The Horror Show (1989) United Artists/Horror RT: 95 minutes Rated R (graphic violence, grisly images, language, brief nudity) Director: James Isaac Screenplay: Allyn Warner (as “Alan Smithee”) and Leslie Bohem Music: Harry Manfredini Cinematography: Mac Ahlberg Release date: April 28, 1989 (US) Cast: Lance Henriksen, Brion James, Rita Taggart, Dedee Pfeiffer, Aron Eisenberg, Thom Bray, Matt Clark, David Oliver, Terry Alexander, Lewis Arquette, Lawrence Tierney, Alvy Moore, Zane W. Levitt. Box Office: $1.7M (US)
Rating: ***
Outside the US, The Horror Show was known as House III. It would have retained the title here, but the heads of MGM/UA (who took over the rights to the series from New World) wanted a horror franchise of their own, one with an iconic villain like Freddy Krueger. They wanted to distance it from its two comedic predecessors. So it is that it was renamed The Horror Show and Max Jenke (played by the always cool Brion James) was born. It didn’t help much. It bombed at the box office with an anemic take of less than $2M.
In keeping with tradition, The Horror Show (or House III) has no connection to the previous installments other than producer Sean S. Cunningham, composer Harry Manfredini and cinematographer Mac Ahlberg. The only similarity between the movies is the horror being centered on a house and even that is subject to argument. It’s a different kind of horror in that it doesn’t involving goofy-looking ghouls and funny zombies. This movie takes itself a little more seriously.
Detective Lucas McCarthy (Henriksen, Pumpkinhead) has finally captured the brutal serial killer Max Jenke, but his nightmare has just begun. He’s still haunted by the atrocities committed by Max with his trusty meat cleaver. He’s said to have 110 victims to his name including the little girl Lucas saw him behead. He’s been sentenced to die in the electric chair for his crimes. Lucas attends the execution with the intention of finally putting the whole messy situation behind him. Doesn’t he know it’s never that easy?
Sure enough, Max gets zapped. The executioners pump a lot of juice into him, but not enough to keep him down. He manages to break his restraints, get up and walk a few feet before collapsing in a pile of burnt flesh. Before he dies, Max vows to take revenge against Lucas. He might just pull it off too. You see, Max made a deal with the devil to live on through electricity. It allows him to travel through currents and materialize. He can still kill people minus the restraints of the physical world. This is according to parapsychologist Peter Campbell (Bray, Prince of Darkness) who was at the execution and allowed to examine Jenke’s corpse in the morgue.
Naturally, Max’s plan is to drive Lucas crazy and go after his family- wife Donna (Taggart, Coupe de Ville), daughter Bonnie (Pfeiffer, Vamp) and son Scott (Eisenberg, Streets). They’ve just moved into a new house and Lucas has finally been cleared to return to active duty. Life seems just swell. That is, until Max shows up and starts wreaking havoc. Lucas starts having horrific hallucinations. He’s made to look like he’s losing his mind. Then Max makes it look like he murdered Bonnie’s boyfriend after he caught him hiding in the basement. In the vernacular of my misspent youth, it looks like Lucas is totally f***ed.
I didn’t like The Horror Show the first time I saw it (opening weekend, natch!). I thought the whole thing was kind of stupid and poorly made not to mention cheap. A friend of mine suggested that I rewatch it with this in mind. Are the events of the movie actually happening or are they the figments of a disturbed cop’s mind? Suddenly, something clicked and I found myself enjoying The Horror Show. It’s not the greatest movie ever made. It’s definitely campy and silly, but it’s also trippy and disturbing.
The set design is the very stuff that nightmares are made of, especially the sequence that shows Lucas walking around a diner and finding body parts everywhere. Same goes for the scene where the cop discovers the half-dead body of his partner hanging from a chain and missing both arms. The scenes in the house are definitely creepy. The very idea that some unknown entity might have found its way into the safety of his home really freaks out the veteran detective who, we assume, has seen a lot of crazy stuff on the job, but not like this. The furnace in the basement is a true monstrosity, the way it keeps belching flames. It’s like the thing is alive trying to tell Lucas something.
In a rare leading role, Henriksen does a very good job depicting a man who might very well be insane. There’s no way his story is the product of a sane mind, right? He hardly believes what’s happening himself. He thinks Campbell is crazy for even suggesting that Jenke survived the execution.
The late Brion James also turns in a great performance. He had amazing screen presence. It would have been cool to see him play more leading roles (he died in 1999). Max Jenke could have had an entire horror franchise to himself if The Horror Show made any money. Jenke is a scary guy. He doesn’t just kill his victims; he butchers them. And worse, he enjoys his work. He flashes a wicked little smile before plunging his meat cleaver into a victim. These little touches make Jenke a memorable character and somebody you have every reason to fear.
It’s my understanding that the studio had to make numerous cuts to The Horror Show before the MPAA would change the X rating to an R. Thankfully, the excised gory bits were put back in for the DVD release. They’re pretty cool. They make the movie better. There’s a really cool scene where Lucas spots the form of a human head trying to erupt from his daughter’s stomach. There’s no explosion of guts and intestines, but it’s still really freaky. There are also plenty of shots of severed body parts lying around and an exploding head. Gorehounds should be satisfied.
James Isaac (Jason X) stepped in as director after David Blyth (Death Warmed Over) was fired a few weeks into shooting. I couldn’t really tell the difference between the scenes so it looks as though Isaac and Blyth had a similar vision for The Horror Show. One of the writers, Allyn Warner, had his name removed from the credits and replaced with that infamous pseudonym Alan Smithee. You may have heard the name floating around the movie industry. No such person actually exists. No, not even on the same plane of existence as Max Jenke! It’s a pseudonym that filmmakers use when they want to disassociate themselves from a movie with which they were dissatisfied. Some of “Smithee’s” credits include Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home (1987, Paul Aaron), Ghost Fever (1987, Lee Madden) and Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996, Kevin Yagher). I don’t know for sure why Warner wanted his name removed from this project; it’s not anywhere near as bad as any of the aforementioned titles.
The cinematography (Mac Ahlberg) is dark and creepy, even in scenes set during broad daylight. The movie has an unusually foreboding appearance to it. It actually reminds me of Seven (1995), both movies have a similar bleak tone augmented by dark cinematography.
Here’s something interesting about The Horror Show. It was released exactly six months before Wes Craven’s Shocker which came out on October 27. The plots are almost identical. They both deal with psychotic killers coming back to life after being put to death in the electric chair. Although Shocker came out later, I’m inclined to believe The Horror Show is the rip-off. It’s possible that somebody got a hold of Craven’s script and came up with the idea of making a quickie knock-off and getting it into theaters ahead of the bigger studio production. Again, this is just a theory.
The Horror Show may not be high art, but it is its own kind of art. It’s a low-budget job with lots of great gruesome effects, a cool cast (especially Brion!) and a creepy atmosphere. It’s the kind of scary movie best watched late at night with all the lights off. If that doesn’t give you the creeps, you might be dead. Go ahead and check your pulse just to make sure.
