All 5 ‘House’ Movies in Order
‘House’ was a comedy horror film released in 1986. When it first arrived, it received mixed reviews, but soon after, it became a sort of cult classic. It spurned three sequels so far, with a fourth announced for 2024. If you want to check the series out, or you already have but want to refresh your memory while we wait for the fourth film, you’re in the right place to get all the information you may need.
‘House’ movies in order by release date
Despite relatively low box office results, the first ‘House’ movie did well enough for the producers to go for a sequel. That film did even worse at the box office, but two additional films were still made. If you want to go right ahead and start watching, here’s the entire list in release order:
- ‘House’ (1986)
- ‘House II: The Second Story’ (1987)
- ‘House III: The Horror Show’ (1989)
- ‘House IV: The Repossession’ (1992)
- ‘House’ (TBD 2024)
As you may have noticed, the fifth movie on this list hasn’t been released yet, but it was announced alongside the names of the writers and directors. ‘House’ is a working title and may change as production winds down and new information about the film pops out.
Will this film be connected to the others on this list? Are any of the first four films actually connected? Keep reading if you want to find out, but keep in mind that there will be spoilers below.
Are ‘House’ movies connected? What’s the best order to watch them?
The entire ‘House’ franchise was made by the same producers – including the fifth film – but they are actually not connected to each other plot-wise. Each film can stand alone as a storyline for itself without too much of a connection to the rest of the franchise.
In fact, the third film – ‘House III: The Horror Show’ – was originally intended to be released under the name ‘The Horror Show’ without ‘House’ in the title. The consensus was that the tone of the film was too far off from the previous two installments, so the connection was rather unnecessary, but in the end, ‘House III’ was added to the film.
Probably the only recurring major character in the entire franchise is Roger Cobb, portrayed by William Katt, who appeared in both ‘House’ and ‘House IV.’ The truth is, each movie speaks of a different haunted house, with various characters and storylines along the way.
That being said, it doesn’t really matter in which order you watch the ‘House’ movies when it comes to plot. However, I still recommend that you watch the franchise by release order, simply because that’s the order in which I’d rank the movies based on quality as well.
The first ‘House’ film is by far the best – not brilliant, per se, but the best of the bunch – and then quality kind of dwindles with each standalone sequel. The fourth movie had such a microbudget that it wasn’t even released in US theaters – it went straight to VHS with a limited international theatrical release.
In the following subheading, I’ll talk more about the chronological order of the movies and if it even makes sense to order these films chronologically.
‘House’ movies in chronological order
Seeing that none of these films are actually connected – apart from ‘House I’ and ‘House IV’ in a minor way – there’s really not much reason to watch the franchise in any particular chronological order. Each story can stand on its own, independent of the other stories, so you can watch them as you see fit.
Now, if you want to be strict about it and still order the films chronologically, I’d suggest you ought to follow the release order to do so. ‘House IV’ clearly happens after ‘House’ because Roger Cobb (SPOILER) dies in a car crash in ‘House IV,’ so you can simply insert ‘House II’ and ‘House III’ in between, as the producers meant for the series to be viewed.
Where to watch the above-mentioned movies?
It won’t be easy – nay, it would be impossible – to find all of the ‘House’ movies on, for instance, a single streaming platform. All the films (except for ‘House IV,’ to my knowledge) can be bought or rented on Amazon, Vudu, Apple TV, or Microsoft Story, but streaming them could be a bit more troublesome if you want to stream all of them.
‘House’ is available on Prime Video, Plex, and amc+ on The Roku Channel. ‘House II’ is available on Shudder’s channel on Prime Video and Plex, while ‘House III’ is on Shudder’s channel on Prime Video and Arrow. It’s also available on Google Play and YouTube.
As for ‘House IV’ – I actually couldn’t find it anywhere to buy, rent, or stream. You didn’t hear it from me, but I might’ve seen the entire movie on YouTube, though…
Will there be more ‘House’ movies?
For trash horror comedy fans like myself, rejoice! A new ‘House’ movie is set to be released in 2024, 32 years after the last movie was released.
The new film was announced back in January 2023, with Sean S. Cunningham once again producing the piece. Jeremy Weiss and Jeff Locker came up with the story and pitched it to Cunningham, who liked it enough to decide to go into production. Locker wrote the script, while Weiss is slated to direct. There was also a poster released already, as you can see above.
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