screenplay for a lighthearted horror film called

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to observe, and respond to, the impending exhaustion of this cycle of increasingly violent House, written by a special effects technician called Ethan Wiley, which Miner hoped to direct.

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‘slasher’ films.3 “I was sure the slasher wasn’t played out,” says Cunningham, “but there was
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no point in repeating what ten other films a year were doing.”4

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3 - A notable exception to slasher trends is the A Nightmare on Elm Street series, which became increasingly comedic with each sequel. 5 - Hallenbeck, B. (2009). Comedy-horror films. 1st ed. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. See also: Miller, C. and Van Riper, A. (2016). The Laughing Dead: The Horror-
4 - Interview with Sean S. Cunningham, December 16, 2016. Comedy Film from Bride of Frankenstein to Zombieland. 1st ed. Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
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The term ‘horror-comedy’, which I use to describe House, has been somewhat contested

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among critics and fans.6 Hallenbeck (2009) constructs an inclusive canon of what he calls

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‘comedy-horror’ films, while others have endeavoured to articulate the ‘vast gulfs’ of tonal
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difference in this category by making distinctions between films which are ‘hilariously
horrifying’ or ‘horrifyingly hilarious’.7 While we could spend the remaining pages of this
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booklet theorising genre hybridity with respect to the horror-comedy, issues of classification

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will remain problematic long after we are done, and dammit, we have a whole franchise to

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discuss!8 What is safe to say is that, unlike Schneider (2004: 148), I don’t view the horror-

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comedy as a ‘corrupted’ version of the horror film, nor as its ‘deviant cousin’. From Haunted

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Spooks (1920) to the recent remake of Ghostbusters (2016), laughing at the things that scare

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us has been part of our collective experience since the silent movies of the early 20th Century.9 VI

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6 - [Link]
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7 - [Link] Hallenbeck (2009) cites Washington Irving’s short story The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow (1820) as the first great example of how effective this combination is as a mode of storytelling. For philosophical work on the horror-comedy, see Carroll, N.

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(1999). Horror and Humor. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 57(2), pp.145-160.

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8 - See Cherry, B. (2009). Horror. 1st ed. London: Routledge. If you’re desperate to explore House in an academic context, consider Gorman’s (2014) argument that
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the film is about the protagonist’s rejection of masculinity: [Link]

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steve-miners-house-1986
9 - Schneider, S. (2004). Horror film and psychoanalysis. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. VI
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well understood by the time the film debuted.13 I therefore locate House as part of the mid-to-

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late 1980s horror-comedy lineage which includes films like Night of the Creeps, Critters (both
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1986), The Monster Squad, Evil Dead 2 (both 1987) and Beetlejuice (1988).

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With the housekeeping out of the way (no pun intended), let’s turn now to the premise of

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the first film in the series. House tells the tale of Roger Cobb, a Vietnam vet who has found

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Roger’s next book, a personal account of his experiences in the Vietnam War, has stalled

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amidst personal tragedy.14 Roger is grieving after the mysterious disappearance of his son
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Jimmy, who vanished during a visit to the Victorian mansion owned by Roger’s aunt. The

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loss has led to a separation from his wife, the soap opera actress Sandy Sinclair, and his
personal life is falling apart. With the sudden death of his aunt, Roger returns to the house

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seeking solitude, and to try to write his next book. However, Roger quickly begins to encounter

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Though House was situated broadly within the tradition of haunted house movies like The VI supernatural phenomena: the ghost of his aunt warns him to leave, and terrifying monsters

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Haunting (1963), The Legend of Hell House (1973), Hausu (1977), The Amityville Horror (1979), are on the attack. Roger begins to investigate the horrific events and comes to believe that

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The Shining, The Changeling (both 1980), The Evil Dead (1981) and Poltergeist (1982), House his missing son may be located somewhere within the house. With assistance from his nosy

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adopted a much lighter, more humorous tone than most of those films, and a genre-hopping neighbour, Harold, Roger discovers that the house has hidden dimensions and does battle
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style which brought together elements of the psychological, the paranormal, and the good with a variety of creatures, including a monstrous version of his ex-wife, in a desperate

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old-fashioned monster movie.10 Kay (2008), for instance, categorises House under ‘Zombie quest to find his son. Knowing Roger’s deepest fears and regrets, the house brings Roger
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face to face with his friend and fellow soldier, Big Ben, whom he failed to save from torture

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Movies’11, while Muir (2007) situates House within the conventions of a number of horror film
typologies, including ‘Rubber Realities’, ‘The Vietnam Vet’ and ‘Ghosts’.12 A Fangoria feature on VI by the enemy during the war. A grotesque skeletal zombie of Ben returns from the grave
House from January 1986 proclaimed: “It’s Not Just Another Horror Comedy!”, indicating not hungry for revenge, and reveals that it was he who took Jimmy hostage. Just as it seems

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like all is lost, Roger realises that the house is only powerful if he allows it to feed on his

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anxieties. By facing his fears, Roger can defeat Ben, liberate his son, and save his family.
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10 - The haunted house movie persists to this day with the likes of The Haunting (1999), The Others (2001), Insidious (2010) and The Conjuring (2013). Interestingly,
House writer Ethan Wiley had never heard of the Japanese film Hausu aka House (1977), despite the film having the same name and a conceit based around an aunt’s
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haunted house.

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11 - Kay, G. (2008). Zombie movies. 1st ed. Chicago, Ill.: Chicago Review Press. 13 - Timpone, A. (1986). Jason director Steve Miner dissects House - “It’s Not Just Another Horror Comedy!”. Fangoria, (#51), pp.21-24.
12 - Muir, J. (2007). Horror films of the 1980s. 1st ed. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co. 14 - There were prop covers made for one other prior novel by Roger Cobb, which had the laughable title Sword of Bad.
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The casting for House largely comprised actors who had developed successful careers in

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television, and who were experienced comedic performers. The role of Roger Cobb went to

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William Katt, who had appeared as Tommy Ross in Carrie (1976) and as Jack Barlow in Big
Wednesday (1978), but who was at that time perhaps best known for his starring role in The

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Greatest American Hero, a television series which ran from 1981-1983. Prolific television

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actress Kay Lenz (Rich Man, Poor Man) portrayed soap opera star Sandy Sinclair, while the
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role of neighbour Harold Gorton went to George Wendt of Cheers fame. Big Ben was played
by Night Court’s Richard Moll. The house, as much a character in the film as any person, is a

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five-bedroom Eastlake-style Victorian mansion known as Mills View. It was built in 1887 and

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is located at 329 Melrose Avenue in Monrovia, California. The house was originally a wedding

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present for Milton Monroe, son of William N. Monroe, the namesake of Monrovia. The name

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Mills View became associated with the house after it was purchased in 1893 by Colonel John

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H. Mills and his wife, though Mills died a mere three months after moving in.15 It has been
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used as a shooting location in a number of film and television productions including an early

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episode of the TV show Picket Fences.16 These days, when making mention of House, people
are perhaps more likely to call to mind Hugh Laurie’s turn as the brilliant, yet misanthropic,

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diagnostician in the Fox medical drama. Nevertheless, the horror-comedy series of the same

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name has enjoyed a strong cult following since the first instalment was released to US cinemas
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on February 28, 1986. The first two House films were produced for New World Pictures, the

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independent production and distribution company founded by Roger Corman in 1970. Having
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expanded its operations in 1984 with three new divisions devoted to international content,

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television and video, New World’s horror output around the mid-1980s included such titles as

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them all. In fact, until the release of Steve Miner’s college comedy Soul Man in October of

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1986, House was the company’s highest grossing film, and remained its second biggest
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commercial success.17 Made with a budget of around $3 million, the film grossed just over

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$22.1 million worldwide, with $19.4 million coming from domestic ticket sales.18 In its first VI

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week of release, it was kept from the number one spot at the box office by Pretty In Pink

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(1986), the John Hughes-penned romantic comedy directed by Howard Deutch.19

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Critical reception to House was mixed. While Variety described the characterisations as

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arbitrary and the effects as “fake and rubbery”, the film did pick up some notable supporters.20
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Writing in The New York Times, Janet Maslin gave the film a positive review, describing its

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Photo courtesy of Shannon Shea, [Link].
style as “unexpectedly snappy”.21 The marketing for the film drew on a number of memorable VI

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taglines like ‘Horror Has Found a New Home’, ‘Enter At Your Own Risk’ and perhaps its
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crowning glory, ‘Ding Dong, You’re Dead!’ The latter was emblazoned on the cover of its home

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15 - [Link]
16 - Picket Fences (1992), David E. Kelley Productions, 20th Century Fox Television. Season 1, Episode 6, “Remembering Rosemary”. video release in the United States and no doubt aided the uptake of the film in rental markets.

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17 - [Link]
18 - [Link]
The trailer for House managed to capture both its horrific elements (“This is a house, where
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19 - [Link] no-one should live”), and its breezy comedic tone through exchanges between George Wendt

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21 - [Link] as Harold, and William Katt as Roger:
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Harold: “The woman who lived here was nuts.

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Wouldn’t be surprised if someone just got fed up and offed her.”

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Roger: “She was my aunt.”
Harold: “Heart of gold though.”

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At the risk of sounding like Chris Farley’s sycophantic interviewer from the classic Saturday

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Night Live sketch, (“Do you remember…?”), I ask you to consider the unusual inventiveness

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of a film that includes a reanimated wall-mounted marlin, Narnia-like access to the jungles
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of Vietnam, possessed garden shears, and Roger’s use of a TV remote to put a ghostly

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image of his missing child on stand-by.22 And who could forget our protagonist’s spectacular

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V-neck sweater?
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film’s ambition to tackle this difficult blend alongside its comedic performances and extensive

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Fashion faux pas aside, one of the film’s great strengths is the way in which the story creature effects. What was perhaps less explicit in the final film, and this is something that
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transcends the confines of the house by exploring what I call the world beyond the bathroom Maslin queries in her New York Times review, is the notion that the house is an evil entity in its

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cabinet. Unnatural dimensions extending through the closet, the swimming pool and, yes, the VI own right. The rules of the film (the house rules, if you will) mean that Roger’s experience in

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bathroom cabinet, provide the audience with an adventure that belies its (mostly) one-location the house is entirely contingent upon who he is and what his deepest fears are. It is the house

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premise. By creating a scenario in which Roger’s wartime past could haunt his present, House that dredges up his past and brings to life the skeletons in his closet. Another tenant would

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also touches on more serious underlying issues, such as the psychological effects of post- have a completely different set of experiences.
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traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on veterans (it’s no coincidence that the closet monster was

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called ‘The War Demon’, and that its fingers were made from bullets), the unimaginable grief While that sounds like the perfect concept for a sequel, like most projects developed within
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of losing a child, and how such an experience can destroy relationships (Roger’s estranged the industrial realities of the movie business, the House franchise unfolded in surprising ways

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wife is, somewhat unsubtly, embodied by the monstrous ‘Sandywitch’). Like most people who VI through the rest of the 1980s and early 1990s. Before we explore the three sequels that
would go to the trouble of reading a companion booklet for the House movies, I appreciated the followed, let us first examine how House came to be.

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22 - I see this as Roger’s reluctance to engage with the tricks being played upon him by the house, and not, as some commenters have suggested, Roger’s

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disinterest in seeing his missing son! For discussion on these points: Say You Love Satan. (2016). Episode 21 – House. [podcast] Available at: [Link]
sayyoulovesatanpodcast/episode-21-house-1986 [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016]. VI
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“Writing looks like fun, huh?”

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House was written by Ethan Wiley (House II: The Second Story, Children of the Corn V: Fields VI

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of Terror), based on a story by Fred Dekker (Night of the Creeps, The Monster Squad). Wiley

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and Dekker were roommates at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Wiley was
studying at the School of Theatre, Film and Television, while Dekker, despite having made

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amateur films since the age of 12, had been rejected from the UCLA film programme and

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was an English major. “As I recall, Fred wrote a very professional and polished spec M*A*S*H
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episode as a writing sample for his application,” Wiley states. “I wrote a 15-page avant-garde,

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absurdist Dada-influenced short play, titled, The Greatest Play Ever and got in. Go figure.”23 VI

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A number of writers who went on to have successful careers in film congregated around
the theatre department at UCLA in what Dekker calls “an unofficial fraternity of movie

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nerds”.24 Along with Dekker and Wiley, the group included Shane Black (Lethal Weapon), Greg

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23 - Interview with Ethan Wiley, December 17, 2016.

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24 - The Projection Booth. (2016). Episode 291: Night of the Creeps (1986). [podcast] Available at: [Link]
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Photo courtesy of Shannon Shea, [Link].

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to put shots together,” says Wiley. “I was just coming out of theatre and didn’t know anything
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VI about that filmmaking language, so I learned a lot from him about that.”27

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Wiley’s first opportunity in the industry came via his father, the painter William T. Wiley, who

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Widen (Highlander), David Arnott (Last Action Hero), Ryan Rowe (Charlie’s Angels), Robert had a student that was making models for Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), the visual effects

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company founded by George Lucas in 1975. Through this connection, during the summer

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Reneau (Demolition Man), Ed Solomon (Men in Black), Chris Matheson (Bill & Ted’s Excellent
Adventure), Jim Herzfeld (Meet the Parents) and Randall Jahnson (The Doors) among others. before his senior year, Wiley began working in the creature shop under director and visual

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effects supervisor Phil Tippett. After an induction period in which he swept the floors and made
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Some of its members lived together at various times in a house just south of Westwood in

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Ewok feet, Wiley joined the expansive second unit crew on Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of

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Rancho Park known as the ‘Pad O’ Guys’. Another house in West Los Angeles known as the
VI the Jedi (1983). His colleague, Chris Walas, the artist who was responsible for special effects

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‘Bach Pad’ (short for Bachelor’s pad) became another ‘fertile layover and unofficial film school’ on films like Dragonslayer (1981) and the melting Nazi in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981),

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for the collective.25 was looking to leave ILM to start his own company.28 Wiley became his assistant and never

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returned to school.
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Various combinations of the group collaborated on original theatre productions and short films

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within and outside the university. They even tried their hands at stand-up comedy. “Ed Solomon

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After a series of false starts on films like Starman (1984), Walas and Wiley were hired by Joe
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organised the UCLA stand-up comedy club,” Wiley recalls. “Shane Black, Ed Solomon, Ryan Dante and Mike Finnell to work on a horror-comedy they were developing called Gremlins

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Rowe, myself and Jim Herzfeld participated. Fred co-wrote my routines. We opened for guest VI (1984).29 Working initially out of a garage, the two-man crew was eventually expanded to 25-30
comedians such as Gary Shandling and Jerry Seinfeld at sold-out UCLA shows that sometimes people. Wiley worked on the movie for two years and was one of the main puppeteers on the

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had hundreds of attendees.”26 Dekker and Wiley were frequently brainstorming grandiose film, operating principal characters like Gizmo and Stripe. After his positive experience working
plans for films they intended to make. “Fred was very savvy about cinematography and how with Dante and Walas, Wiley decided to go back to Los Angeles to further his writing career.

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27 - Natsukashi. (2009). Episode XXXV: House (with its writer Ethan Wiley!). [podcast] Available at: [Link] [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016].

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25 - [Link] 28 - Walas won an Academy Award for his special effects makeup on The Fly (1986).
26 - Interview with Ethan Wiley, December 17, 2016. 29 - Walas had previously worked with Dante on Piranha (1978).
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When asked how much of House he is responsible for, Dekker responds: “I have to say very

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little, except for the idea. The basic premise was mine.”30 Dekker relates that he and his

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college pals had decided to embark on a project inspired by Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
in which each person would direct their own segment of an anthology film.31 Though Dekker

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shot a wraparound piece at Steve Miner’s Santa Monica office which starred Ethan Wiley as

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a writer whose word processor develops a mind of its own, Dekker’s actual segment for the
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omnibus was never realised.

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Dekker describes the idea as a “pretentious, Rod Serling-esque allegory” and “an excuse to do

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debut, a straightforward haunted house movie that would require one location and one actor.

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He intended to shoot the film at his parents’ hundred-year-old Victorian house in San Rafael,

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house, and at the end of the movie he’ll come out of the house, and in between is just the

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scariest shit I can come up with for 85 minutes,” Dekker recalls.34 He called the idea House.
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the enemy in which one of his platoon was mortally wounded. When the soldier’s agonising movie were one and the same? What if my protagonist is the Vietnam vet, and the reason he’s

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screams threaten to give away their position, the protagonist kills his friend, an act that going into the house is to exorcise his personal demons once and for all? The heck with my

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‘Pad O’Guys’ anthology video – I had a real movie idea now!”35 However, during this period,
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continues to haunt him years after he has returned home from the war. Seeking counsel, the

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veteran meets a beautiful young psychologist and romance blooms. As he grows closer to the Dekker had been employed by his friend and mentor Steve Miner to write Godzilla: King of

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woman, he begins to experience visions of his dead, rotting war buddy who appears to have the Monsters 3D. Though the film was ultimately too expensive to make, this commitment
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combined with what Dekker claims might have been “laziness... or fear of tackling a politically

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returned from the grave to sabotage the relationship. These visions increase in intensity, finally
resulting in the hero’s violent death. The audience is left to wonder, was he the victim of his
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dead friend’s vengeful ghost? Or is it his own guilt – indeed, America’s lingering guilt about the taut psychological horror movie.36

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30 - The Projection Booth. (2016). Episode 291: Night of the Creeps (1986). [podcast] Available at: [Link] 34 - The Projection Booth. (2016). Episode 291: Night of the Creeps (1986). [podcast] Available at: [Link]
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[Link] [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016]. [Link] [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016].

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31 - Only two stories by Chris Maes and James Cappe ultimately made it before the cameras. 35 - Interview with Fred Dekker, April 16, 2001.
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to have a lot of fun in the writing process.

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“I don’t think I could have ever have written

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something that was as solid structurally
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as it turned out, in the wake of difficulties

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getting Godzilla up-and-running, was

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looking for something of his own to direct.

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“Much to our surprise, Steve said ‘let’s do

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this, and I want to direct it!’” remembers

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don’t say no, so we said ‘sure!’”42 Miner Photo courtesy of Shannon Shea, [Link].

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took the script to his Friday the 13th
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collaborator, producer Sean S. Cunningham, who promptly raised the financing. Within six

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months, House was underway. These days, Dekker is glad that the movie took a more comedic

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route: “Ultimately, I think it’s why the movie is successful,” he reflects. “It’s why people like it.

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The humour invites you in.”43

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“Does this look like imagination?”

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Photo courtesy of Shannon Shea, [Link].

Enter Ethan Wiley. Taken with the idea, Wiley regularly enquired about the status of the haunted House began filming on April 22, 1985, on a shooting schedule that lasted for five weeks.

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house script until eventually Dekker said: “You clearly want to write it. You be the writer and Though the exterior scenes were shot on location at Mills View in Monrovia, interior sets had
been built at Ren Mar Studios by Gregg Fonseca, the production designer behind films like

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we’ll take it from there.”37 Wiley’s response was immediate and enthusiastic. Dekker reports
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that Wiley’s script was finished in “roughly the time it takes me to go to the bathroom.”38 A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Critters (1986), and later Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)

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Cue ethical dilemma. Though Dekker’s story had finally been realised in a full-length two-storey space with wide corridors. “This allowed us to get a number of tracking shots and

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screenplay, the script adopted a dramatically different tone from the film that Dekker had suspense oriented shots that we would not have been able to do,” states director Steve Miner.45
imagined. “What I had conceived as a gritty, black-and-white, William Friedkin-style character- The Vietnam jungle set was located next door, and was small enough to require creative use

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study-cum-balls-out-horror-film was now a tongue-in-cheek, Mad Magazine-style, effects- of the space during the action scenes. Mac Ahlberg (Re-Animator ), who also fulfilled the role

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heavy hootenanny with goofy neighbours and comical monsters,” says Dekker.39 Wiley agrees of director of photography for House II: The Second Story and House III: The Horror Show, was
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that Dekker was a little taken aback when he discovered that his serious, dark film had been the “unflappable” cinematographer who was tasked with capturing the recreation of Vietnam,

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turned into a horror-comedy. “He was kind of upset about it,” Wiley relates. “There was a VI the creature effects and the vast darkness of the house’s fantastical netherworlds on film.
little tension between us. But I think over time, he has seen that I imprinted my personality

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on the project.”40 With Dekker’s robust story and structure already in place, Wiley was able

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41 - Natsukashi. (2009). Episode XXXV: House (with its writer Ethan Wiley!). [podcast] Available at: [Link] [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016].

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37 - The Projection Booth. (2016). Episode 291: Night of the Creeps (1986). [podcast] Available at: [Link] 42 - Natsukashi. (2009). Episode XXXV: House (with its writer Ethan Wiley!). [podcast] Available at: [Link] [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016].
[Link] [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016]. 43 - The Projection Booth. (2016). Episode 291: Night of the Creeps (1986). [podcast] Available at: [Link]
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38 - Interview with Fred Dekker, April 16, 2001. [Link] [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016].

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39 - Interview with Fred Dekker, April 16, 2001. 44 - Formerly the Desilu Cahuenga Studio, the name Ren Mar was introduced in 1984. The facilities are now known as Red Studios Hollywood.
40 - Natsukashi. (2009). Episode XXXV: House (with its writer Ethan Wiley!). [podcast] Available at: [Link] [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016]. 45 - House, commentary with Ethan Wiley, William Katt, Sean S. Cunningham and Steve Miner.
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Making all of this work demanded the skills of actors like Katt, who responded immediately

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to the script’s sensibilities. “The scene where I am talking to Tanya and trying to bury the

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monster epitomises the film really, playing two things at once,” he says, referring to the
playfulness of his scenes with former Miss World, Mary Stavin, as Roger’s alluring neighbour

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Tanya.51 And yet, the script also called for the portrayal of a grieving father, who has witnessed

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babysitting Tanya’s son, Robert, he has to both rediscover his fatherly emotions (“how about
a nice plastic bag?”), and protect the child from meeting the same fate.52 Roger choosing to

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sleep in Jimmy’s vacant bed is one touching nuance that demonstrates how the film never

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forgets the tragic elements of the story. For Katt though, it is his work with George Wendt that

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has lingered in the memory all these years: “There was a scene that I did in that film with

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George Wendt, who was just a delight to work with, where I take him upstairs, and I fit him

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While the look of the film is a big part of its appeal, much of its charm rests on the shoulders

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of director Steve Miner, and actor William Katt, particularly his on-screen relationship with
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George Wendt, known to audiences for his long-standing role as Norm Peterson on TV’s raccoon in the closet. And when I open that door, he’s got to shoot that raccoon! Whenever I

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Cheers. Miner’s original vision for the film was to imagine Cary Grant as the lead. “That was watch that scene, it still tickles me to this day.”53

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the tone he wanted,” recalls producer Sean S. Cunningham. “I loved the idea and off we
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went. Once we got Bill Katt and George Wendt I knew we had something special.”46 Miner’s Perhaps the most striking aspects of House are the creatures created by the special effects

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team led by James Cummins. House required a number of distinct monsters: the re-animated

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involvement was likewise an “unexpected treat” for Katt. “He is the reason that film was as
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wall-mounted marlin (an invention of Wiley’s, whose father was also an avid fisherman), the

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successful as it was,” says the actor. “I was incredibly pleased to be a part of that film.”47
Miner also welcomed writer Ethan Wiley to the set, allowing him to make small but important
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corrections to the tone of the comedic performances: “I was so spoiled,” remembers the army buddy, Big Ben, and the War Demon, a giant closet monster. The creatures were the work

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screenwriter. “It was a great time, a great collaboration for me to have that kind of input.”48 of 17 special effects artists who worked six days a week over three and a half months to ready

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One of the comedic threads in House is the way in which Roger responds to problems. In early investment in the movie, which enabled Ethan Wiley to assemble a team with his friend

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Wiley’s script, Roger’s first instinct when faced with the giant War Demon is not to flee, but to Kirk Thatcher (Gremlins, Muppet Treasure Island), another ILM alumnus, who went on to work
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closely with Muppets creator Jim Henson. Among others, Thatcher created the visual design of

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order a truck full of video recording equipment. When Roger kills the ‘Sandywitch’, he has to
spend time chopping up the body and burying it; when its severed hand re-animates, Roger VI Big Ben and the Sandywitch before James Cummins came in to implement the original visual

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flushes it down the toilet. “A lot of the comedy comes out of the practical circumstances concepts that Thatcher and Wiley had created.

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of ‘how do you get rid of the body when you kill the monster?’” Wiley says. “Do you put it

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On an episode of his podcast, The Movie Crypt, horror filmmaker Adam Green (Hatchet) said:
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in garbage bags?”49 By approaching extraordinary circumstances in an ordinary way, Roger
“The creature effects in House are so specific and that’s what makes that movie so wonderful.
embodies the veteran soldier, working with the resources at hand. “What do you do?” asks

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It had such a specific tone, a specific look. It’s frightening but it’s fun!”54 It’s all very well to
Wiley, “You get the neighbour, you get a fireplace poker, you get a mattress and try to make the
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46 - Interview with Sean S. Cunningham, December 16, 2016. 51 - House, commentary with Ethan Wiley, William Katt, Sean S. Cunningham and Steve Miner.
47 - Interview with William Katt. (2016). White Ghost special features: Code Red. 52 - Amusingly, some commenters have queried Tanya’s willingness to use Roger as her babysitter by asking: “What woman would ever leave her kid with this

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48 - Natsukashi. (2009). Episode XXXV: House (with its writer Ethan Wiley!). [podcast] Available at: [Link] [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016]. guy who had a kid drown in his backyard?” See: Retro Movie Love Podcast. (2016). New World Pictures (1984-1991). [podcast] Available at: [Link]
49 - House, commentary with Ethan Wiley, William Katt, Sean S. Cunningham and Steve Miner. com/2016/05/31/episode-30-new-world-pictures-1984-1991 [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016]. Tanya’s mischievous son, Robert, is, incidentally, the real-life son of director
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50 - Natsukashi. (2009). Episode XXXV: House (with its writer Ethan Wiley!). [podcast] Available at: [Link] [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016]. Steve Miner.

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53 - Interview with William Katt. (2016). White Ghost special features: Code Red.
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54 - The Movie Crypt. (2016). Episode 158: Fred Dekker. [podcast] Available at: [Link] [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016].
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imagine a house full of hideous heart-stopping monsters, but sculpting, moulding, building,

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painting and operating creatures that would work effectively on screen and maintain the
essence of the film’s cartoonish comedic sensibility was no small task, particularly in terms of

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cost. The Sandywitch, the house’s nightmare reimagining of Roger’s ex-wife, was performed
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much more ambitious: “The original concept for the Sandywitch was to create a monster

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where the folds of the flesh would be like water bags and would have that kind of movement,”

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recalls Wiley. “But once we got into it, we realised that it would be a very sophisticated and

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expensive proposition.”55

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As a result, the team realised some of the film’s most visually arresting moments with effects
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during the scene where Roger dumps the dismembered witch’s hand into the toilet and flushes
it, he wore the hand as a glove and span around on a sawhorse while pulling his hand through

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the pipe.56 Jimmy’s spectral appearance at Roger’s window was a simple double exposure

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(DX) post effect, which was easy and cheap to do. The tentacles which emerge through the

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55 - House, commentary with Ethan Wiley, William Katt, Sean S. Cunningham and Steve Miner.
56 - [Link]
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Perhaps the greatest spectacle in the film is the ghoulish appearance of Big Ben, whose

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imposing physicality and verbal quips are the personification of comic horror. Inside the suit

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was Curt Wilmot, a talented tennis player who was a friend of Steve Miner. Wilmot happened

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to be tall enough and thin enough to fit inside the apparatus, which was a custom-made pair
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of trousers with a layer of foam latex rotted legs covered by tattered army fatigues. The rib
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Wilmot’s head. The final touches included a foam latex neck and gloves, and the insertion

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Photo courtesy of Shannon Shea, [Link].

of a ‘milky contact lens’ before the mask could be added and blended around Wilmot’s eye.

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bathroom cabinet and wrap themselves around Roger were simply shot in reverse. To give

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According to Shea, the mask caused Wilmot some physical pain during shooting.59 In the final
the impression that the doorways and windows in the house are portals that lead Roger to scenes of the movie, a dummy cast from Wilmot was filled with Fuller’s earth and cork and

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different parts of his memories and sub-conscious, the crew removed the bathroom cabinet was exploded during the scene where Roger stuffs a grenade into Ben’s ribs.60
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leaving Roger illuminated in a square of light as he looked out over the stage, which was
covered with heavy black fabric. “Dropping someone down a rope into a black space is scary,” VI There were also a small number of conventional techniques used to render effects in House,

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says Wiley, “but what could be cheaper? There’s no set!”57 such as stop motion (in the case of the flying ‘void creature’), and matte painting. The scene in

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which Roger hangs from the house over a cliff edge incorporated a matte painting created by

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ILM and Dream Quest artist Mark Sullivan, who would also contribute to House II: The Second
arms and sharp claws, whose body displayed the distorted faces of tortured Vietnam War

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Story.61 The shot took a full day to rig and shoot because it involved cranes, stunt actors and

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victims, was ambitious by anyone’s standards. “It required just about every one of us on the
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blue screen work.

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crew to bring it to set and operate it,” says Shannon Shea.58 The frame of the monster sat
on a dolly that rode on tracks. Pushing the creature out of the closet required several crew
members, some of whom physically puppeteered its arms, while the fingers and head could
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masks, and other memorabilia associated with the film. Though there were very few tie-ins

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be operated via separate controls. To make the monster’s entrance work dramatically, timing produced by New World Video during its original promotional phase (a battery-powered light-

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was critical. The team realised that the monster needed to already be moving forward on its

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59 - Shea, S. (2015). I’m Rubber, You’re Glue. 1st ed. Dark Ink, p.153.

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57 - House, commentary with Ethan Wiley, William Katt, Sean S. Cunningham and Steve Miner. 60 - [Link]
58 - [Link] 61 - [Link]
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up box in the shape of the house, and a House branded notepad are two in my collection), fans

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of the film have gone on to produce pins, action figures and prop replicas, particularly from
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the first two films. Very few original props from House survive to this day. Legendary monster

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collector Forrest J. Ackerman owned the lower half of Ben from the waist down, while artist

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Sam McCain of Horror Sanctum Studios owned screen-used props including a Sandywitch
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head, a War Demon head and a Ben head.62 Due to their age and the risk of disintegration,

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McCain produced new moulds of these items and created a series of House props which he
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painted and sold. These have been collected by House fans across the world.63
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Another distinctive visual component woven into the story and production of House concerns

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the paintings that adorn the walls of Roger’s new abode. The story tells us that prior to her because of his busy schedule, Stout asked Hescox to do the majority of the work. After a brief

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death at the hands of the evil house, Roger’s Aunt (portrayed in the film by Susan French),

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conversation with Stout and Miner, Hescox set to work. “I did four paintings and Stout did the
who was an artist, translated her terrifying experiences into a range of surreal paintings. With one,” says Hescox. “All of the paintings were done in the studio we shared then, not too far

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the exception of the large painting located in Aunt Elizabeth’s garage, which was created by
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from the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.”66

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fantasy artist and illustrator William Stout, the majority of the work was carried out by Richard
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Hescox.64 Hescox is a science fiction, fantasy and horror artist, and one of the founders of

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Stout and Hescox began the process by creating thumbnail sketches of the wildest ideas they
the ‘Imaginative Realism’ movement. He has painted over 130 book covers, including over

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could think of. Together with Miner, they picked the weirdest and most disturbing to complete
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for the film. You can observe Hescox’s work in scenes showing the hallway entrance to the
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from the bestselling A Game of Thrones series. He has created advertising art and production
designs for films like The Howling (1981), Swamp Thing, E.T., The Dark Crystal (all 1982) and house, the staircase, the dining room and the upstairs room where Roger battles the War

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Demon. “I liked the staircase placement of that one picture,” says Hescox, referring to The
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The Philadelphia Experiment (1984).

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Green Sky which catches the eye of Aunt Elizabeth’s grocery boy during the opening scene.
In the mid-1980s, Hescox was sharing a studio with Stout, who had been working with Steve
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Miner on the ill-fated 3D Godzilla movie.65 Miner hired Stout to do the paintings for House but
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the background and create an ambience.”67
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62 - [Link] 66 - Interview with Richard Hescox, April 16, 2001.
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63 - [Link] 67 - Interview with Richard Hescox, April 16, 2001. I own one of Hescox’s original pieces of art from the film – the painting of the woman being attacked by garden

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64 - [Link] tools which the policeman discusses with Roger in the hallway of the house. Told you I was a fan.
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Much of the creative team on House also worked on the Friday the 13th series, including, of

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Kane Hodder. Early advertising artwork for House emphasised the connections between the

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two franchises. Hodder, who went on to play Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th parts VII-X, was

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a stunt man on all four House films, and appeared briefly in House II and House IV. Actor Ronn

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Carroll appeared in House as a detective trying to locate Roger’s missing son, Jimmy. He also
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Photo of House masks (right) courtesy of Kirby R. Nelson.
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The Green Sky. Image courtesy of Richard Hescox, [Link]. Director Joe Dante being speared by a marlin. Image courtesy of Richard Hescox, [Link].

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who portrayed Cobb’s lieutenant in the Vietnam scenes, are the only actors who appeared in effective and expands the existing palette by adopting fiddle and acoustic guitar motifs
both House and House II, while William Katt returned briefly to reprise the role of Roger Cobb in evocative of the film’s attachment to the Western genre.70

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House IV.68 Steven Williams, playing a cop who responds to a gunshot heard at Roger’s house,

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later took a role in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993).69 Though House was ultimately a commercial success, the film required some adjustments
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has drowned rather than gone missing, and in the spirit of Dekker’s original concept, Roger

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As stated at the outset, the music for House played an important part in setting the tone
for the film. Manfredini’s pitch-perfect score, with its foreboding strings and playful military- (who is called Roger Gladstone), is dealing with his guilt after a mercy killing of his friend, Ben,

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style brass and snare combinations, wrings out every drop of suspense and comedy that the during the war. A later version, based around the disappearance of his son, had Roger battling

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a monster in the swimming pool in order to save Jimmy. “We went to the Hollywood YMCA and

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movie has to offer. Synthesiser-based atmospherics on cues like ‘Ding-Bat Attack’ seem to
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increase the scale of the inky black void into which our hero descends. Two pop numbers tried to shoot it and it just didn’t work,” says Miner. “Plus the kid was terrified of being in this

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from the 1960s, ‘You’re No Good’ and ‘Dedicated to the One I Love’ augment the soundtrack VI dark water.” By connecting Jimmy’s disappearance more closely to Roger’s failure to save his
and facilitate some montage scenes. By eschewing the fashions of mid-1980s pop in favour friend in Vietnam, the film eventually found a satisfying climax. “Finally, we went to an NRG

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of these more retro cuts, the music infuses the film with a soulful timelessness. Manfredini (National Research Group) screening, and it worked from the first shot,” says Miner. “It just

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went on to score the entire House series. His music for House II: The Second Story is equally worked and it was greatly rewarding. It went from disaster to hit.”71 The success of House was
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68 - Brown appeared in House II: The Second Story as the father of the main character, Jesse, played by Arye Gross, while Carroll played a deputy. 70 - The original motion picture soundtracks for House/House II: The Second Story were released together on compact disc in 1987 by Varese Sarabande, catalogue

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69 - His cop partner, actor Alan Autry, later became mayor of Fresno, California. no. VCD 47295. The soundtrack was also released on vinyl through the same label, catalogue no. STV 81324.
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71 - House, commentary with Ethan Wiley, William Katt, Sean S. Cunningham and Steve Miner.
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right out of the gate,” he says. “These movies are special to me in that they are original works

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and they got out there.”72

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In the remainder of this section, you’ll find the original press materials for House containing

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production notes and actor biographies from the period. Next, we’ll be taking a look at 1987’s
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House II: The Second Story. So long, sucker!

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72 - Natsukashi. (2009). Episode XXXV: House (with its writer Ethan Wiley!). [podcast] Available at: [Link] [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016].
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PRESS M ATERiALS

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House is a New World Pictures release starring William Katt, George Wendt, Kay Lenz,

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Richard Moll and Mary Stavin. Stephen Miner directs from an Ethan Wiley screenplay. Sean S.

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Cunningham is the producer.
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Horror novelist Roger Cobb is a man on the edge, reeling from his recent divorce, haunted by
the mysterious disappearance of his young son, and struggling with his new book about his

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traumatic experiences in Vietnam. But when he moves into the strange house left to him by his

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late aunt, Roger’s precarious sanity comes under siege by nightmares of his dead war friend,
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visits from a nosy neighbour and an onslaught of hideous creatures from another dimension.

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Synopsis 2

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Roger Cobb, an author of horror novels, is a troubled man. He has recently separated from his

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wife; their only son has disappeared without a trace; and his favourite aunt has just passed
away, an apparent suicide by hanging. On top of everything else, it’s been more than a year

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since the release of his latest book and he’s being pressured by his publisher to write another.
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To the chagrin of his fans and publisher, Cobb plans a novel based on his experiences in

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Vietnam instead of another horror story. It’s not so much that he’s interested in the subject, it’s
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more a way of purging himself of the horrors he experienced while there.

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After his aunt’s funeral, instead of selling his deceased aunt’s house as recommended by the

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firm handling the estate, Cobb decides to live there for a while to try to write. Having spent a

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only son disappeared one day while at the House – gone without a trace from right under his

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father’s watchful eye. It is the grief from which Cobb suffers that has driven a wedge between
him and his wife.

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After moving in to the house, Cobb begins to have powerful graphic nightmares. Thoughts
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about his army buddy, Big Ben, who died in Vietnam, come spilling out. In addition, strange

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phenomena spring forth from the House itself, haunting him in his waking hours as well. actually relives his experiences in the war and we learn that Roger’s close friend, Big Ben, was

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He tries communicating his fears to his nosy next door neighbor, Harold, but Harold thinks captured by the Viet Cong as Roger fought desperately to save him. Roger’s guilt and anxiety

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he’s crazy. over this traumatic event have plagued him for years. At the end of his harrowing journey into
his past, Roger finds Jimmy and starts to leave the house but one thing stands in the way to

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One night while investigating a noise coming from his late aunt’s bedroom, Cobb is attacked freedom, rotting and skeletonlike Ben has returned from the grave armed with a M60 machine

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by “something” in the shape of a horrible beast. More strange things happen: garden tools
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embed themselves in the door near his head; his wife turns up on the doorstep one day, and mad, fiendish hell. Now it’s time for him to play his trump card and personally exchange his
as he says hello, she transforms into a hideous witch, which he shoots, only to see it change own slow painful death at the hands of the enemy in Vietnam. A final battle between them

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again into his wife. ensures as Roger fights for his child’s life as well as his own.

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After more confrontations, Cobb finds what appears to be an entry into a sinister otherworld – The battle reaches its climax when Ben grabs Jimmy and holds a knife to his throat demanding

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through the mirror in the bathroom medicine cabinet. While looking into the void, he is pulled that Roger kill himself in order to spare the life of his child. But Roger has discovered the

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into the darkness by an unseen creature. In the darkness, however, he fortuitously locates his
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lost son, Jimmy. house’s power is only achieved by feeding off his own fear and guilt. With the strength of this

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discovery, Big Ben and the house are powerless to stop Roger. Roger grabs his son from the
Cobb manages to escape with Jimmy but, as they are leaving the House, they are confronted helpless zombie, pulls a grenade off his ammo belt and stuffs it into Big Ben’s ribcage. Roger

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by the “living”, partially decomposed corpse of Big Ben. Because Cobb had failed to kill him leaves the house with Jimmy in his arms, triumphant as the grenade explodes blowing Big

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when he was seriously wounded in Vietnam, and had instead allowed him to be taken prisoner Ben into a million pieces and starting a fire that will burn the house to the ground.
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and be tortured before dying, Ben reveals that he has been out to destroy Cobb.

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Cobb confronts Ben, aware that his anger over the kidnapping of his son has overwhelmed An ominous Victorian house, a troubled writer, a grisly suicide and supernatural occurrences,

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his fears. Unable to instil fear in Cobb any longer, Ben is defeated. Cobb destroys him and set the stage for House, a terrifying tale of the macabre, released by New World Pictures.

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escapes with his son. He glances back at the House, triumphantly; he has beaten it, and
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regained control of his life. Following his aunt’s suicide, best-selling horror novelist Roger Cobb (William Katt) returns

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to the old Victorian house in which he grew up – the same house where his aunt hanged
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Synopsis 3

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Roger Cobb is a thirty-five-year-old Vietnam vet whose career as a horror novelist has taken disappearance of his son, the collapse of his marriage and the persistent pressure from his

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a turn for the worse. While visiting his aunt at the house a year earlier Roger’s only son publisher to produce another horror novel, all contribute to his deteriorating mental state.
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Jimmy mysteriously disappeared. In the past year, Roger’s obsessive search to find his son However, once settled in the house, Cobb’s shaky grip on reality is shattered when he

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has destroyed his marriage and derailed his blossoming writing career. finds himself being terrorized by bizarre and dangerous supernatural beings. Roger Cobb’s

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nightmare has just begun.

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Since the presumed kidnapping of his son, Roger has felt compelled to stop writing horror

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stories and work on an autobiographical account of his experience in Vietnam instead. The VI “Without a doubt this was one of the most exhausting roles I’ve ever had,” says Katt. “Not only
sudden death of his aunt brings Roger back to the house where he decides to stay and try did the part require a tremendous amount of concentration and mental energy, it was also

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to write his book. At the house, Roger encounters a series of horrific monsters and ghosts physically demanding.” During the course of the story, Katt’s character finds himself being
that seem to relate to Roger’s past with references to his son, ex-wife and Vietnam. The pursued by a hideous witch who knocks him unconscious with a blow to the head from a

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supernatural events lead Roger to believe that his missing son may somehow be hidden in the shotgun butt, scrambling panic-stricken through the House fending off the vengeful ghost of

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house. With the aid of his ridiculous neighbor Harold Gorton, Roger embarks on a dangerous his former 6’8” army buddy Big Ben (Richard Moll), and furiously eluding the claws of the war
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quest of finding his son by battling the evil forces of the house. In one terrifying scene Roger demon, a huge eighteen-foot mechanical monster.

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Producer Sean Cunningham was very selective when he cast William Katt in the role of Roger “While we hope the creatures are frightening, we want to cut down on gore and shoot for

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Cobb. “In this picture, if you don’t like the character of Cobb you haven’t got a movie,” states something more surrealistic,” says Cummins. “The overall feel of the motion picture is that the

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Cunningham. “It was essential to have an actor who could blend humor with pathos; and the character of Roger Cobb is experiencing things in a surreal, dreamlike way, so we felt that in
part also required the actor to be in top physical condition. Bill was a natural for the role.” constructing the beasts we wanted to achieve a fantastic, almost cartoonish quality.”

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Katt began these frightful adventures on April 22, 1985 when House began production. The
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first two weeks of filming took place on location in Monrovia, California, at the home of Los controlled by 15 people. Construction of the creature took in excess of three months, and the
Angeles firemen Brian and John Wade. The Victorian style house of these two brothers became result is a monster 18-feet long with massive eight-foot long arms.

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“the House”. For the final six weeks of filming, the company shifted to Hollywood’s Ren-Mar

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Studios, once the home of Desilu Studios. Producer Sean Cunningham and Director Steve Miner located Cummins after viewing the film

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Strange Invaders, which Cummins had done the special effects for. “The film contained scenes

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Production designer Gregg Fonseca, who was responsible for transforming the Wades’ of alien transformation that were really terrific,” says Cunningham. “Not only does James

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peaceful home into a place of nightmares, scouted an area in Monrovia, in which he knew
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existed Victorian Houses. A photographer took pictures of several likely possibilities, then timetable and budget,” continues Miner.

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collaborated with Fonseca to pinpoint the exact structure for the film.
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Fonseca and his crew of five modified the Wade Victorian within four weeks, vigorously money correctly,” Cunningham states. “A modest budget doesn’t have to be restrictive if you

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repainting the entire house, fencing the front with wrought iron and adding Victorian know what you’re doing,” he says. “I personally believe that the filmmaker has a responsibility
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to the audience to produce a first-class product despite budget restrictions. I feel we have

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gingerbread and spires. The back of the edifice was changed from clapboard to brick, and

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landscapers were hired to plant flowers and bring the depleted front lawn back to life. The
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finishing touch was the construction of a sidewalk in front of the house.

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The man responsible for the creation of these hellish creatures is screenwriter Ethan

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The talents of Fonseca, his design and construction crew, were then utilized in recreating the Wiley who wanted to make an exciting horror film with elaborate special effects that also
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interior of the Victorian house at Ren-Mar, for sound stage filming. A replica of the two-storey had psychological depth. “I wanted to tell a concise story that would make the horror and

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interior, which included a full living room, den, staircase and three upstairs bedrooms was characters blend,” says Wiley, who views House as the story of a man whose life is “on the
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built on a stage. skids, and when he comes to the House, it feeds off his anxiety and fears and compounds

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On an adjacent sound stage, Katt crawled through the dense foliage of a Vietnamese Jungle

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which Fonseca fabricated in three days’ time for the wartime flash-back sequences. Fonseca “House is not a slasher film and Steve and I worked to make a film that could reach a

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proudly remarked that the House sets were some of the best work he had ever done. broad-based audience, and could be scary and fun, rather than scary and gruesome,” says

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Cunningham. “It’s kind of like when you’re a child and walking home at night and someone

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Perhaps the most striking aspects of the motion picture are the demons and monsters created jumps out of the bushes and says ‘boo!’ First you’re scared and then you laugh. That’s different
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by special effects wizard James Cummins. House features a total of seven different monsters, from the guy jumping out of the bushes saying ‘boo!’ and then hitting you over the head with
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including the remains of Roger Cobb’s old army buddy, Big Ben, a witch, three demonic kids, a
flying ‘void creature’, a marlin which comes to life while mounted on a wall, and a horrendous
a tire iron. That’s painful and not much fun. It’s very important to us that people have fun with
this film.”

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war demon, which menaces the unsuspecting Cobb.

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The creatures are the work of 17 special effects artists who laboured 10 hours a day, six days

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a week over a three-and-a-half-month period to construct the creatures. Cummins notes that

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ABOUT THE CAST In television, Katt spent the next two years starring in the hit series The Greatest American Hero.

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Recently, he starred opposite Ben Vereen in the cable TV adaptation of the Tony Award-winning

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Broadway musical Pippin, directed by Bob Fosse. He also appeared in John Frankenheimer’s
Biography of William Katt
cable TV production of The Rainmaker starring Tommy Lee Jones and Tuesday Weld. In

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Handsome, blond-haired actor William Katt, well-known to audiences for his portrayal of a addition, Katt played the pirate king in a touring production of The Pirates of Penzance and

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superman-like hero in the TV series The Greatest American Hero, enters a different realm had a starring role in the “Thumbelina” segment of Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre.
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with his role of Roger Cobb, an author of horror novels who finds himself caught up in a living,

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breathing nightmare in New World Pictures’ new horror film House. The 1980s have been a period of discovery for Katt. Professionally he discovered new talents

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and disciplines through the diversity of the numerous roles he has played. But the most

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Born and raised in Southern California, Katt grew up in a showbusiness household – his dramatic change in the 33-year-old actor’s life was getting married.

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mother is actress Barbara Hale, who played Della Street on the long-running TV series

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Perry Mason and his father, Bill Williams, was a cowboy star before switching his career “My priorities have changed since I’ve been married,” says Katt. “I’ve gone from being

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to real estate. VI idealistic to being realistic. My family is first, it’s the strongest influence in my life. We make

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all decisions together. Debbie is my own worst critic. The only thing certain about success in

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Katt’s interest in acting began when he was studying music at Orange Coast College in this business is that it won’t last. Your family will always be there.”
Newport Beach, California. It was there that he discovered theater. “I was seduced into acting

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over a long period of time,” says Katt. “It was not a conscious choice at first.” Katt and his wife Debbie live in Encino, California with their two children.

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Katt landed his first role in the West Coast production of Joseph Heller’s We Bombed in New Biography of George Wendt

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Haven while simultaneously studying classical guitar, music theory and composition.
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Veteran actor George Wendt, who plays the role of Harold, Roger Cobb’s nosy neighbour in

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After winning a scholarship for the renowned Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, he embarked New World Pictures’ new horror film House, is, in addition to being an accomplished comedy

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on a national tour as Rolf in The Sound of Music, followed by a succession of stage roles actor and writer, a keen student of current events, who reads a minimum of four papers
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including the turn-of-the-century farce Too Much Johnson and the Pulitzer Prize-winning play daily. “Newspapers are in my blood,” he says. “My grandfather was a superstar of yellow

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The Shadow Box. journalism; the equipment he used to take the famous hidden-camera photograph of the
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execution of Ruth Snyder is in the Smithsonian.”

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Katt doesn’t subscribe to any one theory or method of acting. He merely listens for what he
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calls “the ring of truth.” “I just say my lines, and if I believe them, then they’re right,” says Katt. A native of Chicago, Illinois, Wendt earned a degree in economics from Rockhurst College in

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Kansas City, Missouri. However, unsure of what he wanted to do with his life and “not motivated

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“All of the characters I play are part of me. Acting is like looking at a giant bookshelf and taking to do anything but have fun,” Wendt spent the ensuing two years travelling throughout Europe

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down exactly what you need.” and Africa. “I had the typical youth wanderlust,” he says.

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Katt made his motion picture debut in the highly successful 1976 classic thriller Carrie At the end of the two years Wendt decided he’d had enough and he returned to the United
starring Sissy Spacek and directed by Brian De Palma. His subsequent feature film credits
include starring roles in the controversial First Love; the surfing saga Big Wednesday; and
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don’t I hate?” Comedy was the answer.

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the prequel to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, in which he was chosen to play a young

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Robert Redford. After attending performances of Chicago’s famed improvisational company, Second City, and

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encouraged by his friends who were constantly amused by his comedic antics, Wendt enrolled

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in a Second City workshop. A year later, in 1974, he was hired by the company and became “a

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professional satirist.” For the next six years, he honed his theatrical skills both as an actor and From that moment on, Kay literally grew up in front of the TV cameras, appearing in many of

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as a comedy writer with Second City, where he met his wife, fellow comic Bernadette Birkett. the television commercials produced by her father, and as a guest performer on nearly every

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childrens’ and teenage show in Hollywood.
Nothing But Comedy, an NBC-TV pilot featuring Second City players, brought Wendt to the

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attention of NBC executives. With their interest and the strong encouragement of his wife, At the age of 11, she acted and sang in My Genie and Me, a little theater musical that ran for

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who felt they could both do better in Los Angeles, the couple packed up their two sons and
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moved west. Pasadena Playhouse production of Dark of the Moon.

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Wendt recalls that the first six months in Hollywood were “traumatic.” The transition from Throughout her childhood, Kay’s passion for acting was split between her love of the rodeo.

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Second City to sitcoms was a difficult one. “I went kind of crazy,” he says. But eventually When she wasn’t in school or acting, Kay could invariably be found on the local rodeo circuit.

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things began to happen. However, at the age of 17, she found herself having to choose between a career in the rodeo

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or a career as an actress – acting won out.

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Since then Wendt has guest-starred in such TV-series as Alice, Soap, Taxi, Hart to Hart,
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American Dream, St. Elsewhere, M*A*S*H and recently co-starred in the CBS-TV series Kay went on to appear in the series The Monroes, The Andy Griffith Show, Ironside, and The

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Making the Grade. Tammy Grimes Show, before graduating from Grant High School in Van Nuys, California.

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Wendt’s feature film credits include My Bodyguard, Jekyll & Hyde… Together Again, Airplane Kay is probably best known for her sensitive portrayal of a young hippie in the title role of the

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II, Dreamscape, The Ratings Game, Fletch, No Small Affair, Thief of Hearts, Young Lust and hit film Breezy, in which she starred opposite William Holden. Directed by Clint Eastwood, the
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role propelled her into the limelight and led to a succession of other film roles including White

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Somewhere in Time.

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In addition to the above, it is the role of Norm in NBC-TV’s enormously popular TV series of the Lost Universe, Trial by Terror, American Graffiti, and Fast Walking.

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Cheers, which has propelled Wendt to stardom and earned him critical acclaim.

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In television, Kay starred in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Lisa Bright and Dark,
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Wendt and his wife Bernadette reside in Los Angeles with their three children. which earned her widespread critical acclaim; and in the movies of the week Playmates and

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Weekend Nun, in addition to Summer Without Boys, Heart in Hiding, Journey from Darkness,
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Biography of Kay Lenz The Initiation of Sarah, The Seeding of Sarah Burns, Father Brown, Detective, and Rich Man,

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Kay Lenz, who portrays Sandy, Roger Cobb’s lovely ex-wife, in New World Pictures’ new horror Houston and Cagney and Lacey.

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film House, has been entertaining audiences all her life. Having made her successful television

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debut at the tender age of two months, Kay continued to act, and while most girls her age were Biography of Richard Moll

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busy playing hopscotch and jumping rope, Kay was displaying her talents in another arena as

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well – that of the Rodeo. At 6’8” and 240lbs, Richard Moll’s imposing stature made him a natural for the role of Big
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Ben, the vengeful apparition hellbent on destroying Roger Cobb in New World Pictures’ new
Born in Los Angeles, Kay is the only child of producer/commentator Ted Lenz and model/radio
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engineer Kay Miller Lenz. While her father was producing the Al Jarvis Hollywood on Television
horror film House.

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show, it was decided that guest Dottie O’Brien, a Capitol recording artist, should hold a real Born in Pasadena, California, Moll’s childhood was spent in several different states including

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baby while singing a lullaby. At eight weeks old, Kay’s career was launched in the arms of Ohio and Wyoming, before the family finally settled in Salt Lake City, Utah. Moll was a studious

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O’Brien, who struggled to keep her singing voice above the wails of the infant. The hilarious child, a loner who entertained himself by drawing cartoons. Much to the chagrin of the school

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first time performance brought Kay her first fan mail. athletic coaches, Moll always preferred academics to sports. Though he enjoyed playing the

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part of the class clown, Moll was an excellent student and went on to earn a degree in history Born in Sweden and raised in London, England, Mary is a former Miss World, who, during her

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from the University of California at Berkeley. reign, raised an unprecedented $5 million for charity.

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Following a brief career as a probation officer and retail store buyer in San Francisco, Moll On British television, Mary has appeared on such shows as Royal Command Performance with

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began studying acting at the age of 23. It was to become his passion. Bob Hope, Star Games, Celebrity Squares, The Russell Harty Show, Children’s Charity Telethon,

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Jim’ll Fix It, Top of the Pops and Game for a Laugh.

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In 1968, he moved to Hollywood and continued to hone his acting skills, supporting himself
with odd jobs and an occasional stint at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe as a slot machine key man. In film, Mary has appeared in the popular James Bond feature Octopussy and Merlin and the

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In 1970 he auditioned for and won an acting grant at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre and Sword. Her stage credits include Make and Break and the London production of Who Killed

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William Hickey?

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performed in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, Much Ado About Nothing and Richard II.

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A health and fitness buff, Mary recorded her own albums for Lifestyle Records entitled Keep
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Returning to Los Angeles, Moll showcased his talent at numerous local theaters. In 1975

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he joined Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga Canyon and continued to perform Fit, and has recorded songs for the British-based Ariola Records. In addition, she has been
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Shakespeare over the next five years. During that time, he also toured with the American Living

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History Theater, portraying Abraham Lincoln in productions at schools in the Los Angeles area.

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In 1978, he landed a role on ABC-TV’s Saturday morning live-action children’s show Bigfoot

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and Wildboy. Over the next five years Moll worked steadily in episodic television and feature
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films, appearing in The Rockford Files, How the West Was Won, Fantasy Island, Happy Days,

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Laverne & Shirley, Nine to Five, Remington Steele, Alice, The Fall Guy, and had a recurring role
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in The Dukes of Hazzard, among others. Moll is currently starring in the NBC-TV comedy series

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Night Court, in which he portrays the gentle bailiff Bull Shannon, a role which has brought him

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widespread recognition.
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Moll’s feature film credits include Evilspeak, Caveman, Hard Country, Liar’s Moon, The Sword
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and the Sorcerer, Ragewar, The Dungeon Master, and Metalstorm, in which he portrayed the

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“Because of my size, I’m often cast as the heavy,” Moll states. “But, I’m not knocking the bad-

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guy roles. I delight in the characterization, and the villains are the juiciest characters around.

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But, I’m not like that in real life... honest.”

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Moll resides in Los Angeles and in his spare time collects antiques (he currently drives a ’63
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Cadillac Coupe de Ville once owned by Samuel Goldwyn’s wife, Frances), lifts weight and jogs.

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Biography of Mary Stavin

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Mary Stavin portrays Tanya, Roger Cobb’s stunning blonde neighbor in New World Pictures’

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new horror film House.

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ABOUT THE filmmakers Sean S. Cunningham

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SEAN S. CUNNINGHAM, who produced New World Pictures’ new horror film House, scored big

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Steve Miner early in his career with Friday the 13th, which was produced for a modest $500,000 and has

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to the genre of horror films, having served as director of Friday the 13th, Part II and Friday the
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13th, Part III.
and began his career managing theater companies around the country, including productions

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Born and raised in Westport, Connecticut, Miner’s interest in film began as a young boy, when at New York’s Lincoln Center, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and at the Mineola Theatre on

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Long Island. His first film was a semi-documentary entitled Together, followed in 1971 by the

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his mother, a film librarian, would bring films home for the family’s evening entertainment.
horror film The Last House on the Left.

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Though no-one had any idea at the time, the passion of filmmaking was beginning to develop.

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Miner began his career in the motion picture industry as a production assistant on an industrial Making a subsequent transition to comedy in 1977, Cunningham produced and directed Here
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film about brake linings. His next job was laying in the sound effects for Wide World of Sports
firmly establishing Cunningham in film annals. A Stranger is Watching followed, garnering

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Car Racing Events shows. He then went on to make educational films for the Time-Life
critical acclaim and financial success. Next, Cunningham scored again with the hit film Spring

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Break, a youth-orientated comedy which brought back memories of college antics to people of

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all ages. Most recently, Cunningham produced The New Kids for Columbia Pictures.

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The Last House on the Left. Miner wasted no time in convincing the producers and director

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to hire him as a production assistant. Due to his hunger to learn moviemaking and his
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eagerness to participate in all aspects of the film, Miner volunteered for every job possible. His ETHAN WILEY makes his screenwriting debut with New World Pictures’ House.

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responsibilities were quickly broadened and his knowledge was rapidly growing.

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Born and raised in the northern California community of Marin County, Wiley came to Los

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After the film was completed and in release, Stephen wanted to further enhance his editing Angeles to study film at UCLA.

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skills. He hired himself out as an editor on New York art films, which led to a job editing film
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for the National Hockey League. By this time, he had honed quite a talent for the cutting room.

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to harness his creative energy and feeling the need to grow and use his talent to the fullest, Making the unusual transition from special effects to screenwriting, Wiley met Director

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he moved to the movie capital of the world, Los Angeles. It was shortly after he arrived that

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Stephen Miner through a mutual friend, also a writer: “I originally gave Stephen the script of
he co-produced and edited a film called Here Come the Tigers. This project paved the way for

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House simply to get some feedback. I was aware of his success with the Friday the 13th films

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Friday the 13th, Part II which he produced and directed, and which has gone on to become one
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and I knew he really understood the genre. Things happened fairly quickly after that. Stephen

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of the most successful independent films ever made. Following Part II’s enormous box office loved the script and wanted to do it, he introduced me to Producer Sean Cunningham and the
figures, Miner went on to produce and direct its 3-D sequel, Friday the 13th, Part III.
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Given that the sequel could not be a continuation of Roger Cobb’s story, Wiley decided that the

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best way to proceed was to view the project as the second instalment in a horror anthology

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of sorts. Typically, titles that fall into the subgenre of the anthology (or omnibus) film consist of
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theme or framing concept. House II would be a full-length feature with a single director;

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felt, support a stand-alone story featuring new locations and characters. “That may not

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have been a good idea,” he confesses, “but it was the best idea I could come up with under
With the success of House at the US box office, producer Sean S. Cunningham and the team those constraints.”2

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at New World Pictures recognised that there was a market for a follow-up. House scribe Ethan

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Wiley recalls receiving a phone call from Cunningham offering him the opportunity to write Although Fangoria described the concept as a “bold new approach to cinematic architecture”3,
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and direct a sequel. However, there were two conditions; to have the film ready for release in there were plenty of precedents to support this decision. In film, the horror anthology dates

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August 1987, Wiley had to write the script in two weeks, and they wouldn’t be able to bring VI back to the silent movies of the 1920s4 and takes in film and television productions like
back any of the actors from the first movie because they’d be too expensive second time Dead of Night (1945), Night Gallery (1969) and Tales from the Crypt (1972). The ongoing

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around. As an ambitious young filmmaker, Wiley didn’t let the difficult circumstances dissuade influence of EC Comics and the work of major horror figures like Stephen King helped ensure

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him, and took on the project’s highly compressed schedule.1 that the 1980s were no less fertile, with films like Creepshow (1982), Twilight Zone: The
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2 - Natsukashi. (2009). Episode XXXV: House (with its writer Ethan Wiley!). [podcast] Available at: [Link] [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016].

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3 - Rabkin, W. (1987). Moving into House II. Fangoria, (#64), pp.42-45.
1 - Natsukashi. (2009). Episode XXXV: House (with its writer Ethan Wiley!). [podcast] Available at: [Link] [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016]. 4 - See, for example, Waxworks (1924).
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an impact on audiences in the first half of the decade. Although the House films can only be

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located broadly within this subgenre, it was in the spirit of this tradition that the masterful pun
in the film’s title, House II: The Second Story, was conceived. The horror anthology remains

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strong to this day, having continued with productions like Tales from the Darkside: The Movie

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(1990), Body Bags (1993), Masters of Horror (2005-2007), Trick ‘r Treat (2007), The ABCs of
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Death and V/H/S (both 2012).5

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Another notable departure from the first film is the tone of House II, which was designed to

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appeal to a family audience. Though the film falls into the ‘undead Western’ category6, it can

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that became popular in the wake of R. L. Stine’s series of children’s books during the 1990s.

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terms of adventures into other worlds, but incorporates creature effects that are cute rather

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concedes. “It was PG-13, not an R-rated movie like the first one, so I think people had

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expectations for something grittier.”7

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Wiley’s screenplay was set in an old mansion inherited by Jesse McLaughlin, the great-great-

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grandson of a famous outlaw from the Old West. Jesse has a powerful connection to the house;
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not only were his parents mysteriously murdered there, but his great-great grandfather, his
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picture of his great-great grandfather holding a crystal skull. In the background is Slim Reeser,

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a former partner turned bitter enemy, who also wanted the skull for its magical powers.

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5 - [Link]
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6 - See: Miller, C. and Van Riper, A. (2012). Undead in the West. 1st ed. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, Inc. and Miller, C. and Van Riper, A. (2013). Undead in the West II.

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1st ed. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, Inc.
7 - Natsukashi. (2009). Episode XXXV: House (with its writer Ethan Wiley!). [podcast] Available at: [Link] [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016].
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Going on the assumption that the Aztec antique remains buried with ‘Gramps’, Jesse’s best

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friend, Charlie, persuades him to exhume the coffin. To their surprise, they discover that the

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magic of the skull has kept 170-year-old Gramps alive (even though it hasn’t rejuvenated him
to full health). Once the zombified ‘Gramps’ realises that Jesse is family, the group bonds,

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and together they return the crystal skull to its rightful place. Jesse and Charlie learn that the

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house is a Mayan temple and the skull unlocks portals to other dimensions in time. With its
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life-giving, time-bending powers, the skull is desired by all manner of ancient beings, and so
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When the skull is stolen by a Stone Age barbarian, Jesse and Charlie embark on an adventure to

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recover it from a prehistoric world, returning with the skull, a baby pterodactyl, and a caterpillar

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dog (the ‘Caterpuppy’). Unfortunately, they just can’t seem to keep hold of that damn MacGuffin

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and soon require the help of Bill, an eccentric electrician and adventurer who has (perhaps more
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than) fortuitously arrived to help fix whatever problems Jesse is having at the house. Together,

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the three end up in a swashbuckling sword fight, thwart a virgin sacrifice, and ultimately return
with the skull. With Gramps now weak and fading fast, his old nemesis Slim Reeser appears,

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attacks his former friend and steals the prize. Jesse learns that it was Slim that killed his

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parents when he was a baby and pursues him into the Old West to take revenge and recover the
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skull. When the gunfight ends, Gramps says goodbye to Jesse and embraces his great-great

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grandson. Using the power of the skull, Jesse and his pals are able to return to the Old West to
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bury Gramps, leaving behind the troublesome Aztec artefact once and for all.

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office draw just a few months later. Jesse’s
Production on House II: The Second Story began in the summer of 1986 with a budget of around

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best friend, Charlie, was played by Jonathan
$2 million, based on a shooting schedule of 44 days. Written and directed by Ethan Wiley, the
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Stark (Fright Night), a comedian and

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film was produced by Sean S. Cunningham for New World Pictures. Cinematographer Mac VI Groundlings alumnus who later wrote for

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Ahlberg returned, as did production designer Gregg Fonseca, stunt coordinator Kane Hodder,
the television series Ellen (which Gross also

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and composer Harry Manfredini. Chris Walas designed special effects and makeup for House
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acted in), and co-created the long running

II, while James (‘Jim’) Isaac, who had worked with Walas on Gremlins (1984) and Enemy Mine

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sitcom According to Jim (2001-2009).
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(1985), acted as special effects coordinator to execute the designs.8 Stop motion work was
Gramps was portrayed by Royal Dano,

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handled by Phil Tippett and Mark Sullivan, with Sullivan also contributing matte paintings, as

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the respected character actor who had
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he had for House.9

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appeared in John Huston’s The Red Badge
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Melissa Skoff was responsible for casting both House films. The role of Jesse went to Arye
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Gross, who had recently worked with Steve Miner on Soul Man (1986), the film that would
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electrician and adventurer Bill Towner went
to John Ratzenberger, who gave a memorable performance as the swashbuckling handyman.

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8 - Isaac went on to do special visual effects for Sean Cunningham’s DeepStar Six (1989) and directed both House III: The Horror Show (1989) and Jason X (2001).
9 - Ethan Wiley and James Isaac also had a long relationship prior to Isaac’s untimely death in 2012. They met when Wiley moved to Woodacre, California in West Marin
It was, however, pure happenstance that another member of the Cheers cast should provide
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with theatre productions, Super 8 and 16mm short films, and original plays. Wiley introduced Isaac to ILM and later convinced Chris Walas to hire him on Gremlins. Wiley
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in the first film. Rounding out the cast were Lar Park Lincoln as Kate, a record company

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employee, and Jesse’s girlfriend10, and Amy Yasbeck as wannabe pop star Lana, and partner

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executive boss. Dean Cleverdon was the actor behind the zombie cowboy makeup of villain

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Slim Reeser, a name that Wiley chose because it “sounded like a strange version of ‘sleazy’”.11
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Incidentally, it was Chris Walas who decided that Reeser should have long, red, Willy Nelson-
style hair.12 A player and lover of music, Wiley named principal characters Jesse McLaughlin, VI
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Towner respectively.13

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10 - In a further connection to the Friday the 13th series, Lincoln also appeared in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988).
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13 - Interview with Ethan Wiley, June 27, 2016. VI
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House II: The Second Story was released on August 28, 1987, grossing $7.8 million at the US

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box office.14 Though it did not achieve the commercial or critical success of House, the film

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turned a respectable profit, a fact which would ultimately lead to two further sequels bearing
the name. Relations with New World executives like Jeff Schechtman, who was in charge of

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production during this period, were highly productive, and thus there was no interference

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given that he was just 25 years old when he made House II, the film represents a considerable
achievement for the young writer/director.15 The majority of the negativity towards the film

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cited how far the tone of House II had diverged from the R-rated horror-comedy blend of the

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original, played, as the Washington Post put it, “strictly for laughs”.16 Likewise, Muir’s (2007:

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33-34) critique of the sequel found that its “nonsensical” interpretation of the rules of so-

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called “rubber reality” films resulted in a situation where “terror gives way to whimsy and

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In my view, although the first two films establish the trope that the main character must try to
hide the insanity of the house from others, there is little to counterbalance House II ’s farcical

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tone, and as such, it comes off as a markedly different type of film than the first. Taking House

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II on its own merits, it’s a likeable caper, even if it felt like a missed opportunity that the story
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was not set in the original’s distinctive Victorian dwelling. Wiley rationalises such decisions in

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“but when people ask me, I tell them that I learned more about writing than directing on

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House II. There were time constraints, but I was wildly ambitious and more into creating this

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fantastical world than I was creating a good, solid story to hang it on.”17
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Despite any misgivings, Wiley’s story for House II was the only one in the series to receive a
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comic book adaptation. Marvel Comics (which had been sold to New World Pictures in 1986)

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auction websites. In Italy, House II became part of the La Casa series, a catch-all franchise

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containing several otherwise unrelated horror films. House II: The Second Story was renamed

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La Casa 6, while House III: The Horror Show, which suffered its own identity crisis in the

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United States, was released as La Casa 7.18 To add further confusion to the matter, despite the

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numbering, both films were originally released prior to La Casa 5 (1990’s Beyond Darkness).19
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14 - [Link] The film had been released a few months earlier in the UK, on May 15, 1987.

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17 - Natsukashi. (2009). Episode XXXV: House (with its writer Ethan Wiley!). [podcast] Available at: [Link] [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016].

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18 - The La Casa series included La Casa (a.k.a. The Evil Dead) La Casa 2 (a.k.a. Evil Dead II) La Casa 3 (a.k.a. Ghosthouse) La Casa 4 (a.k.a. Witchery) La Casa 5
(a.k.a. Beyond Darkness) La Casa 6 (a.k.a. House II: The Second Story) La Casa 7 (a.k.a. The Horror Show). For a detailed explication of the renaming complexities of
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19 - Retro Rocket Entertainment. (2015). Video Night! The House Franchise. [podcast] Available at: [Link]
series [Accessed 16 Nov. 2016].
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Such strategies are not uncommon in the distribution and marketing of horror films; similar

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practices can be observed in the history of the Zombi franchise, which is comprised of copious

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questionable “sequels” to Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Fulci’s Zombi 2 (1979).

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“Looks like you got some kind of alternate

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universe in there or something...”
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The focal point of House II: The Second Story is the visually arresting Stimson House, a mansion

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in the Richardsonian Romanesque style located on Figueroa Street north of West Adams in Los

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Angeles. The 12,800-square-foot, 30-room residence was designed by Carroll H. Brown and
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was completed in the early 1890s as the home of Thomas Douglas Stimson, the lumber and

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banking tycoon.20 Its striking façade, made from Arizona red sandstone, is just one of the
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features that have made the building attractive to film and television companies, along with
its four-storey octagonal tower, stained glass windows, and Gothic arches.21 The Los Angeles
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Times described the so-called ‘Red Castle’ as a “shrine to lumber” because of its eclectic mix

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of ash, sycamore, birch, mahogany, walnut, gumwood and oak.22 Despite its elite qualities, over

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the years the house has played host to a variety of occupants including student fraternities.

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As with the first House film, exterior shooting was done on location and the interiors were built
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on a stage. In this case, sets were erected at Laird International Studios, now known as Culver
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Studios. On a nearby stage, Fred Dekker was directing The Monster Squad. “It was like college

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all over again,” he says. “If I had a few spare moments, I’d nip over and watch Arye Gross

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battling a gun-slinging zombie, then Ethan would follow me to my soundstage and watch us Since the budget was relatively low for a horror-comedy/adventure-fantasy, and because Wiley’s

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blow up the Wolfman. It was a time I remember with great fondness.”23 On set, Gregg Fonseca directorial debut was going to include a lot of effects, scenes were storyboarded extensively.
stretched the film’s modest budget to provide a detailed, spacious environment for the actors “Part of the challenge with House II was really planning every single shot,” Wiley states. “There

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to work in. With its mix of Inca columns and stone-carved dragons, Fonseca aimed to blend the was no other way we could have done it financially, so we maxed out our resources to the

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Gothic style of the house into a more Western theme. In contrast with the Vietnam flashbacks VI utmost with every scene.”25 As a result of this meticulous planning (and perhaps for budgetary

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from House, the scenes requiring jungle foliage were shot on location at Griffith Park in Los reasons), there were no reshoots on the movie. However, Wiley still felt that the storytelling

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could have been more efficient in the final cut of the film: “Going into this, directing for the first
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Angeles, with some interior set decoration brought to the location, rather than recreating a
jungle on the soundstage.24 Scenes set in the Old West were all filmed during one night at the time, one of the things you learn is you can always move things a little faster along. Next time

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Paramount Ranch, where there is a recreation of a Wild West town. It was also the first day out I was better at pacing scenes.”26

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of shooting, which turned out to be a trial by fire for Wiley. The prop truck broke down and so
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Wiley’s first hour as a motion picture director was spent dealing with having no props to work The special effects for House II incorporated everything from cutesy creatures, to stop-motion

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‘Gramps’ makeup took hours to prepare and required time and attention on set to maintain.
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24 - House II: The Second Story, commentary with Sean S. Cunningham and Ethan Wiley. 26 - House II: The Second Story, commentary with Sean S. Cunningham and Ethan Wiley.
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Following the pioneering work of artists like Dick Smith, Walas used small reusable pieces of

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foam latex to afford Dano more flexibility for expression.27 “I think that the Gramps makeup

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job is one of the best makeup jobs ever in a movie,” Wiley enthuses, “It’s just phenomenal!”28
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open his mouth and speak. As a result, all of Reeser’s lines take place off-screen. Nonetheless, also accomplished with a stop-motion armature. By employing Mark Sullivan’s exquisite matte

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Cleverdon manages to imbue Slim with a physical panache that makes the mysterious villain paintings, the effects team didn’t have to make miniature models of the trees or incorporate
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When Jesse reaches the nest, it was Jim Isaac who puppeteered the baby bird while Mark

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it was Wiley who originally initiated the idea for the ‘Caterpuppy’, the caterpillar/dog hybrid by Frank Welker, an Emmy Award-winning voice actor. Though they had initially planned to

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upstarts in his charge how to draw creatures and this concept was among Wiley’s designs. favoured by the creative team, especially when exposed to Welker’s broad palette: “He could

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“Chris Walas took my design and made it so adorably cute you just wanted to crush it,” says mimic just about anything you wanted,” Wiley recalls. “When we saw how versatile Frank

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Gary Platek of Industrial Light and Magic. Since people were handling the skull on screen, it sound effects in post-production because he just did it all.”31

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would have been prohibitively expensive to infuse a magical glow via optical effects in each
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scene. As a result, Platek’s solution was installed, which involved a flexible wire that went into
an acrylic or urethane skull made to look like crystal. The team could then infuse the mystical
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cranium with different coloured lights. during every take, and Wiley gave him free reign to experiment. A number of the lines in the

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30 - Natsukashi. (2009). Episode XXXV: House (with its writer Ethan Wiley!). [podcast] Available at: [Link] [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016]. 31 - House II: The Second Story, commentary with Sean S. Cunningham and Ethan Wiley.
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Royal Shakespeare Company,” Wiley says. “It turned out that he was great at sword-fighting
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and kicking and all that stuff. You just don’t expect the mailman from Cheers to be really good

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Royal Dano was also a memorable figure on set. Standing 6’2”, the seasoned actor had

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share. One in particular involved Dano’s time in the army as a young man. While stationed in

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Burma, a British officer picked Dano to perform in a variety show they were staging. “That
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officer turned out to be Sir Alec Guinness,” says Wiley. The House II director remembers

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VI Dano as charming, funny and “the hippest guy on the set”.33 At the time, Dano had recently

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undergone quadruple bypass surgery and was uninsurable. “We really fell in love with him

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when he came in and auditioned, and we felt that he embodied the character, so we took

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The Aztec virgin was played by Playboy centrefold Devin DeVasquez. The party scene contains
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Hodder plays a guy in a gorilla suit who gets into a fight with the Stone Age intruder ‘Arnold

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the Barbarian’.35 In the final gunfight with the police, Jim Isaac, Chris Walas, and producer

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Stuart Cornfeld (The Fly, Tropic Thunder) all appear as cops firing at Slim Reeser. House
alumnus Ronn Carroll also returns as a cop, while Dwier Brown appears early on as Clarence,

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Jesse’s father.
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It’s getting weirder!

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32 - Natsukashi. (2009). Episode XXXV: House (with its writer Ethan Wiley!). [podcast] Available at: [Link] [Accessed 22 Dec. 2016].
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34 - House II: The Second Story, commentary with Sean S. Cunningham and Ethan Wiley.
35 - This actor, Gus Rethwisch, went on to appear twice with the real Arnold in The Running Man (1987) and Twins (1988).
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PRESS M ATERiALS

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Synopsis

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Jesse McLaughlin, and his girlfriend Kate, arrive at the house he’s recently inherited from

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great-grandfather, a notorious outlaw in the Old West, stole an extremely valuable crystal skull

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that supposedly possessed magical powers. The skull was buried with him.

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Charlie, Jesse’s best friend, persuades Jesse to dig up the coffin and its treasure. To their

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surprise, they find both the skull and Jesse’s great-great grandfather! ‘Gramps’ is 170 years
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old, alive and kicking, thanks to the magic of the skull. They all return home.
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The house was built as a temple for the skull and when the skull is brought into the house,

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magical and strange phenomena begin. Since the skull has the power of giving its owners

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immortality, it is constantly coveted by a wide variety of characters from bizarre worlds.

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dinosaurs. After battling assorted fantastic monsters, Jesse and Charlie return safely only to

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have Aztec thugs from yet another time attack Gramps and take the skull. With the help of an

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eccentric electrician, Jesse and Charlie find their way through caves and tunnels to an ancient

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Aztec temple where a virgin sacrifice is in progress. A swashbuckling fight enables Jesse and

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Charlie to return with the skull.

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rescue the skull and save Gramps’ life. Jesse is pitted against the powers of darkness in the
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ABOUT THE CAST AMY YASBECK

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AMY YASBECK (Lana) attended the University of Detroit where she studied art and theater. She

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ARYE GROSS has appeared in over 200 sketches as one of the blackout players in The New Love American

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Style. House II is her motion picture debut.
ARYE GROSS (Jesse) recently received rave reviews for his role as a wise-cracking law

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student in the comedy, Soul Man. Born in Los Angeles, Gross has been working at his craft
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for more than ten years, performing in the South Coast Repertory Theater, and Luis Valez’

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Northern California Theater. He has appeared in the motion pictures Just One of the Guys and ABOUT THE filmmakers

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Exterminator II and the television series Knight Rider and Remington Steele.

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SEAN CUNNINGHAM

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SEAN CUNNINGHAM (Producer) has produced and/or directed films in almost every genre.
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ROYAL DANO (Gramps) is one of today’s most respected and versatile character actors. A

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native of New York City, Dano performed on the Broadway stage and received his first national
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recognition for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in a five-part Omnibus series. Dano was also Watching and The New Kids. He created Cunningham Productions in 1984.

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the model for the animatronic Lincoln at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. He has appeared

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ETHAN WILEY
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in dozens of motion pictures including The Red Badge of Courage, Moby Dick, The Trouble with

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Harry, and The Right Stuff. ETHAN WILEY (Director) was born in Marin County and studied theater arts at UCLA. He

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has worked on Return of the Jedi and spent two years on Steven Spielberg’s production
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JOHN RATZENBERGER of Gremlins. Wiley wrote the screenplay for House. House II, for which he also penned the
VI screenplay, marks his feature film directorial debut.

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JOHN RATZENBERGER (Bill), a native of Connecticut, stars in the hit NBC series Cheers as the

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know-it-all mailman, Cliff Clavin, a character not unlike his House II electrician, Bill. He spent
several years in Europe, where he formed a popular improvisational group named “Sal’s Meat

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Market.” He has appeared in over twenty motion pictures including, The Ritz, The Falcon and

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the Snowman, Gandhi, and Reds.
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education. A member of the well-known Groundlings improvisational troupe, Stark has

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appeared in the television series Moonlighting and the TV-movie The Prince of Bel-Air. He
made his motion picture debut in Fright Night, where he portrayed the evil assistant to a

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vampire, and appeared opposite Matthew Broderick in the recent Project X.
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LAR PARK LINCOLN
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LAR PARK LINCOLN (Kate) was born in Ft. Worth to a military family. After modelling for several

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years, Lincoln moved to Los Angeles and landed a role as a teenage prostitute in the television
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film Children of the Night. She has also starred in the big-screen fantasy, Princess Academy.

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By the late 1980s, America was in the final stretch of the Reagan presidency, an era in which

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responses to a near decade of conservatism had been writ large in the cinematic excess of
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the slasher film.1 However, it was primarily entries in the major franchises like A Nightmare on

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Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989), VI

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Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988) and Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes

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Manhattan (1989) that propped up the ‘quintessential ’80s horror subgenre’ as it limped, like

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one of its victims, towards the end of the decade.2
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Friday the 13th (1980), his career has also incorporated comedies like Here Come the Tigers

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(1985). These diverse sensibilities meant that the House series was not limited in its ambition

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to mix horror and comedy, but it also meant that the franchise wouldn’t be governed by

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a single stylistic vision. “With 20/20 hindsight, my problem was that House wasn’t really
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branded,” says Cunningham, “the audience didn’t know in advance what to expect.”3

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1 - [Link]

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When House III: The Horror Show (1989) arrived, a mix of slasher and splatter with overtones The fact that The Horror Show was made for United Artists and distributed by UA/MGM Home

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of the supernatural thriller, it felt like a late entry in an already weary subgenre, and was so far Entertainment, rather than New World, only served to further distance the film from the House

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removed from the tone of the first two House films, that its connection to the series seemed series, despite the return of a few stalwarts of the House crew like Mac Ahlberg, Kane Hodder

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tenuous at best. House III’s identity crisis was not just a question of style; the film weathered and Harry Manfredini. By this time, New World Pictures had become New World Entertainment.
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problems during production which saw director David Blyth replaced by James Isaac, one of They had financed part of the cost of the first two House films, in exchange for which they had
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its writers took an ‘Alan Smithee’ credit, and the final product was disassociated from the the rights to the United States and other English speaking territories, and Cunningham had the

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House franchise in the United States when it was released there as The Horror Show.4 This rest of the world. “After the second one, the whole company changed and they didn’t have any

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situation led many to believe that the use of the House moniker outside of the US had been particular interest in doing a third,” states Cunningham.7

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nothing more than a cynical afterthought, however, this was not exactly true. The film had
been financed through pre-sales of foreign distribution rights using the title House III, and so House III was not the first horror threequel to try something different. Tommy Lee Wallace’s

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by the time production began, it was understood that the film they would deliver would be Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) is often cited as a major departure from the first two
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the third instalment in the House series.5 “I had pre-sold the title House III in several foreignVI instalments in the Halloween series because it is not a slasher film, does not feature the villain
markets,” confirms Cunningham, “and I had to make good on my commitment to deliver it. Michael Myers, nor takes account of any prior story elements.8 The violent and gory nature
United Artists liked the script for House III, but for marketing reasons thought The Horror Show of House III was a response to feedback on House II, which Cunningham felt had “gotten too

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would be a stronger title in the US. Ergo House III and The Horror Show.”6 soft”.9 The third film became an attempt to do an intense, scary movie, “without any overt

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4 - Alan Smithee is the official pseudonym adopted when disowning a film. 7 - House III, commentary with Sean S. Cunningham.

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5 - Biodrowski, S. (1991). The Doors Reopen for House IV. Fangoria, (#104), pp.28-30. 8 - [Link]
6 - Interview with Sean S. Cunningham, December 29, 2016. 9 - House III, commentary with Sean S. Cunningham.
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cuteness”.10 If there was an overarching concept, it was that as long as Cunningham used

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the word House and had a haunted house connected to the film, he could tell any kind of

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story, regardless of continuity between the individual films. “That was probably a mistake,” he
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confides. “I think I’d much rather have been consistent. Not necessarily the same characters,

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“Lucas, I’m coming back to tear your world apart...”
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VI House III: The Horror Show is the story of Lucas McCarthy, a burnt-out police detective played
by Lance Henriksen (The Terminator, Aliens, Near Dark). For years, Lucas was on the trail of

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Max Jenke, aka ‘Meat Cleaver Max’, the most prolific mass murderer in history, portrayed with

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relish by Brion James (Blade Runner). After a terrifying pursuit, in which Lucas comes face

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10 - House III, commentary with Sean S. Cunningham.

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11 - House III, commentary with Sean S. Cunningham.
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to face with the killer, Jenke is finally apprehended. When the killer is sentenced to death by

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electric chair, Lucas hopes that his work is almost done. However, at the execution, Jenke

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demonstrates an incredible resistance to electricity, bursting forth from his restraints and
attacking Lucas. Before his fiery demise, Jenke promises that he will return to have revenge

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on the detective that caught him.

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Recovering from the ordeal, Lucas tries to spend some quality time with his wife Donna (Rita
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subjected to waking nightmares that test his very sanity, visions of Jenke back from the grave

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to terrorise the McCarthy family in their own home. With a dead boyfriend in the basement,

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and a Jenke baby writhing in his daughter’s womb, Lucas must accept Jenke’s reality, relive

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the moment Jenke was apprehended, and take down the relentless mass murderer once and

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“All that did was give me a hard-on!”

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House III: The Horror Show was filmed in the autumn of 1988 at various locations around Los

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Angeles, including scenes at a power plant in Long Beach, San Pedro, California. However,
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the house itself was nondescript in comparison with the previous films. The shoot lasted for

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approximately six weeks based on a budget of around $3 million. Reactions to the film were

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largely negative and it became the first House film that did not make a profit, earning just $1.7
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million.13 Critic Roger Ebert found some things to like, such as the film’s emphasis on Brion

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horror films) and Jenke’s execution scene, which he described as “shocking and funny”.14

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Bearing in mind the complexities of its production and marketing, House III: The Horror Show
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features affable performances from the always-committed Lance Henriksen, and Brion
James, who was given to citing serial killer Max Jenke as his favorite role.15 Jenke’s relentless
cackle will no doubt echo in the memories of fans and critics alike. Ultimately though,
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House III was released in the wake of more interesting films of its kind, like Tom Holland’s that scene,” says Hodder. “He thought it was amazing that I was looking right at him, pointing
Child’s Play (1988), and six months prior to Shocker (1989), a film written and directed by and acting while I was engulfed in flames.”19

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Cunningham’s former collaborator Wes Craven. Shocker bore a strikingly similar serial-killer-

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executed-in-electric-chair-returns-to-take-vengeance-on-detective premise but grossed Hodder, whose stunts are highlights in the film, was plagued with “the worst sprained ankle
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$16.5 million from a $5 million investment.16 As such, House III’s legacy as a curio in the annals he ever had” during the making of House III.20 The injury didn’t occur on set, but during a day

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“It was a pretty cheap production,” says Rita Taggart, who starred as Lucas’s wife, Donna, and Hodder also performed a tricky high fall doubling Brion James as he runs into a rail and flips

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who took the role when she heard that Henriksen was also working on the picture. “Lance and over the side of a stairwell. “I thought I was going to flip and fall feet first,” he says. “But if you
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I didn’t have our own space, just an area with a folding curtain, so we got to talk a lot about look at the movie, I flip a second time in the air before I hit my landing area. Because I went

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life and acting.”17 Working with co-stars like Lance Henriksen and Brion James was the best an extra half a revolution on the way down, which I couldn’t control, I landed face first and it
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part of the experience for Taggart. “Brion was as sweet as could be, but he was as extreme wasn’t nearly as comfortable as landing on your back. It still looked cool!”22

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particularly in regard to the electrocution scene in which Hodder performed a fire stunt as a (Daylight, Dante’s Peak) was invited to work on the screenplay. The first writer on the project

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double for James’s crazed killer. “Lance Henriksen used to tell a story about acting with me in didn’t like the direction that the finished film took and was credited with the pseudonym

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Alan Smithee. “I got Les Bohem to come in and work with us on it and he’s the one that really

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made the whole thing come together. He turned it into a movie,” Cunningham says.23 Bohem,
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who was part of the new wave pop group Gleaming Spires, also had a song included on the

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soundtrack of the film.24

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Although they were happy with Bohem’s script, House III continued to be beset by problems

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not coming together in the desired way. “It’s one of those things where it’s very subjective,” he
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I don’t know. It’s one of those judgement calls you have to make sometimes.”25 Blyth’s vision

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for the film was more of an intellectual drama. “He didn’t respond to the visceral parts,” recalls
Cunningham. “Somehow or other he wasn’t comfortable with the material, or didn’t seem

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to be, and so I was concerned what we were going to end up with.”26 “I loved David Blyth,”
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23 - House III, commentary with Sean S. Cunningham.
24 - ‘The Things I Have Done To Our Love’, written by Leslie Bohem (as Les Bohem) and David Kendrick. Performed by Gleaming Spires.
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25 - House III, commentary with Sean S. Cunningham.

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Changes during shooting can be distressing for both the cast and crew. James Isaac, who
was working on visual effects, stepped in to help out and complete the film. As a result, House

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III became his directorial debut. “Boy, he had a rough few days,” remembers Cunningham.

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“Ultimately they liked him a lot, but he had to be the guy on the front line and it was difficult for
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him, but he did it well.”28 In 1989, Isaac told Fangoria what it was like to step into the director’s

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is what’s going to happen, and walk onto a set Monday, shooting. I felt it was very difficult

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for the actors to accept me, and it did take time. My only concern was the change-over, the

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transition period” (1989: 66).29
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To smooth the transition, Isaac relied on House veterans like cinematographer Mac Ahlberg.
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“He’s incredible,” said Isaac in 1989, “He’s been very helpful to me on this.”30 Cunningham

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presence on the set. People liked to be around him.”31 Ahlberg had been a guiding force for

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director Stuart Gordon on Re-Animator (1985) and had photographed Cunningham’s sci-fi

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28 - House III, commentary with Sean S. Cunningham.
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29 - Warren, B. (1989). Step Right Up for The Horror Show. Fangoria, (#81), pp.36-39, 66.

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horror DeepStar Six (1989), which, like a lot of Cunningham’s films, employed familiar faces

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like House IV writer Lewis Abernathy, composer Harry Manfredini, and special effects experts
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VI Chris Walas and Jim Isaac. “I think he had a hand in me being hired for House, the first
film I did with Sean Cunningham,” says Kane Hodder when asked about the venerable DP.
“Some DPs don’t have a good sense of action. Mac was not afraid to listen to my suggestions.

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Sometimes he said no, but at least he listened to me.”32

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The supernatural elements in House III took the film beyond standard slasher fare and into

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the realm of the so-called ‘rubber reality’ film, which includes the likes of Phantasm (1979),

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Videodrome (1983), the ‘Freddy’ films and Paperhouse (1988) among dozens of others.

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Muir (2007: 34) claims that there are three criteria that distinguish rubber reality films
from slashers: the personality of the killer (like Freddy Krueger, Jenke likes to crack wise);

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swapping straightforward knife-kills for elaborate fantasy-based special effects sequences
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(witness Jenke’s talking turkey), and finally, such films posit the existence of alternate,

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dreamlike realities, which the characters accept as real.

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To realise these elaborate ideas on screen, Cunningham hired KNB EFX Group, the company

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founded by Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger, who also worked closely with
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Jim Isaac on DeepStar Six. House III: The Horror Show became one of the earliest projects for
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the company, which went on to deliver makeup and effects for an array of film and television

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projects including Ghostbusters II (1989), Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, A

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Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (both 1989), Tremors (1990), The People Under

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the Stairs (1991), Army of Darkness (1992), From Dusk Till Dawn, Scream (both 1996), Hostel

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(2005), Masters of Horror (2005-2007), The Mist (2007), Drag Me to Hell (2009) and The

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Walking Dead (2010).33

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From the brutal execution scene – Jenke’s skin bubbling as the voltage surges through his

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body – to dead cats, dismembered heads, deformed babies, gory grinders, cleaver cuts and
possessed poultry, KNB provided a smorgasbord of gruesome delights for the film. “All the

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effects that KNB came up with were better than I expected they would be,” states Hodder. “I

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think that’s part of their talent and why they are so sought after even today. They pull off things
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in a different way to other companies and they are very easy to work with.”34

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Though House III: The Horror Show was passed uncut in the UK, censors were less relaxed

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in the United States, where the MPAA demanded numerous scenes be edited to reduce

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excessive violence and gore.35 Because censorship is antithetical to horror culture, this caused
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consternation among American fans of the film.36 A scene in which Lucas pulls back the skin

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around a chest wound in order to reveal his still-beating heart was seemingly excised from all
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versions of the film prior to certification, despite the fact that publications like Fangoria had

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teased this visual effect as a reason to see the film (1989: 39).37 There are, however, some still VI
images that exist. I should also point out that the scene in which Lucas is reading the British

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tabloid The Sun remained uncut. Now that’s an image with the potential to corrupt.

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34 - The Show Must Go On, interview with actor/stuntman Kane Hodder, House III: The Horror Show special features.
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THE HORROR SHOW
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PRESS M ATERiALS

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Synopsis

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the worst mass murderer in history. Lucas, a young police detective, had been working on the

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Jenke case for three years when he finally captured Jenke, but the price was high – Lucas

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was badly wounded and his partner was killed.

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When Jenke is about to be executed in the electric chair, he sees Lucas there among the

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to rest until he has his revenge.

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Before Lucas is able to resume his normal life with his wife, Donna, and their teenage children,

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Bonnie and Scott, Jenke comes back from the dead to terrorise them. At first Lucas believes

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that he may be losing his mind, that he is hallucinating. But quickly events begin to escalate
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and Lucas realises that this is not a dream. Jenke is alive, somehow back from the grave to

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of evil he now unleashes on the McCarthy family.

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The McCarthy house becomes the doorway to and from Jenke’s own private hell. The terror
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escalates until Lucas must enter that hell to save his family. Here he must relive the night of

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Jenke’s capture… the night of his deepest fears. And here he must kill once and forever the
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most terrifying villain in years.

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Synopsis 2 ABOUT THE CAST

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The third in Sean Cunningham’s House series is, like the two previous films, based on the Biography of Lance Henriksen

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horror that afflicts a family in their own home. Unlike the other films however, this focuses on

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“Just because the characters I play are eerie and somewhat menacing, I don’t necessarily
the vengeful acts of a vicious serial killer, Max Jenke – more commonly known in his trade as perceive them as evil,” Lance Henriksen told Shivers magazine. “A director once convinced

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“Meat Cleaver Max”.
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people who are good some of the time, while goodies also have their bad moments.”

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Lance Henriksen, best known for his roles in James Cameron’s Aliens and Terminator, plays
Detective Lucas McCarthy, a tough police officer who successfully apprehends Max after he

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Henriksen has forged a career playing characters that blur the line between good and evil. His
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has murdered over 100 people. heroes are often brooding and intense, but warmed with occasional hints of compassion and

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decency. His rugged looks and unique voice lend weight to even the slightest roles, and have
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McCarthy watches on as the serial killer is sent to meet his fate with the electric chair, believing

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helped make him one of the most recognisable character actors working today. “I get offered
the execution would put an end to the terror. Little does he know that the worst is yet to come.
VI a certain type of role because of this face,” he commented.

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Strange hallucinations and nightmares draw the police officer into a new level of horror that

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wreaks havoc with not only him, but his house and family. When it transpires that mad Max
The actor’s deeply lined features and world-wise demeanour were earned from a hardscrabble

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may have something to do with the attacks, McCarthy is forced to face questions of his own
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childhood and a colourful past. Henriksen was born in New York City on May 5th, 1940. His
sanity. Killing the beast may have been the most dangerous decision of all…

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father was a merchant marine and spent little time at home, while his mother was left to

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juggle various jobs along with caring for her child. They separated when Lance was two,
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Enlisting much-needed help from a jaded college professor, Lucas tries, with frustrating

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difficulty, to overcome his posthumous tormentor. Finding the body of his daughter’s boyfriend
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in the basement further fuels the flames of the chase. The fight to save his family, and indeed becoming an actor.

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his spirit, is at the heart of the drama of the third episode of the House films. When it becomes
“I always wanted to be an actor,” Henriksen recalled, “even when I was a little kid. When I used

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to make sure, this time, the killer is well and truly wiped out. to run away from home, I’d go to movies and sit all night watching Kirk Douglas. When I was

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16, I tried getting into the Actors Studio and they told me to get lost.” Having been summarily
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rejected by the Actors Studio, Henriksen left home for good and made his way across the

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Runner) as the leads. The film was originally to have been directed by David Blythe, but after
VI United States by hitching rides, hopping freight cars and taking odd jobs to fill his stomach.

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a few days of filming, he was replaced by James Isaacs. Isaacs went on to direct the 10th

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film in the hugely popular Friday the 13th series, Jason X. The less-famous of the Pfeiffer Not yet ready to settle down, his itinerant lifestyle didn’t end when he reached the California

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shores. With little money, and even less education, Henriksen decided to broaden his horizons
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family, Dedee (Michelle’s sister) plays Lucas McCarthy’s traumatised daughter, opposite Aron

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Eisenberg, her screen brother – best known for his role in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. by embarking on an odyssey to retrace his father’s path across the world’s oceans. He spent

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years circling the globe on freighters, tankers and fishing vessels before returning to New York
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in 1969, when he successfully re-applied to the Actors Studio.

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Another familiar famous actor takes the role of Lt. Miller – Lewis Arquette, father of Rosanna,
Patricia and David. Completely different stylistically from the other three House films, House
3 was even marketed under another title in the USA – The Horror Show. The black comedic
VI Henriksen began to find work in the local theatre scene, but the 30-year-old actor had to

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adventures of House 1, 2 and 4 temper the haunted horror; inanimate objects spring into contend with a significant gap in his education. “I couldn’t read,” he confessed. “I got a friend

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action and chase the house dwellers, pterodactyls try to attack, and a take-away pizza to read my scripts on tape and I memorised everyone’s parts.” Eventually, through a period of
intense study and perseverance, he brought his reading skills up to speed. During this time,

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metamorphoses into a singing monster… There is however, no such light relief in number

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he formed a friendship that would lead to his first high-profile film role.
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Al Pacino, a leading light on the New York stage, took Henriksen under his wing and helped him to work with an impressive roster of exceptional directors. The latter part of his career has

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to land a small role in Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon (1975). “It was my first real movie,” been highlighted with strong turns in the films of Walter Hill (Johnny Handsome, 1989), John

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Henriksen told Uncut in 2001. “I was excited to be there. Oh yeah, man, I was bitten so bad Woo (Hard Target, 1993), Sam Raimi (The Quick and the Dead, 1995) and Jim Jarmusch
it was like getting bit by a 90-pound mosquito. I didn’t want to live any other way after that.” (Dead Man, 1995).

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Lumet was impressed enough with Henriksen to cast him in two subsequent films, Network
VI Henriksen’s public recognition rose to new heights when he appeared in X-Files creator

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(1976) and Prince of the City (1981). The actor began a fruitful creative partnership with Chris Carter’s television series, Millennium. He tackled the emotionally demanding role of
Frank Black – a troubled ex-detective with an uncanny talent for crime solving – with such

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another director in 1981, when he was cast in James Cameron’s Piranha II: The Spawning. “It
was an early movie for everybody,” Henriksen told SFX Magazine. “[Cameron] felt it was his commitment and enthusiasm that, in the minds of countless devoted fans, the actor and the

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only chance – life or death – so he was obsessed. And I was obsessed as an actor about my role soon became inseparable. When the series was cancelled in its third season, Henriksen

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took note of the toll the character had taken on his psyche.

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part, so we hit it off.”
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Henriksen made a mainstream breakthrough when he won a coveted role as astronaut Schirra
VI “Man, it took me a year to get out of that…with effort,” he told Uncut. “The first thing I did

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in The Right Stuff (1983). He drew upon his training in method acting to fully immerse himself was to go to Hawaii and get two tattoos. One is a shark, the other dolphins. I felt attached,

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in the role. “My mom really liked Wally,” he related in a Starlog interview. “Here she has this and I felt like a beast. It was dark stuff. I think if we had gone on another year, it really would
have taken hold.”

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concern about his wife, career and all. I think she wishes Wally would have stayed around!”

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When speaking to Fangoria about the series, he stressed his love for the character and
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The following year, Henriksen was set to star as the title character in James Cameron’s The admitted an interest in returning to the role for a feature film: “I never gave up on Frank Black.

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Terminator (1984), but eventually had to settle for a key supporting role, while the more
VI I was creating a guy I really liked. He had a code of ethics I really respected. I wish I were more

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bankable Arnold Schwarzenegger took over as the unstoppable killing machine. Cameron like him, but I’m not.” Although the proposed feature never materialised, Henriksen made a

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made it up to Henriksen by casting him as the android Bishop in Aliens (1986). “I’ve never had brief return to the role in a later episode of The X-Files.

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a chance to play an innocent before,” he told Starlog in 1986. “I have a streak of that in me

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which I never get to play.” Although the episode attempted to provide closure for the abruptly cancelled series, Henriksen

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didn’t feel that it did his show justice. “I had no idea what they were doing with that,” he
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confided to Entertainment Weekly. “I thought it was going to be the close of it all, but it turned

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Henriksen reunited with Aliens co-stars Jenette Goldstein and Bill Paxton for Near Dark (1987),
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a film that offered the actor yet another opportunity to invest his own personal experience out it had nothing to do with ending Millennium. It was a little disappointing for me because I

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into a role. “I remember thinking about my mother,” he told SFX. “Her family was dead, all her wanted it to be something a little more.”

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friends were dead, she had no contact with anybody that she knew from her past. It clued me

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Henriksen has returned to the realm of direct-to-video genre films since the 1999 cancellation

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in on a piece of Jesse Hooker. I loved doing that guy. I would love to do a prequel to that movie.”
of Millennium, but maintains creative interests outside the world of film as well. For the past

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35 years, he’s been an avid painter and a prolific potter.
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realised, this is my life, make the most of it,” he said. “Even if the people around me are

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bullshitting, I’m not. You do your work as fully as you can, and the ones who hear the sound
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Some turned out better than others, and although his filmography is dotted with direct-to-
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The Repossession
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In keeping with his family’s blood oath to protect the house, Roger remains steadfast and

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accuses Burke of having no sense of family (one could argue the same about him). However,

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soon afterwards, Roger, Kelly and Laurel are involved in a horrific car accident. Roger is killed in

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a fiery blaze and his daughter Laurel is paralysed. Kelly and Laurel uphold Roger’s wishes and
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move back into house. However, they are soon plagued by terrifying visions and supernatural
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demise, all of which brings them to the brink of leaving. Meanwhile, Burke is still harassing

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In the final part of The House Companion, we’ll look at 1992’s House IV: The Repossession, Kelly to sell the house because he has made a promise to a diminutive industrialist gangster

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the last entry in the House franchise, and the second to make use of a delicious pun in its title. named Mr. Grosso (Mark Gash), who wants to use the land for the illegal dumping of toxic waste.
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comedy found in 1986’s House, the film reunites audiences with horror writer Roger Cobb,
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his henchman (stay with me, now). Kelly consults with Ezra (Ned Romero), a Native American

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played once again by William Katt. Directed by writer/actor Lewis Abernathy, the film attempts
VI shaman and friend of the family, who helps her to understand that the house is built on a
to create a sequel of sorts to the original; however, in a story point more akin to the films of sacred spring, a “shelter for spirits”. To preserve its power, a Great Seal was placed over it, and
David Lynch, Roger does not appear to be the same horror writer that we came to know in

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to hide the seal a house was built. Roger’s spirit is trapped in a kind of limbo and is embodied
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the first film. He’s now married to Kelly (Terri Treas) and has a 12-year-old daughter named by the house. It is Roger that is helping the family with their troubles, and Kelly’s visions of the

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Laurel (Melissa Clayton). He owns a rickety old mansion (not the one from House, in case you accident are his way of showing her that he was murdered by Burke and his associates. With

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were wondering), which has been in his family for decades. “I can’t put a price on my roots,”

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help from the house, and undercover FBI agent Verna Klump (Denny Dillon), Kelly and Laurel
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step-brother, to sell the house to shady real estate Mafia types. sacred spring.
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Director Lewis Abernathy attended the University of Southern California, and is a graduate of

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under Tassilo Baur, and also did some script doctoring for Cunningham on House III. “For years

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my bread and butter was as a ghost writer and script doctor,” says Abernathy, who wrote the

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first drafts of James Cameron’s True Lies (1994) and Titanic (1997) and appears in a small role

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in the latter.1 “I would come in and fix things, which generally meant that you didn’t get credit

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and you weren’t supposed to talk about it.”2 Though he had sold a couple of screenplays as a
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writer, which were never produced, it was Cunningham’s sci-fi horror DeepStar Six (1989) that
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of the picture and Abernathy’s lack of experience, the job eventually went to Cunningham after

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Robert Harmon (The Hitcher) departed the project. As a result, Cunningham and Abernathy had

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a handshake agreement that Abernathy would direct something after DeepStar Six, and House
IV was about the right level of risk for a first-time director.3 “I think Sean took my pulse and

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said ‘Ok, you’re in!’” he jokes.4
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2 - House IV, commentary with Lewis Abernathy.

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3 - Biodrowski, S. (1991). The Doors Reopen for House IV. Fangoria, (#104), pp.28-30.
4 - House IV, commentary with Lewis Abernathy.
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HOME SWEET DEADLY HOME.

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Like the previous film in the series, House IV: The Repossession has something of a convoluted

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history. The story was originally developed and written by Jim Wynorski (Chopping Mall) and
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R. J. Robertson.5 Abernathy was hired six weeks before principal photography, and his first
action was to order rewrites from Geof Miller (“an old crony from USC”) and Deirdre Higgins.6 VI

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Miller, who had collaborated with Abernathy on the script for Cunningham’s DeepStar Six,

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was tasked with bringing it all together: “It was my job to marry various disparate viewpoints

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between participants,” Miller told Fangoria. “It’s a hybrid movie – part haunted house, part
gangster, all comedy” (1991: 29).7 Miller also acknowledges the artistic license taken with

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Katt’s character: “At the end of the first movie, he was hugging Kay Lenz and a little boy; at the By 1992, audiences were still two years out from the postmodern resurgence of the slasher
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beginning of this movie, he’s hugging Terri Treas and a little girl,” says Miller. “So I guess in the with Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, and four years away from the seminal Scream.8 Horror-
intervening years, he broke up with Kay Lenz, married someone else, and had a daughter who
grew up to be 12 in the space of six years!” Two weeks prior to shooting, Abernathy did his
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Abernathy wanted to rekindle the notion of the feel-good horror movie with a film that would

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speak more to the original House than to parts II or III. One way to accomplish that was to hire
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The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) and a number of Broadway musicals, as well as or selling it overseas. With a little rewriting, we
horror fare like The Nest (1988) and The Terror Within (1989).9 Following the House tradition worked Bill into the picture.”11 While Katt has

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of having a comic actor from television play a supporting role, Denny Dillon appeared as Verna positive memories of the original House, he

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Klump, the undercover FBI agent trying to stop Grosso’s nefarious plot. Dillon had been a cast
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member on the 1980-1981 season of Saturday Night Live. “She was very funny and kept me fourth film in the series: “I don’t know why I

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in stitches the whole time,” says Abernathy. “The only direction she ever asked for was how to did House IV,” he remarks. “Sean Cunningham
handle a gun.”10 Experienced television and film actors Scott Burkholder (Crimson Tide, Gone called me and said ‘Hey Bill, would you come

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in Sixty Seconds) and Melissa Clayton (The Wonder Years) were worthy additions to the cast. do this?’ and he offered me a bunch of money

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his presence became an essential part of the film’s marketing plan. “Sean came into my VI hadn’t done!”12 Other interesting smaller roles
office two weeks before we began shooting and said ‘Is there any way we can get Bill Katt in the film include a cameo by Dabbs Greer

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into this movie?’” Abernathy remembers. “I’m sure it had something to do with marketing it (The Green Mile) as Kelly’s father, and a brief

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9 - House IV, commentary with Lewis Abernathy. 11 - House IV, commentary with Lewis Abernathy.
10 - House IV, commentary with Lewis Abernathy. 12 - Interview with William Katt, White Ghost. (2016). [Blu-ray] Code Red.
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“i’m your pizza man...”
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released direct to video, Abernathy claims that the film did get some theatrical exposure,

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its low budget and some substantial leaps in logic, the film marked an effective return to the

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horror-comedy formula of the first film. Binion describes the film as a “distaff retread” of the

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original House, which benefits from a “strong female heroine” and “emotional involvement

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for the leads amid the barrage of slimy effects and over-the-top humor”.14 Indeed, the strong

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central performances from Treas and Clayton, who get to overcome the obstacles facing
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them, rather than die at the hands of a crazed killer, are commendable. Although Abernathy
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time from two hours to 90 minutes, he did contribute some of the film’s more unusual and

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memorable moments, such as the Bug Man, the Snake Man, the ‘phlegm scene’ and the Pizza

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13 - House IV, commentary with Lewis Abernathy.
14 - [Link]
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I’m your Pizza Man, I’m your Pizza Man,

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And I’m deliverin’ your favorite pizza pie!

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I’m your Pizza Man, I’m your Pizza Man,
And I’m everybody’s favorite take-out guy!

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You never have to worry that your pizza will be cold, ’cause I keep it heated up, on my

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So the next time you are hungry for a pizza in a pan…
Don’t forget to call your favorite Pizza Man! Ha!

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Man, including his relentlessly catchy theme song.15 Combine this with the Rottweiler lamp

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that comes to life to protect Laurel and you have a mix of imagery that Abernathy admits “just
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makes no sense at all”.16 Of course, without Abernathy’s contributions, the film would be

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much more generic; however, House IV does struggle to accommodate these wackier ideas
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alongside Native American curses, the rules of the haunting (the house seems to both attack

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and protect its tenants), and real-world intrusions by Grosso’s cronies from the Chemical Plant.

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House stalwart, composer Harry Manfredini, who enhanced the lonely landscape of House IV

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with his wonderfully breathy score, also co-created the ‘Pizza Man’ song with Abernathy. In
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what must have been a moment of hubris, you’ll notice that this earworm of a ditty is listed

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Are you singing it now? The same thing happens to Laurel in the movie. The mood changes
in the credits just above Mozart. See if you can read the lyrics without getting the song stuck
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in your head: forced to obliterate it with a knife. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen to you.

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The exterior view of the old Cobb mansion was a façade erected at the Veluzat Motion Picture

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Ranch in Santa Clarita Valley about 30 miles north of Los Angeles. Ezra’s church, also located

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there, was part of the set built for the Walter Hill film Extreme Prejudice (1987). The interiors

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15 - House IV, commentary with Lewis Abernathy.
16 - House IV, commentary with Lewis Abernathy. were shot at the Thomas W. Phillips residence located at 2215 South Harvard Boulevard in Los
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Angeles, the same house used in Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs (1991). The scene
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featuring the Cobb family’s horrific car crash was shot on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles.

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Kane Hodder again supervised the stunt work, which involved one of his team driving over

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a ramp and off the road. “I always wanted to do an insert shot to show that Bill was having

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trouble with the seatbelt, to sell the fact that he couldn’t get out,” muses Abernathy. “I never
got around to it because we were on a tight schedule.”17 With little money and time on set,

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In terms of the special effects, KNB EFX Group returned for House IV to provide the singing
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pizza, the Snake Man and Bug Man, and Roger’s corpse. The charred body was a dummy that

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was laid out at an abandoned mental hospital. The location was also used for the effective

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bats. In the scene where the house forces two gangsters to hallucinate and then shoot each

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six-foot tail,” details KNB founder Robert Kurtzman. “The Bug Man had antennae, six arms and

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pinchers on the front of his mouth. The arms were foam constructed” (1991: 30).18 When it

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came to the singing pizza, Kane Hodder provided the face for the pie. The spitting effect was
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accomplished with a fire hose filled up with goo. In search of a distinctive overall look for the

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movie, Abernathy asked the film’s transportation person to locate some old cars for the bad

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guys to drive. He also requested an old-fashioned wheelchair for Laurel, and a hat for Burke.

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The effectiveness of the Great Seal, which Abernathy refers to as ‘the hubcap’, was also the
subject of some debate on set.19

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a power plant in Los Angeles. In the stomach-churning scene mentioned previously, Burke is
force-fed a glass of Grosso’s sputum. To accomplish the effect, Gash’s mouth was filled with

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Green Goddess dressing, which doubled as a viscous pudding-like phlegm. “This scene with

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Mark Gash was the single grossest scene ever made,” says Abernathy. “James Cameron

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mentioned this scene in front of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, and Steven had seen

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the movie and concurred that it was.”20 During the commentary track for House IV, Abernathy

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calls the Terminator director by phone, who concurs: “The phlegm scene is the single most
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disgusting scene I’ve ever seen in a movie. It’s not often a low budget movie achieves

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something that is the world’s best. It’s the best at being the worst!”21

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Despite the fact that House IV made a valiant attempt to return to the tone of the original

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House, with hindsight Abernathy considers the film a disappointment and believes that they
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ran the House series into the ground with House IV. “You make a lot of mistakes on your

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first movie,” he says. “Everybody does.”22 Cunningham believes that any failings with the
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franchise result from his inability to create a solid stylistic identity. “The audiences didn’t

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know what to expect and I didn’t know what to bring them,” he says. “So the fact that we did

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four was surprising, and I was happy to leave it there.”23 That said, those pesky ghosts can
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be persistent, and Cunningham has discussed the possibility of a remake of the first film, but

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with the added dimension of a gender swap. In the new version, it would now be a woman who
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inherits the haunted abode and tackles the terrifying monsters.24 As a long-time House fan, all

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19 - House IV, commentary with Lewis Abernathy.

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20 - House IV, commentary with Lewis Abernathy.
21 - House IV, commentary with Lewis Abernathy.
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VI The Repossession

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PRESS M ATERiALS

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Synopsis
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serving up eerie batches of humour, horror, and state of the art special effects.

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Kelly Cobb doesn’t understand why her husband, Roger, loves the rickety old house he

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inherited. Neither does Roger’s step-brother, Burke, who will pay Roger a hefty sum to sell

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it. But Roger feels a mystic union with the house, perhaps because of the blood oath his

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grandfather swore never to sell it. Roger won’t sell, either.

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But suddenly everything changes. There is a terrible car crash in which Roger is killed and

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his daughter, Laurel, is left paralyzed. Kelly moves from her suburban home to the deserted
old house that Roger loved so much. Here she will raise her daughter with the memory of her

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lost husband.

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But something is wrong at the house. A pervasive evil seems determined to force her out.

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from the bathroom faucet, the inhuman groans from the basement, the menacing talking-

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pizza-from-Hell in the kitchen – is she losing her mind or are these visions real?

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At the same time, Roger’s jealous step-brother is relentlessly determined to get Kelly out of the

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house. But Roger loved this house, dammit, she’s not going to leave!
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down the stairs, but her bedside lamp, shaped like a snarling dog, suddenly comes to life,

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takes a bite out of the seat of their pants, and send the crooks crashing through a second

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story window.

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The house continues its war against Kelly. Blood runs from the shower faucet, then disappears.
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Another vision? Laurel’s bed starts to swallow her up. Frantic, Kelly grabs a knife to stop the
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heaving, smothering mattress from suffocating her daughter, but “wakes” to find herself about Following a tragic car accident, Roger is killed, his daughter Laurel left paraplegic and wife

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to plunge a knife into Laurel’s heart! Kelly distraught. Intent on retaining the wishes of her late husband, Kelly decides to move with

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her daughter into the old house – with a view to renovating. Of course, human consternation

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Desperate, Kelly goes for help. An old family friend tells her of the sacred Indian spring afflicts the pair in the shape of Burke, who is still lurking in the shadows, determined to sell

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under the house, which the house protects. But the house can’t rest. Roger’s spirit is trapped the house off to a local chemical plant. With the help of two foolish aides, he sets about trying

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inside… because he was murdered. It was Roger’s step-brother, Burke, who was responsible to destroy their chance of living in peace.
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for Roger’s death!

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Soon, Kelly begins to encounter more frightful horror fare in more unusual forms… Visions,

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What Kelly doesn’t know is that Burke has made an agreement with a gangster industrialist, a waking dreams, phantom hands and mysterious voices haunt her day and night. Burke’s

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sickening stump of a man, to use the house site as an illegal dump for his toxic waste. If Burke henchmen metamorphose into horrid snakes and cockroaches and the shower sprays blood.

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doesn’t get that property, the gangster will see that he doesn’t live long enough to regret it. The boundaries between reality and fantasy eventually become so incredibly blurred that even

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But Kelly won’t leave! Laurel’s life is soon being threatened at the hands of her own mother.

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In a last desperate attempt to drive them out, Burke sets fire to the house, trapping Laurel and The most celebrated “character” in House IV has to be the terrifying manifestation of a singing

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Kelly inside. It looks like all is lost when Roger’s spirit intervenes. He helps Kelly save Laurel pizza, which comes to life on delivery. Will our leading ladies overcome the human and animal
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and at the same time releases the healing waters from the ancient spring under the house. forces of evil that have been set upon them? And what will happen to the House?

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Laurel can walk, Kelly is freed from the burden of guilt that made her life a living hell, and

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Burke gets his just desserts. Whilst not directly consequential from the third in the series, House IV is a lively, dark, tongue-

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in-cheek conclusion to classic House horror.

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In a last vision, Roger and Kelly share a goodbye kiss. His spirit is finally at rest.
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Synopsis 2

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produced by Sean Cunningham, but directed by Lewis Abernathy. Stylistically similar to House

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I and II, the concluding act in this reign of terror manages to retain the careful balance of
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comedic drama and horror of the first two films. The original House film, released in 1986,
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was such a hit it became a cult classic. The subsequent films are based loosely on the

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same concept as that of the first; a family is terrorised by mysterious or evil forces in a

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spooky mansion.

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The mansion in question is the family residence of Roger Cobb, who House fans will remember

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as the first film’s tortured protagonist, played by William Katt. Despite appearing in House IV

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the house is not connected to the first and he is not married to the same wife – he also meets

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an altogether different fate.
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The family home has been entrusted with the male representative of each generation; so

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much so that when Cobb’s avaricious step-brother Burke suggests there might be economic
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ABOUT THE CAST Adding more strings to his bow of talent, Katt wrote scripts for several of the Perry Mason

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episodes, and even wrote the screenplay for 1997 action film, Bladeboxer. He continues to act,

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having appeared more recently in Snake Island and Descendant (2002).

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Biography of William Katt

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The famous son also has two of his own – Clayton Alexander and Emerson Hunter.
William Katt was born on February 16th, 1951, in Los Angeles, California. He began performing

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from an early age – so early in fact, that he made his debut before being born. While pregnant
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with her son William, Barbara Hale starred in Lorna Doone. This was not their only joint acting

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experience – mother and son went on to co-star in the periodic Perry Mason television films,
Terri Treas is most recognisable in a very different guise – as Cathy Frankel, the “Tenctonese”
which began in 1987, after the original run. Hale resurrected the legal secretary character

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biochemist with a Ph.D and an oddly shaped head in Alien Nation. The hugely popular television

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of Della Street, whom she’d played in the sixties, whilst Katt appeared as detective Paul show that charted the lives of Alien slaves trying to adjust to life in Los Angeles made Treas a

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Drake Junior. science fiction star. Treas’s character is intellectual, but encounters difficulty conversing with
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humans, having no knowledge or comprehension of the complexities of intimate relationships.

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Katt’s father is the actor Bill Williams, who began his career as a professional swimmer. He
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made the crossover into acting in 1943, and was signed by RKO Pictures after the war. Here emotions. A hit with sci-fi buffs and TV fans alike, the show comprised “Tenctonese” intellect

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he met Katt’s mother and, as RKO contractees, they starred in a number of films together, and strong morals – clearly a recipe for a hit.
including A Likely Story (1948). Both Hale and Williams worked steadily and successfully

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throughout their lives, but it was music that first captured the heart of their son William. Treas was born on the 19th July, 1957 in Kansas City, Missouri. She first appeared on Broadway,

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in a production of Pal Joey, directed by Ted Mann, in the mid 1970s. She subsequently starred
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After attending Orange Coast College, Katt made a living as a musician, but eventually turned

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in a number of theatrical productions with some of America’s most illustrious names; Richard

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to acting in small TV parts and minor film appearances. In 1977, he was listed in John Willis’s
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Screen World as one of twelve “Promising New Actors”, and his career began apace. In the work), Jerome Robbins, Herb Garner, John Dexter and Jule Styne.

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same year as receipt of this accolade, Katt co-starred with Sissy Spacek in the famous horror
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flick, Carrie, playing a typical high-school jock date to Spacek’s introvert and disturbed student.

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With a sturdy theatrical and musical background, Treas eventually branched out into television
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Katt’s next role allowed him to draw on some of his father’s acting experiences – Williams and film, albeit of quite a specific type. Apart from roles in mainstream movies, such as
having appeared in a number of westerns towards the end of his career. Butch and Sundance:

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The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), she found her niche in science fiction and horror. She
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The Early Days (1979) told the story of how Cassidy and the Kid (Katt) managed to form their

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infamous alliance. Katt’s career since has been nothing if not varied. VI (1989), Nightmare on the Thirteenth Floor (1990) and as Captain Lorraine Hanover in 1992’s

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Ladykiller. All of these credits stood Treas in good stead to play the terrorised and eventually
In 1981, Katt starred as the eponymous hero of Pippin: His Life and Times (1981), and in

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rather disturbed widow of Roger Cobb, the dead heir of a haunted, unusual mansion in the final
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the same year, landed one of his best-known roles: Ralph Hinkley – more commonly known sequence of the horror series of House films, in House IV (1990).

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as The Greatest American Hero. Katt’s liberal high school teacher character (whose name

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was promptly changed to Hanley following the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan As well as playing Cathy Frankel in the Alien Nation TV series, Treas reprised her role in all five

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by a John Hinkley Junior) was given superhuman powers to fight crime. He also lost the
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of the films of the same name. The final movie, The Udara Legacy, was the best showcase of all

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instruction manual and thus, the knowhow to use his superhero suit. The immensely popular VI the Alien Nation features for Treas’s talents. Treas later took to writing, and has an impressive
series ran until 1983. Just a few years later, in 1986, Katt made the first in his House film list of credits so far, including Felicity (1998), The Pretender (1996) and Silk Stalkings (1991).
series’ appearances, as author Roger Cobb, a respected horror writer who moves into his late

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aunt’s house to write his next best-seller. Katt returned to the cult favourite House fold in 1992 Not content with acting and story-telling credentials, Treas cut her teeth in the director’s chair

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to play another, completely different, Roger Cobb. with her debut feature film, Play Nice, in 1992. Clearly drawing on her vast experience in
subgenres, the film follows a detective on the hunt for a homicidal lunatic. But there is an

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Katt worked steadfastly throughout the nineties, in popular TV series such as Murder, She intriguing twist in the film. From the directorial debut of such a well-versed horror and science
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Wrote and Models Inc. and was a regular against Farrah Fawcett in the sitcom Good Sports. fiction star, one would expect nothing less.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Simon Barber is a researcher, writer, lecturer and House fan from the UK. In addition to
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his academic work on songwriting, popular music and the music industries, Simon is also

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a musician and co-presents the popular Sodajerker songwriting podcast, which has been

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