31 Nights of Terror #10 - House 3 (1989)

House 3 (1989)
Director: James Isaac
Starring: Lance Henricksen, Brion James, Rita Taggert, Dedee Pfeiffer
Format: VHS (Premiere Home Entertainment)

- You'd rather be on Elm St? Nice tagline, but I have feeling it's going to be true in a way the producers didn't intend.
- Written by Alan Smithee. That's not a good sign.
- Ah, the 80s, when Lance Henriksen still had some credibility and wouldn't appear in any old crap.
- So apparently this one was filmed as The Horror Show then retitled House 3 for the non-US market. The actual second House sequel had to be renamed House IV as a result.
- Hey it's Leon Kowalski. Brion James was a great bad guy character actor, although I must admit up until recently I thought him and Tobin Bell were the same person.
- Director Jason Isaac went on to helm Jason X (yikes) and Skinwalkers (haven't seen it).
- If I didn't know differently I'd swear this was a Wes Craven production. It has a real Nightmare on Elm St vibe to it, and shares a plot point with Shocker.
- According to IMDB this came out a few months before Shocker, so I guess it can't be considered a ripoff.
- Thom Bray! I haven't seen him since he was one of the leads on one of my favourite shows as a kid, Riptide.
- That Nightmare on Elm St vibe I mentioned only gets stronger as this movie goes on. Some of the special effects are extremely Krueger-esque.
- This movie came after quite a sequence of great flicks for Henriksen - Aliens in 1986, Near Dark in 1987 and Pumpkinhead in 1988. It's a shame it was all downhill from there.

Overall thoughts: Yikes, this was painful. Not even Lance Henriksen at the peak of his powers could save this tedious borefest. It's missing the out-and-out zaniness of the first House, instead taking a straight forward approach, which takes away any fun that was to be had. What we're left with is a pale imitation of Nightmare on Elm St. As pale as an albino dressing up as a Twilight character for Halloween.