There have been many terrifying films in history that have featured a house as the main instigator of terror, Amityville Horror, House On Haunted Hill, Poltergeist, The Brady Bunch - OK, well the last one scared me anyway. This series of four films contains a mixture of flicks that vary from combining horror and comedy to childlike humour to pure horror.

The first in the series is by far the best and offers originality as well as combining humour and horror to great effect. The next three offer up no resemblance to that original, apart from a few very minor details, but are still passable films in their own right. After the success of the first House the producers introduced Muppet characters and lowered the rating to PG to attract a younger audience. This was fine, but then the next in the series went to the complete opposite end of the spectrum, gaining an R rating.

If you liked the original House film and you are curious as to what the sequels are like then this is not for you. However, if you look at this set as featuring four individual films that offer varying degrees of entertainment then this is a good collection.

The same extras are contained on each disc in this four disc set. These are simply teaser trailers for House II and House IV.

The audio and video are of reasonable quality for each where nothing too special is required. Nothing more than Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks were expected, so the inclusion of DD 5.1 tracks is a welcome one, even though they are not the best DD 5.1 mixes around.

The packaging for this box set is a highlight. There are two discs each contained in two separate cases and these fit nicely into a glossy black sleeve. All packaging is well presented, even down to the pictures on the discs, a great job.

It really is a case of individual choice with these films. House is a terrific flick that will gain multiple viewings, but whether the sequels will achieve the same number of viewings is entirely up to the individual. I found them all to be reasonably entertaining in their own right, as long as you can ignore the fact that they are supposed to be sequels.