It stars Christopher "Kid" Reid and Christopher "Play" Martin of the hip hop duo Kid 'n Play in their film debut, Paul Anthony, Bow-Legged Lou, and B-Fine of Full Force, and Robin Harris (who died of a heart attack nine days after the film was released, making House Party his penultimate acting role).

[6] At the very beginning of the movie, kids dance inside of a house, and the noise is so loud that it blows the roof off.

In his high-school cafeteria, Peter, also known as "Play," announces that he will be having a party at his house that night, as his parents are on vacation.

Their friend Christopher "Kid" Robinson Jr. gets involved in an altercation with school bully Stab and his brothers, Pee-Wee and Zilla.

On his way to the party, Kid is stopped by the neighborhood police and runs into Stab and his brothers, jumps over a fence where a fat man named Roughouse is having sex.

Crashing the reunion, Kid has the DJ scratch and mix a few of his old doo wop records so that he can liven the party with a rap, until Stab and the others arrive.

During the party, Chill bumps the DJ table, which angers Bilal and other guests, and it nearly results in a fight between the two.

Kid and Play get into a dance contest with attractive girls Sydney and Sharane (originally it was Kid and Groove against Sydney and Sharane, but after Groove gets drunk and passes out, Play takes his place), then have a freestyle battle.

Kid entertains the rest of the men in the cell by rapping, distracting them long enough for Play, Sharane, Bilal, and Sydney to arrive and bail him out.

The website's critical consensus reads, "House Party is a light, entertaining teen comedy with an infectious energy.

"[12] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

He called the film "wall-to-wall with exuberant song and dance" and stated, "the musical is a canvas used by the director, Reginald Hudlin, to show us black teenagers with a freshness and originality that's rare in modern movies".

In 2001, Immature, now going by IMx, starred in a direct-to-video sequel, House Party 4: Down to the Last Minute, which does not feature any of the original cast from the other three films.

A fifth installment and direct follow-up to the third film, titled House Party: Tonight's the Night was filmed in 2012 with Tequan Richmond, Zac Goodman, Tristin Mays, Alex McGregor, Rolonda Watts and Gary Anthony Williams.

In 2018, it was announced that basketball star LeBron James, along with his SpringHill Entertainment partner Maverick Carter would be producing a new House Party film with Stephen Glover and Jamal Olori writing the screenplay.

On July 28, 2021, Jacob Latimore was cast to replace Lendeborg, who dropped out of the film due to his mental well-being.