A mild box-office hit for New World Pictures, this lightweight attempt at horror parody from
Friday the 13th producer Sean S. Cunningham stars former
Greatest American Hero William Katt as a best-selling pop-horror novelist (a la
Stephen King) who suffers an insurmountable case of writer's block after separation from his soap-star wife (
Kay Lenz) and the disappearance of their young son. Hoping to purge his personal demons by writing his Vietnam War memoirs, he moves into the massive mansion once occupied by his deceased Aunt (who hanged herself in her bedroom), and finds himself surrounded by demons of a completely different kind. Katt takes the weirdness in stride, attempting to face down marauding monsters, interdimensional trap-doors and other supernatural horrors while concealing his predicament from the neighbors (except for a befuddled
George Wendt, who tries gamely to play along with Katt's hare-brained monster-fighting schemes). Despite the filmmakers' admirable efforts to maintain the manic pace with multiple storylines, their attempt to bring all the plot elements together for the climactic payoff results in a jangled mess. Surprisingly entertaining when viewed as a live-action cartoon, but virtually impossible to take seriously as a horror film. Followed by three sequels. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide