House

Directed by Steve Miner, House follows struggling writer Roger Cobb (William Katt) as he moves into his recently-deceased aunt’s large estate and eventually begins experiencing a series of oddball, creepy happenings. Filmmaker Miner, armed with a script by Ethan Wiley, delivers an increasingly tiresome endeavor that gets off to an admittedly promising start, as the filmmaker does a nice job of initially developing the central character and transforming him into a fairly compelling, sympathetic figure – with Katt’s agreeable performance effectively (and essentially) perpetuating the watchable atmosphere. It’s disappointing to note, then, that House segues into an egregiously repetitive and meandering midsection that slowly-but-surely drains one’s interest, as Miner’s decision to stress happenings of a decidedly less-than-compelling nature, including tedious flashbacks into Roger’s Vietnam days and the character’s inevitable investigation into the house’s history, paves the way for a second half devoid of compelling attributes – which, when coupled with eye-rolling instances of comedy and an absolutely endless (and entirely unsatisfying) climactic stretch, cements the picture’s place as a misfire of rather significant proportions.

*1/2 out of ****