Sean S. Cunningham is planning a House remake with a female lead

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Next year, director Steve Miner's horror/comedy HOUSE will be celebrating its thirtieth anniversary, and if producer Sean S. Cunningham (who is best known for directing the original FRIDAY THE 13TH) has his way, we might be hearing some news on a remake of the film sometime during the year.

Under Cunningham's guidance, that remake is said to be "deeply in development" right now. Revisiting HOUSE is a possibility that has been on Cunningham's mind for a while now, but he says that he and his collaborators only just recently came up with a take on the concept that they felt was worth pursuing. The idea that opened the floodgates: change the gender of the lead character, who was played by William Katt in the original film.

Cunningham tells Fangoria, 

"… suddenly we realized, oh wait, then everything would have to adjust. And also, if we did it that way, it would bring back the fun that HOUSE had. So that’s the direction I’m committed to going in. I would love to make that movie, and I hope to be able to keep all the elements of the personal story from the Bill Katt version and still have it be fun."

Interestingly, the actresses Cunningham mentions as being his dream leads are Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy, the stars of Paul Feig's upcoming gender swap version of GHOSTBUSTERS.

Written by Ethan Wiley from a story by Fred Dekker, HOUSE had the following synopsis:

Horror novelist Roger Cobb is a man on the edge, reeling from his recent divorce, haunted by the mysterious disappearance of his young son, and struggling with his new book about his traumatic experiences in Vietnam. But when he moves into the strange house left to him by his late aunt, Roger's precarious sanity comes under siege by nightmares of his dead war buddy, visits from a nosy neighbor, and an onslaught of hideous creatures from another dimension. Horror has found a new home, and it's fully furnished with murder, monsters and madness!

HOUSE is a really fun movie, although I've always preferred the sequel HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY. The fact that Cunningham wants to get a remake off the ground is fine by me. With a difference of thirty years, a woman in the lead, and the Vietnam element needing to be replaced, I imagine it could turn out to be different enough from the original to be enjoyable on its own.

HOUSE 1986's Mary Stavin