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House II: The Second Story
When Jesse and his girlfriend Kate move into his family’s old mansion, things couldn’t be looking better. They’re both successful in their careers and are looking forward to becoming even more so in the future. Soon Jesse’s buddy Charlie and his girlfriend Lana show up and quickly start to make things crazy with their wild lifestyle. Eventually Jesse and Charlie dig up the grave of Jesse’s great-great grandfather in the hopes of finding a crystal skull. There’s only one problem; Jesse’s great-great grandfather isn’t dead, and soon all hell breaks loose in the mansion.
Having really liked House, I was quite interested in sitting down to watch the sequel, mainly because I remembered liking it a lot when I was a kid. Of course that also worried me because sometimes things we liked when we were nine don’t hold up all that well 25 years later. Thankfully I can now safely say that not only does House II hold up well, it’s a clear winner over the original in almost every department. Choosing to focus almost exclusively on campy humour and hilariously awkward dialogue, it becomes a near masterpiece of the horror/comedy genre. It also feature some top notch acting performances from people you’d never expect them to come from, solid yet still kitschy special effects and one hell of a cute caterpillar-dog. Yes, that’s right; I said a caterpillar-dog, which should basically sell you on the movie by itself right? Well, if it doesn’t, I’m sure there’s something else for you in this second story, it’s full of surprises and each one rocks the….house.
"Not many houses come with a sacrificial chamber in the walls...but this one does!"
This sequel is directed by the writer of the original film, Ethan Wiley, who also handled the script duties here. That also worried me since I felt his script in the first film was the only major weak point. Luckily it turns out that Wiley is a much better straight comedy writer and his script here is really quite good. After a pseudo-scary opening sequence he jumps right into the hilarity and hits some real high points including a running gag with people running into a post outside of the house. I know it doesn’t sound like much on paper, but trust me, it gets funny fast! Aside from that, he also proves to be pretty adept at pacing, as the film just moves along nicely with hardly any down time at all. Obviously he was never going to win any awards for making this (oddly he was actually nominated for an International Fantasy Film Award for this very movie but lost out to Monkey Shines which is too bad because that one sucks…tangent over) but he still put his best foot forward at every turn. Oops, tangent back, I could do a whole review on the 1989 Fantasporto and the plethora of cool films in competition there. Check out just some; Scarecrows, Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Dead Ringers, They Live, Alien Nation, Critters 2, TCM 2 and more! That’s a pretty fucking awesome film festival if you ask me, but I digress.
"Cliff Claven FTMFW~!"
The cast here is full of actors who, for the most part, had relatively forgettable careers. Thankfully this film cannot be counted among their less than stellar works, as everyone seems to be feeling it here. First up is Arye Gross as the main character, Jesse. Gross, most well-known for his appearance on Ellen, is not only likeable but also capable of playing up the comedy to the extreme. His delivery is great and his chemistry with Jonathan Stark who plays his friend Charlie is really noticeable. Stark, who hasn’t done a lot of acting but did write a few episodes of Cheers (more on that in a moment) is really good here as well and downright hilarious at every turn. Speaking of hilarious, veteran character actor Royal Dano (The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Trouble with Harry, Something Wicked This Way Comes) is absolutely on fire as Jesse’s not quite dead great-great grandfather, lovingly referred to as Gramps. He’s got some wild scenes but also adds a bit of pathos to the character and definitely becomes very sympathetic as the film progresses. There are also guest appearances from Lar Park Lincoln (Friday the 13[SUP]th[/SUP] Part VII’s Tina), Amy Yasbeck (future wife of John Ritter), Bill Maher (permanent douchebag host of Politically Incorrect) and John Ratzenberger (lovable mailman Cliff Claven from Cheers). So that marks two House films in a row that starred an actor who also appeared in Cheers and that’s obviously why they’re both so good. Ratzenberger is definitely better than George Wendt was in the original though, playing an awesome electrician/adventurer character that has to be seen to be believed. Yep, Cliff kicking ass with a sword; as if you needed another reason to see this movie!
"Good grief that's a cute...whatever it is."
Well, if you do, like I said before, it’s got the above-pictured, super fucking cute caterpillar-dog creature. Seriously, isn’t that one of the cutest things you’ve seen in your entire life? Yep, I knew it was. Anyhow, outside of cute caterpillar-dogs, the film also features some amazons, a really mean zombie cowboy and a giant, hulking dude who I thought for sure was a pro-wrestler. It turns out he was actually the dude who played Buzzsaw in The Running Man, which is pretty cool if I do say so myself. House II: The Second Story has a lot going on, particularly in the comedy department, but it still has some thrills and chills to satisfy horror hounds as well. Amazingly, it also ages pretty well, as I found myself getting into it immediately, something I occasionally have trouble with where 80’s horror/comedies are concerned. Even though the main story of the film is pretty loose, basically designed just to introduce one gag after another, I was still satisfied with it and felt it was a major improvement over the original. Plus the movie is just that damn fun that it’s really hard not to love. Oh and one more thing, it has one of the best taglines of all-time; "Frightening strikes twice"! Yep, that’s just one reason to love House II: The Second Story, but I think I’ve given you a whole lot more so run, don’t walk, to this house today and open the door to some wild and wooly fun. 7.5/10
"Next time...get the damn screwdriver out of my head!"
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