On Thanksgiving in 1983, Marty Pascal travels from New York City to McLean, Virginia, to visit his family: mother Mrs. Pascal, younger brother Anthony, and twin sister "Jackie-O". Jackie-O, recently released from a psychiatric hospital, is obsessed with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and emulates her style of dress and hairstyle. Marty surprises his family with news he is engaged; he introduces his fiancée Lesly, a waitress at a doughnut store. Lesly's arrival disrupts the family's gathering, and Jackie-O conspires to break the couple up. It becomes apparent that Marty and Jackie-O were involved in an incestuous relationship as teenagers. Jackie-O convinces Marty to play their favorite childhood "game", involving using a gun loaded with blanks to re-enact the Kennedy assassination; the "game" serves as foreplay for sex. A horrified Lesly witnesses the encounter and speaks to Anthony, who had tried to warn her of the nature of Marty and Jackie's relationship. He convinces Lesly that he is a virgin and dying of a brain tumor, leading to a brief and awkward sexual encounter. In the morning, Lesly confronts Marty about what she witnessed. Marty breaks down and begs Lesly to return to New York with him. Jackie-O convinces Marty that she will let him leave if he agrees to play the game one final time. Armed with the gun, Jackie-O recalls the events that led to their absent father's departure; Marty claims that he walked out on the family the day of the Kennedy assassination, but Jackie-O believes that he was shot by Mrs. Pascal and buried in the backyard. Jackie-O fires the gun at Marty, now loaded with real bullets, killing him. In a voice-over, Jackie-O states she buried Marty's body in the backyard, "next to Daddy".
The film was financed entirely by Tori Spelling's father Aaron Spelling and his company Spelling Entertainment. It premiered at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance screening attracted the interest of Miramax. According to the Boston Herald in June 1997, Miramax paid two million dollars to acquire the distribution rights to the film. They gave The House of Yes a theatrical release beginning October 10, 1997, with the film failing to recoup its one and a half million dollar budget.
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 62% based on 39 reviews. On Metacritic the film has a score of 58% based on reviews from 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Upon its October 1997 release, reaction to the film was mixed. Siskel and Ebert gave it two thumbs down on the October 25, 1997, episode of their show. Roger Ebert looked upon the film more favorably in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, stating "The dialogue, adapted by director Mark Waters from Wendy MacLeod's stage play, is smart and terse, with a lot of back-and-forth word play, most of it driven by Jackie-O, who is played by Posey as smart, dark and fresh out of an institution While it was running, I was not bored." In his positive review for Entertainment Weekly, Owen Gleiberman wrote that "The House of Yes is knowingly overripe, a kitsch melodrama that dares to make incest sexy." He also praised the casting of Posey, noting that "Parker Posey may never have a role that suits her as perfectly." The Austin Chronicle acknowledged the strong performances of the cast, but stated, "it's just that there's really not all that much for them to do."
