Roger Cobb (William The Greatest American Hero Katt) is a writer. He is divorced from his wife and still distraught over the disappearance of his son. His aunt is found hung in her old and creepy looking house and after inheriting it, Cobb puts it on the market. He is suffering from a bad case of writer's block and is under pressure from his publisher to put out another book. He decides to go and stay at the house for a while to try and get some solitude in order to write. It turns out that this house is also where his son went missing and he sees it as a possible means of finding answers. His aunt always claimed the house was haunted, but due to her being found hung, everyone believes she was simply crazy.

After moving into the house, Cobb is continuously interrupted by his intrusive neighbour Harold Gorton (George Cheers Wendt). Cobb then starts experiencing strange happenings, proving that perhaps his aunt was right in her theory that the house was haunted.

"I think this house may be haunted!"

The first in a series of four films, House is considered one of the better comedy/horror films of the genre that was so popular in the ‘80s. There is not as much blood and guts as a lot of films of a similar ilk, but there are plenty of scares and laughs, although these are not in the higher scale of either category. The acting is reasonably good but, the film does suffer slightly from age compared to today's films. The monsters are also a bit cheesy, but this is for the most part intentional and adds to the whole feel of this film. The haunted house theme has been done many times before in films such as Amityville Horror and Poltergeist, but House is only partly similar to those and tackles the subject matter of haunted houses in a whole new way.

Considering the age of this film, the transfer is quite good. Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and 16x9 enhanced, there is some lack of sharpness, but only minor problems in this area. There is some grain, but again this is acceptable and expected for a film of this age. Shadow detail is very good and colours are generally natural. Blacks are for the most part deep and there are quite a few film artefacts, but these are not too distracting. Aliasing happens occasionally but is not a major problem and subtitles supplied are true to what transpires on screen.

Audio available is a choice of English Dolby Digital 2.0 or 5.1. The DD 2.0 track is reasonable, but does lack some clarity. The DD 5.1 track is much louder, excessively so in fact, so turn down your receiver before switching. Dialogue is clear at all times, but some effects are a little taxing on the ear drums. The music used is quite well suited, although that which is used to build up to scary scenes is far too repetitive. The separation is less than satisfactory, there is plenty of sound coming from all speakers, but this is not too well done at all. There are certain sound effects that should come out of a particular speaker yet they come from them all, giving no directional effect whatsoever. Overall, the audio tracks are sufficient but nothing else and we probably should be grateful for a DD 5.1 track at any rate. There is never a problem with audio synch and the subwoofer is under-utilised, only really being used for the music score.

All we have in the way of extras are a couple of Teaser Trailers. These both come on when the disc is played and are not selectable. They are for House 2 and House 4 and are both of quite poor quality.

Overall this film is not the best in its genre, but it is worthy of a viewing. The horror is not too scary and the comedy is not hysterical, but it is still an enjoyable film with a decent story and good acting. The video is very good for its age and audio is not great but acceptable. The extras are really non-existent, but the film is still enjoyable overall.