The Horror Show (1989)

User Rating:

4.1/10   

Director:

James Isaac

Writers:

Alan Smithee (written by) (really Allyn Warner) &
Allyn Warner (written by) ...

Release Date:

28 April 1989 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Go to Hell.

Plot:

Detective Lucas McCarthy finally apprehends "Meat Cleaver Max" and watches the electric chair execution from the audience...

Plot Keywords:

Meat Cleaver | Electric Chair | Execution | Blood | Police

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Lance Henriksen	...	Detective Lucas McCarthy
Brion James	...	Max Jenke
Rita Taggart	...	Donna McCarthy
Dedee Pfeiffer	...	Bonnie McCarthy
Aron Eisenberg	...	Scott McCarthy
Thom Bray	...	Peter Campbell
Matt Clark	...	Dr. Tower
David Oliver	...	Vinnie
Terry Alexander	...	Casey
Lewis Arquette	...	Lt. Miller
Lawrence Tierney	...	Warden
Alvy Moore	...	Chili Salesman
Zane W. Levitt	...	Executioner

Also Known As:

Horror House
House 3 (Australia) (video title)
House III (USA) (working title)
House III: The Horror Show (UK) (video title)
House III (France) [fr]
House III (Spain) [es]
La casa 7 (Italy) [it]
La casa III (Italy) (DVD title) [it]
Titta vi spökar 3 (Sweden) [sv]
To spiti 3 (Greece) (DVD title) [el]

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R18 | USA:R (certificate #29613) | Australia:R (Banned in Queensland) | Finland:K-18 | UK:18 | Norway:15 (DVD) (2004)

Company:

Sean S. Cunningham Films

Trivia:

This film is actually unrelated to the House (1986) film series. The producers renamed this film "House 3 (1989)" for the non-US market. Because of the existence of this title, the owners of the "House" series had to rename their third film House IV (1992) (V)

Quotes:

Max Jenke: [in a squeaky voice] Don't look now, but your family's dead... just kidding.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Joe Bob's Drive-In Theater: Viki Williamson Night" (1995)

Soundtrack:

The Things I Have Done To Our Love

A horror show for all the wrong reasons...

I had relatively high hopes for House 3 (otherwise known as The Horror Show), not because the previous two films were that good, the first one was entertaining enough, and the second one frankly wasn't entertaining at all, but because Lance Henriksen was in the lead, and he seems to be the kind of actor who always gives a strong performance and tries his best no matter what the film he is starring in is like. Basically he's the kind of workmanlike actor who is always worth watching, despite the fact that some of the films that he appears in otherwise are not. Add to that the fact that he is playing against Brion James, who when given the opportunity can also give a strong performance, but who, like Henriksen is usually cast as a supporting character in more often than not low budget, forgettable films. Therefore I was quite intrigued in seeing what these two could do when presented with lead roles in what sounded like an interesting, if somewhat unoriginal, horror yarn. However I was soon to be very disappointed.

Both Brion James, and especially Lance Henriksen try hard with what the have to work with, but despite their best efforts there really isn't much about this film that works. In better hands this material may have turned into a nice little shocker, however under the abysmal direction of James Isaacs, who replaced original helmer David Blythe after only a couple of days, any potential that this film may have possessed is sunk within minutes. Isaacs direction is heavy handed at best, extremely irritating at worst, and that combined with a supporting cast that seems to be just going through the motions adds up to a particularly flat, ineffective film. Perhaps the rest of the cast realised that no matter what they did this film was already sunk therefor they didn't even bother trying. Amongst the worst perpetrators of this are Rita Taggart, Thom Bray, Lewis Arquette, Aron Eisenberg, Lawrence Tierney and Matt Clark, with Eisenberg and Arquette especially coming off as more irritating than anything else.

Still, Brion James seems to have fun with his role, and Lance Henriksen is suitably dark and brooding here, but perhaps the real surprise is that DeDee Pfeiffer gives such a natural, well judged performance as Henriksen's teenage daughter despite how terminally underwritten her role is. It's almost a shame in a way as very few people will bother to remember her or anything else about the film apart from just how bad it was.

Another note that must be made is just how poor many of the special effects are, which is especially strange as first time helmer Isaacs is himself a former (and no doubt future after this little effort) special effects technician. Also adding to the woes the script is simply terrible in places (it's no wonder one of the writers went for the 'Alan Smithee' pseudonym, something the other two, Leslie Bohem and Allyn Warner should have also considered) and while the story is serviceable enough the script as shot here definitely isn't. Also the editing (by Edward Anton) is very poorly done, with the dissolves from dreamstate to real word particularly badly handled.

All in all there is nothing but a couple of serviceable performances to recommend about this film and three decent performances isn't nearly enough to erase a film full of poor choices and downright blunders and make it worth watching. Definitely not the worst film you'll ever see, but definitely way too flawed to be worth bothering with, even for hard core horror fans.

One man's opinion. 5/10