The film was written and directed by Mark Waters (in his directorial debut), produced by Robert Berger, and stars Parker Posey, Josh Hamilton, Tori Spelling, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Geneviève Bujold.

Shortly afterward, Mrs. Pascal orders Lesly to return alone to New York in the morning, threatening to tell Marty about her affair with Anthony.

She finds the gun, then 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.

Lesly runs from the house and a flashback shows Jackie-O in her costume as a teenager, being filmed by Marty as she asks him to "stop it", then gives him a coy smile.

[8] It was released to theaters the same month as the slasher film I Know What You Did Last Summer, which was Freddie Prinze Jr.'s breakout role.

[9] Prinze Jr. shot I Know What You Did Last Summer after The House of Yes, and remembered in 2020 that he was "such a young, naive actor" at the time, adding that "[Waters] helped me so, so much.

"[10] In another interview, he claimed that The House of Yes was a turning point in his career, and said that the passion of Waters and co-star Parker Posey made him fall in love with acting.

"[14] 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.

"[6] Reviewing the film at the Sundance Festival, Noah Cowan of Filmmaker magazine praised Posey and Spelling's performances, however, he further noted that "the crazy bourgeois family drama feels claustrophobic for all the wrong reasons: overtly theatrical, it has too much chatter, exaggerated characterizations and a narrative circle closed tight to the point of strangulation.

The book states that, "like The Myth of Fingerprints (1997), Mark Waters' directorial debut is another entry in the dysfunctional, home-for-the-holidays genre, only this movie is one creepy black comedy", adding that "[the] shocking tale of family secrets is both perversely funny and fearless."

The book said that Posey was "perfectly cast as the glamorous yet twisted Jackie-O", claiming that her performance is "the highlight of the film – she far outshines the other actors with her dead-on portrayal of a unstable young woman about to go over the edge.