Sam Panico Are you ready to be further confused by the House and La Casa numbering and naming structure? The Horror Show had been financed through pre-sales of foreign distribution rights using the title House III. By the time filming began, the film was definitely going to be part of the series, then United Artists thought that The Horror Show was a better title for the U.S.OK. Makes sense so far, right? But when House IV came out in 1992, many of us couldn't remember there being a House 3. And with the internet in its infancy, not many of us knew that The Horror Show was also La Casa 6 in Italy. Confused yet?It gets worse. The Horror Show is about a killer named Meat Cleaver Max, played by Brion James, who is sentenced to the electric chair and dies. But wait - he's made a deal with the devil and comes back to haunt the cop who put him away - as well as that policeman's family - with supernatural powers.There are also some character actor appearances - Lewis Arquette (father of the Arquette family of actors) and Lawrence Tierney (Reservoir Dogs). But this movie feels the weight of the late 80's push for movies to be sequelized, in the same way that Shocker felt like it was made to set up a franchise.But wait - isn't that the same plot as 1989's Shocker with Horace Pinker making a deal with the devil to come back and haunt the football player who helped capture him? Yes. You are 100% correct. The same year, The First Power had the same exact storyline, too! You could also point to 1987's Prison and 1988's Destroyer as having similar concepts, but The Horror Show/House 3/La Casa 6 and Shocker go beyond that and feel like the same exact movie (except for the pop culture elements that Craven injected into his take as he tried to create a new Freddy).And again - this has nothing to do with the two House movies that came before, which have nothing to do with each other either, other than the title. Whew!Let's just get to the movie, where Meat Cleaver Max escapes and frames Detective Lucas McCarthy (Lance Henriksen, Near Dark) for a new series of crimes and haunts the house where his family lives. Only a parapsychologist can help them now.Of course , everything ends up happy. Of course, the cat survives. Of course, they get a 5-year supply of chili at the end. What?!? Seriously - I regret the time I spent watching The Horror Show and that doesn't happen all that often. I'm not the only one embarrassed. Noticeably in the opening credits, Allyn Warner is credited as Alan Smithee. I love that they spelled Allan Smithee - the pseudonym when someone wants their name taken off a movie - incorrectly.

ClassicHorror The Horror Show is an amazing movie. It has everything a horror movie should have, I can't think of one thing I didn't like or that it's missing. The acting is great and while it is 99% horror, it does have some comedy mixed in, but it only adds to the movie. This movie only gets better with time.10/10

gavin6942 Detective Lucas McCarthy (Lance Henriksen) finally apprehends "Meat Cleaver Max" (Brion James) and watches the electric chair execution from the audience. But killing Max Jenke only elevated him to another level of reality. Now Lucas' family is under attack, his sanity in question, and his house haunted.Inevitably, this film has to be compared to "Shocker". While this one came out first (by a few months), the plots are largely similar and I hate to say it, but "Shocker" is the better film.Now, this film may be a bit of a stinker because of the rotation of directors and the writing crew not necessarily approving of what they created. The acting is pretty good, and this ranks among Kane Hodder's best stunt work. But the overall story is just alright and the "evil laughter" gets old after a while.Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, "The Horror Show builds up a good head of suspense, then squanders it in mechanical, poorly staged splatter." Roger Ebert says that "the execution scene is actually the best one in the movie", thus somewhat agreeing with Holden that the beginning is better than anything after. (This is also a nod to Hodder, as he was the one on fire for this scene.) There were some decent nods to other films (can anyone see the basement furnace and not think of Freddy?) but overall offered little of its own memorable moments. I mean, I liked the turkey, but come on...

atinder What it's used to be called in the UK , When he wasn't selling too well by it name as and the the plot with Shocker came out with the same kind of plot and poster about the same time so they decided to name it House 3.If they didn't name it House 3, I don't think I would have seen it! however This as go nothing do with house Series at all, it just from same Producer of the house series that all.This was not a bad movie, I found this movie very dark in the good as it was more serious the house sequels. This about Detective who catches Meat Cleaver Max" and watches the electric chair execution from the audience.Soon is haunted in his Dream about him, which some times can end up being really in the movie. Some parts of the movie were very slow moving however I did still kept in tune of the movie, I really enjoyed some of effect near the end of the movie. Some of the make up effect was really good and fun to watch.The acting was really good in this movie from the whole cast it's was Okay movie I give 5 out of 10