a review of 夜半鬼敲门4：致命的家

ℍ𝕆𝕆ℙ𝕋𝕆𝔹𝔼ℝ 𝔼𝕃𝔼𝕍𝔼ℕ ℕ𝕀𝔾ℍ𝕋 𝕋ℍ𝕀ℝ𝕋𝕐-𝔽𝕆𝕌ℝ: Having now watched the entire HOUSE saga as part of this challenge, I'm sort of hard-pressed to figure out how any of this really holds together as a proper franchise with regular numbered installments. For some reason, William Katt's character from the first film comes back, albeit with a completely different family and personal history, which calls into question whether this is even supposed to be the same guy? Either way, it doesn't really matter because he's dead before the end of the first reel and the real main characters are his widow and daughter. The movie really takes its time in establishing whether the disturbances in the house are just grief-induced freakouts or if there's something properly supernatural going on. The tonal unevenness of the other entries is absolutely at play here, and with the exception of details like the goofy talking pizza (delivered by a singing pizza-guy?), the bumbling HOME-ALONE style thugs, and the evil little-person industrialist stamping "NON-" on barrels marked "TOXIC WASTE", most of the movie is played puzzlingly straight.