User reviews

HehHEHhehHEHhehHEHhehHEH the guy's laugh in this is so funny it totally undermines the scary elements of the movie.

When one of the writers is named "Alan Smithee", it is usually not a good sign, and it's easy to see why one of the original writers pulled his name off of this. Other than the presence of Lance Henriksen and Brion James, the movie is boring and makes no sense. Watching James turn into a human barbecue, and then return from the dead to torment Henriksen, is not exactly Oscar material. In addition, the teenage siblings are both annoying and stereotyped. Countless trips to the basement simply to build tension along with numerous jump scares, does not a movie make. So what you get is a strong opening, followed by a script that really goes nowhere. If you don't believe me, just ask Mr. Smithee". - MERK

I have to confess absolutely loving the first 'House' film. Yes, the (now iconic) marketing poster of a decomposing severed hand ringing a doorbell may have been a tad misleading. You may think you were in for one scary experience when, in fact, you received one hell of a tongue-in-cheek black horror-comedy. The (inevitable) sequel was so-so, but by this third instalment, it had well and truly lost its way.

Where as the first two 'House' films were both heavily linked to - surprise, surprise - a house, this film seems to forget why it's called what it is. In fact I believe in some territories when the film was released the 'House' part of the title was completely dropped in favour of a more ambiguous 'The Horror Show' title. I guess this tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the project, i.e. it's not really a sequel but more of a horror script that was sort of crow-barred in under the familiar (and therefore profitable) 'House' brand in order to increase sales. But is it any good?

Unfortunately, not really. Even by a stand-alone horror film it's a bit lame. However, that's not for the efforts of leading man Lance Henriksen, who does everything in his extensively-cool acting range to bring some drama to the proceedings. It's starts okay enough - Henriksen is a cop tortured by his previous experiences with a serial killer, only for said nasty to come back from the grave to haunt his family (in the house, in case you were wondering). Then it all kind of falls apart as the scares become fewer and further between and the plot descends into predictability. The serial killer is portrayed by (Bladerunner's) Brion James and he too does his best to add some terror with the limited script available to him. However, in the end, both main actors end up just chewing up the scenery in an attempt to try and elevate what is a particularly forgettable B-movie into something vaguely memorable.

There's some nice practical effects here and there and it's always nice to be reminded of a time before CGI gore ruled the horror scene. But, at the end of the day, it's not enough to save this film. I'm a big fan of Lance Henriksen and watch most of his output, but even I would struggle to sit through this film again (I've watched it twice - the first time over twenty years ago and completely forgotten it. Therefore I've just seen it again and felt I better review it before everything about it escapes me again). The first 'House' film is a classic. Just stick to that.

The Horror Show (1989)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Detective Lucas McCarthy (Lance Henriksen) finally manages to arrest the notorious serial killer known as Meat Cleaver Max (Brion James). However, at the electrocution, something goes wrong but finally Max is pronounced dead. This should be the end of Lucas but instead he becomes convinced that Max has somehow survived and is coming after his family.

THE HORROR SHOW, for some reason, got released in certain parts of the world as HOUSE III even though it has absolutely nothing to do with that series. I stayed away from this film for quite a while just thinking that it was some sort of cheap horror film but it actually turned out to be much better than I expected thanks to some good characters and some bloody effects.

I really thought the character development for the lead detective was quite good and Hendriksen is such a fine actor that even though this is a horror film you don't mind going along for the ride. I thought the screenplay was quite good, if cliché, and it managed to hold you attention through the various scenes where the lead character is basically questioning his own sanity. The detective character was a good one but so was the serial killer. He was certainly a demented character and after the opening sequence and a certain bit of violence, you know this guy is for real and a nut.

Both actors did a very good job with their roles and this certainly helps makes this a bit more than your average slasher. It also doesn't hurt that there are some very good special effects and especially if you're watching the uncut European version, which restores some of the gore that was cut out of the U.S. theatrical release. The film also offers up some nice cinematography and a good music score.

THE HORROR SHOW isn't a masterpiece but it's certainly much better than what you typically get with a film like this. The two lead performances really sell the story and this is very much worth watching.

There's a reason Jason and Michael don't talk. That laugh was like being made to listen to Steve Urkels' "did I do that?" catchphrase for an hour and a half. Like, seriously. Less is more. I'm.

Lucas McCarthy (Lance Henriksen) hunts, fights and finally catches the serial killer Max Jenke (Brion James). But after Lucas witnesses Jenke's drawn-out and violent execution - via the electric chair - he instead begins to see and hear him everywhere!

Lance Henriksen is as always great, and much of the movie's appeal comes from him - and, even more so, from a completely insane Brion James!! His totally unrestrained scenery chewing is exactly the right tactic in a film like this. If you blend into the background, you will definitely become part of the crappy movie, but if you stand out from the crowd, you have a 50% chance of being the positive thing that people remember afterwards.

-And Brion James, in the role of Max Jenke, is hard to forget!

On the plus side is also KNB Effects (Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nicotero, Howard Berger), who went all-in and created lots of grotesque and disgusting makeup effects and loose body parts....most of which both the American and in particular the Swedish censors then hacked away (however, I did watch an almost completely intact Blu-Ray release).

The story (what story?) is completely bonkers, most of the supporting characters are made of see through plastic played by b-actors, and the very sudden happy ending feels like a bizarre tacked-on solution.

Lance Henriksen, a madly entertaining Brion James and KNB rescue it from the bottom of the barrel, and they - and ONLY they - are what makes me give it a pass.

I just learned (reading these IMDb reviews) that this is a supposed "House" iteration... I never would have guessed it- In fact, I've been a fan of this film for years, and never even considered it had anything to do with the "House" films (I've only seen the US release, which is NOT titled 'House III', obviously)- Lance Henrickson is his usual, intense, (in my opinion, Excellent) self, we see a young Dedee Pfiefer being, well, herself- and Brion James at his most foreboding since 'Leon' in Bladerunner... (not going to talk about Tango & Cash here...). As for the 'Shocker' similarities- check the dates... this one came out first- Because of this, (all deference to Mitch Pileggi, of whom I'm also a big fan) I've always felt that Shocker was the rip-off, of a MUCH more intense and, pardon the pun, Shocking film... (I was really surprised to see a "Smithee" attached to this film anywhere- my guess is... politics. But hey, that's Hollyweird for ya). Yup, there's gore, and oh yeah- swearing galore, but this movie is one I look forward to dusting off every October, as my "must watch list" approaches "psycho-killer week"... (quick plug here- if you haven't decided whether or not to watch "Behind the Mask- The Rise of Leslie Vernon"- do yourself a Big favor, and check it out- it defies classification; funny, sharp, and actually Scary!).

If you're looking for a horror movie that may make you wince (talking about Horror Show)- this one could be a winner for you- It certainly is for me.

TDB in Hollywood

Quick P.S.- Fans of Lance- If Vampire movies are more your speed, a MUST-See is "Near Dark"- Honestly one of the Coolest Fang-pics I've ever seen... Happy Haunting!

First of all, this has been mentioned many a times before, but this film is not a part of "The House" series. I could go on explaining why, but just watch all four films and you will understand.

This is a different movie in style and tone. It is very reminiscent of Wes Craven's Shocker (which was also made in 1989 and despite being a low-budget film itself is much better and more entertaining). Basically it is a horror thriller about a tough cop and a killer he wouldn't stay dead even after being executed. There is, of course, a professor with some totally stupid theory about how pure evil can be transformed to electricity and so electrocuting someone just makes them immortal and omnipotent ... you can clearly see the writers were pulling this plot point out of their asses. They simply saw "Shocker" and thought "Hey, this is a neat idea, let's use it in our movie". As the killer gets stronger, the cop's world start falling apart, he becomes the main suspect in the new killings, the usual clichés are thrown at us one at a time. You can even play the guessing game which one comes next.

What bothered me the most were the constant flashbacks and nightmares. The film actually starts with a flashback in a dream that's really happening in another dream. Wrap your head around that one.

What are really liked about it were the two main actors Lance Henriksen and Brion James. It was fun to watch them as they are both talented actors and were great in their roles. The rest of the cast is OK, even though forgettable.

So, did I like the film? Yes, I did. It was fun to watch (if you can look past its flaws and plot holes). It's not a part of House trilogy and is a story of its own. Take it for what it is and you too can spend enjoyable 90 minutes.

When Detective Lucas McCarthy (Lance Henriksen) finally captures the notorious serial-killer Meat Clever Max Jenke (Brion James), he feels relieved when Max is executed by the electric chair. However the parapsychologist Dr. Tower (Matt Clark) warns McCarthy that Max will return, but he does not give attention to the doctor. McCarthy is a family man and lives with his wife Donna (Rita Taggart) and their daughter Bonnie (Dedee Pfeiffer) and son Scott (Aron Eisenberg) in a comfortable house. Soon McCarthy becomes delusional seeing Max everywhere. When Bonnie´s boyfriend Vinnie (David Oliver) is found dead in the house, his family believes McCarthy killed the teenager and he is arrested. But he knows that Max is the responsible for Vinnie´s murder and wants to destroy his family.

"The Horror Show" is a supernatural gore film with a rip-off Wes Craven´s "Shocker". Although entitled 'House III" in Brazil, it might have been "Shocker II". Anyway, "The Horror Show" is underrated with good performances of Lance "Alien" Henriksen and Brion "Blade Runner" James. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "House III - A Casa do Espanto" ("House III - The Frightening House")

I watched this with my father in the eighties and yesterday I rewatched it.

Couldn't remember much beyond the diner scene, electrocution and the turkey scene.

The special effects are decent enough, I love those eighties effects though, so I might be biased.

Lance Henriksen and Brion James do a decent enough job but what they have to work with just isn't enough.

It felt too drawn out and the movie suffers because of it, I think it would've worked better as an episode, cutting it down to somewhere around the hour mark.

The story wasn't that strong to begin with but I was mildly entertained during the movie.

Worth streaming or maybe as a thriftstore find.

I got this when i was eleven, and being a kid who loved freddy, jason etc i was always on the look out for another similar villain to get my teeth into, and for me, max jenke delivered. Around the same time, horace pinker came into play with 'shocker', and although good in his own way, the movie became a little too silly with the jumping in and out of TV shows. The two movies were almost the same story, but in max there was a much more evil guy, almost made for brion james, and if it wasn't tied in with the 'house' films i believe it would have had more impact. Bottom line is, if you enjoyed 'shocker' i doubt very much this would disappoint.

This movie was, for me, a mistake. I thought I was going to see another movie from the "House" series, the third in the franchise (which the distributor studio decided, for purely advertising and box office reasons, to release in the US as "The Horror Show")... but what I ended up finding it's just another movie with a psychopath on the loose, in the tradition of the slasher movies that were in vogue at the time this movie was made.

The film's script revolves around the fiendish enmity between Lucas, a police detective, and the murderer he investigated, arrested and finally managed to send to the scaffold, a maniac who slaughtered a lot of victims. The execution, however, does not go as expected and, now, when least expected, he returns to chase the detective, willing to do anything to get revenge on those who sent him to his death.

Well, I'm not going to say that the movie is bad... in fact, the script works reasonably well for a movie like this and the construction of the narrative was happy. However, it is full of clichés that are common in these kinds of films, and it is incapable of working with the environment in a way that gives us a palpable suspense and tension. The scares are limited to a few jumps on the couch, and the gore tries to do the rest, which didn't work very well for me.

Most interesting and successful was the effort of the cast, most particularly of the acting duo Lance Henriksen and Brion James, who respectively give us the hero and villain of the film. Both were very good at their work and the individual charisma of each one of them leads us to have some consideration for their characters, that is, it makes us care about them. There is, however, a lack of good supporting actors who are able to support these two in their work.

Technically, the film has its ups and downs... on the one hand, the cinematography seems regular, neither particularly good nor particularly bad, the sets and costumes are more or less within what we could expect to find and do not bring surprises and the soundtrack does its work without being highlighted. On the other hand, the film seriously bets on good special effects, closely related to gore and blood. It is, in fact, a very visual film and there are several scenes that can impress the most sensitive viewers.

I waited a long time to see a third House movie, and once I heard it was called The Horror Show, I had to rent it. The Horror Show is a pretty cool film.True it has no relation to House, but neither did the second, or fourth ones, and they were still good. Brian James makes a great bad guy.Good story, and o.k. acting.*** out of *****.

What it's used to be called in the UK , When he wasn't selling too well by it name as and the the plot with Shocker came out with the same kind of plot and poster about the same time so they decided to name it House 3.

If they didn't name it House 3, I don't think I would have seen it! however This as go nothing do with house Series at all, it just from same Producer of the house series that all.

This was not a bad movie, I found this movie very dark in the good as it was more serious the house sequels.

This about Detective who catches Meat Cleaver Max" and watches the electric chair execution from the audience.

Soon is haunted in his Dream about him, which some times can end up being really in the movie.

Some parts of the movie were very slow moving however I did still kept in tune of the movie, I really enjoyed some of effect near the end of the movie.

Some of the make up effect was really good and fun to watch.

The acting was really good in this movie from the whole cast it's was Okay movie

I give 5 out of 10

This movie goes off the plot of the first two and revolves around a serial killer. i didn't mind the idea of making it more of a slasher flick, but the movie doesn't live up to the greatness of the first two. it is better than the part IV but keep to the first two, if your a fan of the series you might want to miss this because this one is pretty lame. Detective Lucas McCarthy finally apprehends "Meat Cleaver Max" and watches the electric chair execution from the audience. But killing Max Jenke only elevated him to another level of reality. Now Lucas' family is under attack, his sanity in question, and his house haunted. Aided by a disreputable college professor, can Lucas reclaim his mind, house, and family? Features Lance Henriksen as the Lucas McCarthy and Brion James as Max Jenke. One of the few movies featuring these actors as main characters.

As a singular movie it would have been good but not as part of the House series sort of like Halloween 3.

I read about this in Fangoria and Gorezone in the late 80's and it looked so demented and gory that I didn't know if it would actually be released in the UK. But, quelle horreur, it was released and uncut as House 3, part of the House franchise.

On being fried in the electric chair, serial killer Max aka Meat Cleaver Max promises revenge on the cop who sent him there, Lucas McCarthy. Max means it too after making a pact with the Devil which means that he can wreak havoc from beyond the grave.

Two of cult cinema's biggest icons Brion James and Lance Hendriksen star as Max and Lucas making this unmissable entertainment. The effects have to be seen to be believed. They pushed the boundaries regarding how far they could go in those days when it came to taste and decency. The effects are gross which is music to the ears of any discerning horrorhound. There's also a depraved and sick sense of humour at play within the movie which makes it even more likeable.

This film has nothing to do with the House series of movies but was just given that moniker in the UK so that more people would rent the movie. It was actually released as a stand alone movie in the US called The Horror Show.

A great movie that history has treated very well with the ever excellent Scream Factory releasing it all spruced up. And it deserves that kind of release.

House III (1989) was an attempt by the producers of the first two HOUSE films to do an offshoot of the series. I guess they didn't learn from the producers of the HALLOWEEN series. Stray away from the source material and you're going to get snake bitten (Well, they kind of did in HOUSE II). I always felt that the series was over rated my self. The only reason I gave it a "high" score was because I saw a copy of the European Cut on V.C.D. and the gore level was good enough to rate it a five. I can't say so about the rest of the movie. Your usual bore and light gore from the people that brought you Friday THE 13TH. No great shakes, not worth searching high and low for a copy. Maybe if it fell in your lap then I would take a gander. Stay away from THE HORROR SHOW cut.

Okay for die-hard horror fans.

For those who were fans of the first two House movies, I guess this might have come as a shock, but they changed the formula here. It's always a different story with all 4 movies, but this is the one that really got serious about its horror (and had to have some cuts made to it too for that reason I suppose). The cuts are restored and the gore is back in place where it belongs.

Lance Henriksen playing a good guy is also a nice change from most of his other roles you might have seen him in. Then again, he has done so much stuff it is bound to happen he'll play someone good for a change or two. And as I said, this is a change in nature. And while the title still is shown as Horror Show here, this is officially House 3 - with the 4th part coming a few years later. So depending on your taste this will be the first house you might have different feelings about than the rest of them. Nice effects overall btw

Proof that people will watch anything, no matter how bad.

Hands down the best entry to the franchise, though seemingly completely unrelated to the originals. The two stars steal the show and the special effects are wild! Def would recommend if you like obscure horror movies form the 80s/90s.

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