If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Roger Cobb (Willaim Katt, reprising his role from the first film for as long as it takes to get his paycheck) is now married to someone named Kelly and they have a daughter named Laurel. There's no mention of his first wife, Sandy, or his son Jimmy. They visit the old Cobb house after Roger's father dies - this must be a side universe, the universe where no one gives two shits about continuity - and have to deal with Burke, the stepbrother who keeps trying to get Roger to sell out on his promise to their father to never sell the house.This isn't the actual house from House, so that's already a strike against this one. But if the interior of the house looks familiar to you, that's because the same sets were used in The People Under the Stairs.Were you excited to see William Katt? Well, he dies around five minutes in, the victim of a car crash that leaves his daughter in a wheelchair - the kind of wheelchairs that old ladies roll around in and leave in their bedrooms to haunt you (see Burnt Offerings). Like do they even make wicker wheelchairs any more?Burke has the mafia making him try and take the house, as they want to dump illegal waste there. Their leader is a little person who needs a machine to remove all of the phlegm in his throat, I shit you not.Roger is still in the house and various magical Native Americans are kindly enough to protect Roger's family. Oh yeah - Denny Dillon, who was on HBO's Dream On and the disastrous Jean Doumanian produced season of Saturday Night Live is in this as a maid.I like one scene in here a lot, where snakes take over the minds of two mafia guys and they see one another as human snakes. The practical effects are great here, yet wasted for what's a really quick scene.There's also a pizza that comes to life and sings a song before being tossed in a trash compactor. This scene is Troll 2 level inanity and stupidity. It's also one of the few good parts of this slog of a motion picture.PS - That's Kane Hodder's face in the pizza.This is one of the late 80's/early 90's movies that has no real handle on when it should be a comedy and when it should be horror. If it was an Italian film, that would be forgiven because there'd be loads of gore.You've seen worse movies - and worse House movies - than House IV. But in a world packed with strange new films to discover and old favorites to enjoy again and again, let me be the one to do the watching for you. You don't really need to see this.

3.5 stars House 3 was an entirely different movie which was re-edited and rebadged. House 4 has the same actor as roger cobb but has no connection the the first 2 movies. This movie is pretty terrible. The storyline seems to have been thought up and written on the fly and is too childish. The acting is lame and stale. It does have good video/sound quality and OK editing. It is mildly entertaining sort of like the birds 2 (lands end), but its just really low quality in every deparment except video/sound quality. It especially lacks in the writing department.

Last entry for this quite decent 'Horror' franchise, well actually its officially the third film but we won't go down that confusing alley again.Unfortunately the franchise bows out with a disappointing story which isn't really scary nor funny. A young couple that own a big house are being slowly hounded into selling by a relation with connections to the mafia. Of course the man of the house is taken out of the picture leaving the young widow to fend for herself.Katt returns as his character of Cobb, he is married and has one young girl. This plot doesn't connect in any way to the previous films but simply a new story. The story in question is slow and dull containing many flashbacks and not really much else. The same theme of the young widow being tormented by her dreams and Cobb's dastardly brother in law who wants the land is repeated over and over until finally we get somewhere towards the finale.Guess what? the house was built on an ancient Native American well (originality much?) and the spirits of the Native Americans and Cobb are trying to help her against Cobb's brother in law and the mob. Its very easy to predict and pretty tame stuff, no real ghosts or ghouls to be seen, no monsters, no blood or gore etc...just odd flashbacks and blinking lights. In no way a thriller, not a horror comedy and not a horror, more of a very light-hearted spooky tale.2/10

The House franchise. You love it or you hate it. And I must say that I didn't liked it. House 1 and 2 were so stupid, it was even watchable by toddlers. Nevertheless, it had it success back then that Sean S. Cunningham (producer) was moving further with the franchise towards part 4, but there was a problem. It had to be called Part 3 but in Europe and the UK The Horror Show (1989) was released as House 3 for commercial reasons, even as it had nothing to do with the franchise and funny is that it was the best entry. House 4 was released when major pulled out the plug in horror and even in the popular franchises like Nightmare On Elm Street, Halloween and Friday The 13th. The end of the eighties and early nineties were a bad period for horror. This flick sadly shows why.It really had nothing to offer, cheap effects (outdated even), nothing frightening and even almost no red stuff. It was really Terri Treas (Kelly Cobb) who saved this flick. Her performance was excellent but this script was a throwaway. It picks in perfectly on House 1 and even William Katt (Roger Cobb) came back but after a while the script really moves to stupidity. Terri do goes for a shower scene but it's also low on nudity. Many people love 'House' but for a horror buff like me it didn't offer a thing and is a perfect example why horror failed in that era. Kane Hodder did the stunt coordination, Harry Manfredini did the score.Gore 0/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 1/5 Story 1/5 Comedy 0/5