Twenty-five years after his parents' deaths (deaths that occurred, moreover, under mysterious circumstances), Jesse decides to return with his partner Kate to his family's home, better known in the area as "Helen's House." The couple is joined, surprisingly, by Jesse's best friend and his girlfriend. However, the group soon discovers that the old "Helen's House" is not like any other and hides many terrible secrets.
An initial premise is in order here: the title in question has nothing to do with the series initiated by Sam Raimi's masterpiece. This film belongs to another series, produced and supervised by Sean Cunningham of which, respectively, are: "Who's Buried in That House" (House I); "House 7" (House III); and "House 4: Impalpable Presences" (House IV). These are works over which Cunningham exercised some control, while always leaving the directing to others; all of them tradesmen or good craftsmen like Steve Miner (whom we remember for sympathetic titles like "Lake placid").
"Helen's House" (House II), moreover, cannot be considered a true horror film; perhaps it would be better to see it as a kind of curious "School of Monsters"-like horror comedy; a particular 1980s product, which despite all its obvious flaws always arouses nostalgia and in this case a lot of sympathy as well.
To be precise of horror there is only the opening sequence in which we are shown the death of Jesse's father and mother by the specter called "Slim Reason." After that, everything takes on a clearly comic and adventurous tone; in fact, these turn out to be the preponderant elements of the film: action and comedy. There are many laugh-out-loud dialogues and scenes, voluntarily (see the episode of Charlie's first outing with "Grandpa" Jesse) and also unintentionally (the encounter with the electrician-adventurer Bill).
The story behind the film, in spite of everything, could also be considered fascinating: the idea that the house may, in fact, be a kind of door or gateway to different eras is quite intriguing (certainly not a new idea but not an overblown one either).
The idea of the crystal skull as a "dimensional key" is also not bad at all (it is in fact the skull that allows the opening of the various "space-time" doors through the house). Such ideas could have been exploited in a horror or science fiction key and could have given great satisfaction: one could really indulge and create an excellent fantasy horror with atypical settings (recall the various eras "mentioned"). It is a great pity that this did not happen (seeing this little film one really feels that some very good ideas were thrown out).
As mentioned earlier, there is no lack of action indeed: different "journeys" between different eras follow one another rather quickly. We start from prehistory (complete with fierce caveman and ravenous monsters); to Mayan or Aztec civilization (of human sacrifices); to the old west (complete with a duel between Jesse and the specter/zombie Slim). Certainly of the three scenarios, the most evocative is the final one in the west: especially in the part of the last-ditch challenge for the skull.
The film's special effects are not bad at all: we remember good stop-motion makeup for the animations of the prehistoric monsters, nice puppets for the "caterpillar-dog" and the "white pterodactyl" (of the two, the most absurd and hilarious as well as funny is definitely the former); and finally, good make-up for the "grandpappy" and for the ruthless "zombie" Slim (the make-up for the latter is definitely one of the most interesting elements of the whole film; the part where he is riddled with bullets, first by Jesse and then by the police; as well as the part where he appears on stage riding a "zombie" horse is excellent). Of the series this is the decidedly least gore episode: not a single drop of blood is seen. Although to be fair, the other episodes are also decidedly unbloody: the only exception is "House III"; there a lot of blood is seen, the only gore being related to the fact that all the goriest murders take place offstage; the viewer only sees "the results.""Helen's House" is one of those films that, if seen as a child, remain in the memory as pleasant and entertaining memories (beyond their actual value), otherwise, if seen at another age they are invariably slaughtered for all their obvious flaws.
This work is to be seen with the brain off, unpretentiously content to spend 80 min in relaxation, maybe even getting a few laughs (anticipated or not), with little monsters, trips to other dimensions, zombie relatives and ghosts.
Review by decker
