House IV

House IV (1992)

** (out of 4)

Roger Cobb (Willian Katt) is riding with his wife Kelly (Terri Treas) and their young daughter Laurel (Melissa Clayton) when their car crashes. Roger is killed so the wife and daughter follow his wishes and move into the house that he loved. Pretty soon strange things begin to happen.

HOUSE IV is without question the weakest film in the series because there's really just nothing new here. It's the same type of haunted house film that we've seen throughout the history of haunted house movies and there's very little to nothing new here. With that said, I do give the filmmakers credit for bringing the Roger character back, although they change elements from the first movie.

Obviously it's pretty cool getting to see Katt returning to the role but he's not in the film too long. Treas is okay in the role but I'm not sure she was strong enough to carry the picture but you've also got to mainly blame the screenplay since it really doesn't give her too much to do except for scream and run around into one trap after another. Clayton is nice in the role of the young daughter and Scott Burkholder is good as well.

The film's most memorable moments are the special effects, which are quite good. There are various "haunted" things that happen but none of them are overly scary so we resort back to the "fun" effects including one scene where a pizza comes to life. Even with the nice special effects, there's just not much else here so it's hard to really support the film. HOUSE IV isn't awful but it's just rather bland and unoriginal.