Detective Lucas McCarthy finally catches the serial killer named "Meat Cleaver Max" and watches his execution. McCarthy is shocked to see the electric chair physically burn Max before he finally dies promising revenge. Max has made a deal with the devil to frame Lucas for his murders from beyond the grave. Max scares the McCarthy family and the parapsychologist they hire. The parapsychologist tells Lucas that the only hope of stopping Max for good is to destroy his spirit. As the family move in, Donna searches the basement to find their missing cat Gazmo. She discovers their furnace turns on and flings the door open, apparently Max's spirit is inside the house and focused on the basement. Lucas starts having hallucinations that lead him to behave erratically. Bonnie goes to the cellar to secretly meet her boyfriend Vinnie, who is later killed by a physical manifestation of Max with a cleaver. The next night, Bonnie tells Scott to come with her to look for Vinnie, while Lucas goes to the basement and angrily calls for Max to stay away from his family. Bonnie returns to the basement and finds Vinnie's body for which Lucas is suspected of the murder. Max kills Scott with the meat cleaver, transforms into Bonnie and decapitates the parapsychologist before holding Donna hostage. Lucas escapes from questioning and goes into the cellar to fight Max. Lucas sends Max to the electric machine where his arm gets stuck, Lucas and Donna use the chair to shock Max causing him to appear back in physical form in the house where Lucas shoots him dead. The next day the McCarthy’s are moving out with Scott still alive. Bonnie goes into the basement and runs outside to find Gazmo in a box the family takes a photo as the screen freezes and fades to black.
Director David Blyth was replaced by James Isaac a week into shooting. Allyn Warner is credited as writer for the film as Alan Smithee. The Horror Show was originally intended as an entry into the House series of films, but was marketed as unrelated, as the producers felt it was too intense compared to the more comedic earlier installments, House and .
Release
The Horror Show was released in the United States on April 28, 1989. It has been released as House III in Europe. The Horror Show was distributed as House 3: The Horror Show on home video by Braveworld in the United Kingdom in October 1989.
Critical reception
Critical reception for The Horror Show was overwhelmingly negative. On Rotten Tomatoes and the film holds a rating of 0%, based on 8 reviews. Critic Roger Ebert gave the film one out of four stars. 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." AllMovie's reviewer stated, "this film consists of long periods of tedium punctuated by outbursts of graphic gore and surreal effects," while John Kenneth Muir opined that it was "one of those horror movies where the missed potential just cannot escape notice," and that it was also too similar to Wes Craven'sShocker, which was released later that same year.
