I know this movie has somewhat of a cult following but I just couldn't bring myself to rate it any higher than I did. It just wasn't scary enough to be a horror flick or funny enough to be entertaining like Evil Dead II. Although I have a pretty wide latitude as to what I'll sit though, I just couldn't bring myself to join the bandwagon.
Believe it or not William Katt plays the starring role in this mid 1980s "horror" flick. The storyline had promise but misses on a few fronts. The old aunt seems to be an early key character but then really falls to the background if not totally out of the storyline. The actress wife also plays too small a role inserted here and there throughout the movie. George Wendt adds the comic relief but again as the nosy neighbor is not used to his potential. Finally is the house haunted or is it just Katt himself?
The story is basically about a house which is involved in the disappearance of Katt's son years ago. After Katt's aunt commits suicide, he decides to move into her house where he had already spent much of his own childhood. He wants to pursue his passion which is writing about his experience in the Vietnam War. It is this war experience that lives at the heart of Katt's weird experiences at the house. Not soon after moving in, he starts to hear and see strange things, primarily at the stroke of midnight. Monsters and other objects (like shovels) are soon attacking him. Katt falls back on his military training to battle the house and its "inhabitants." We eventually get a happy ending as he finally prevails in defeating the "monsters," rescuing his son, and it appears, reuniting with his divorced spouse.
Again, I know many previous writers enjoy this flick but it just wasn't up to even the low bar I often set for these type of flicks.
Believe it or not William Katt plays the starring role in this mid 1980s "horror" flick. The storyline had promise but misses on a few fronts. The old aunt seems to be an early key character but then really falls to the background if not totally out of the storyline. The actress wife also plays too small a role inserted here and there throughout the movie. George Wendt adds the comic relief but again as the nosy neighbor is not used to his potential. Finally is the house haunted or is it just Katt himself?
The story is basically about a house which is involved in the disappearance of Katt's son years ago. After Katt's aunt commits suicide, he decides to move into her house where he had already spent much of his own childhood. He wants to pursue his passion which is writing about his experience in the Vietnam War. It is this war experience that lives at the heart of Katt's weird experiences at the house. Not soon after moving in, he starts to hear and see strange things, primarily at the stroke of midnight. Monsters and other objects (like shovels) are soon attacking him. Katt falls back on his military training to battle the house and its "inhabitants." We eventually get a happy ending as he finally prevails in defeating the "monsters," rescuing his son, and it appears, reuniting with his divorced spouse.
Again, I know many previous writers enjoy this flick but it just wasn't up to even the low bar I often set for these type of flicks.