{"id":1294,"date":"2024-07-25T00:04:15","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T00:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=1294"},"modified":"2024-10-14T11:42:18","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T15:42:18","slug":"house-ii-the-second-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/07\/25\/house-ii-the-second-story\/","title":{"rendered":"House II: The Second Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"House II: The Second Story<\/strong>\u00a0(1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Comedy-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 88 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, creature violence, mild sexual innuendo)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ethan Wiley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ethan Wiley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Harry Manfredini\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Mac Ahlberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 28, 1987 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Arye Gross, Jonathan Stark, Royal Dano, Bill Maher, Lar Park Lincoln, Amy Yasbeck, John Ratzenberger, Dwier Brown, Lenora May, Gregory Walcott, Devin DeVasquez, Jayne Modean, Ronn Carroll, Dean Cleverdon.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $7.8 million (US)<\/p>\n

Rating: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Am I in the minority in thinking that House II: The Second Story<\/strong> is better than its predecessor? I can\u2019t believe that it received a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It\u2019s a fun movie!<\/p>\n

\u00a0This in-name-only sequel to the 1986 horror-comedy has a lighter tone and absolutely nothing to do with the original. If I remember correctly, the idea was that New World was going to make a series of House movies, each one centered on a different house and set of characters. Two subsequent films have been made- House III (1989) which was released as The Horror Show in the US and the straight-to-video House IV (1992).<\/p>\n

\u00a0My favorite of the series is House II<\/strong> for several reasons. For one thing, it has a better storyline. I\u2019ll get into it momentarily, but I will say that it\u2019s quite imaginative. Also, I think it has a better cast than the original. Once again, it\u2019s a B-list collection of actors, but I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way where the House movies are concerned. The creature effects are just as cheesy as the original, but again, I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way. These movies don\u2019t call for inflated budgets or state-of-the-art effects. It kind of defeats the purpose of B-movies, don\u2019t you think?<\/p>\n

\u00a0House II<\/strong> opens in 1961 with a nervous couple (Brown and May) handing over their newborn child to another couple. Soon thereafter, a mysterious figure dressed as a cowboy appears inside their home and kills them. The story jumps ahead to present-day where we find Jesse (Gross, Soul Man) and his girlfriend Kate (Lincoln, Friday the 13th<\/sup> Part VII: The New Blood) moving into the same house. He\u2019s the baby that the murdered couple gave away. They\u2019re soon joined by Jesse\u2019s goofball friend Charlie (Stark, Fright Night) and his singer girlfriend Lana (Yasbeck, Problem Child).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jesse finds a picture of his great-great-grandfather (Dano, Teachers) while going through stuff in the basement. In it, he\u2019s standing in front of a Mayan temple holding a crystal skull. He and Charlie figure out that the valuable piece must be buried with him, so they dig up his grave to get their hands on it. They get the surprise of their lives when they discover that Gramps isn\u2019t quite dead (cowboy zombie!). They take him home where he explains that the old family mansion is actually a Mayan temple with doorways to different points in history. It isn\u2019t long before cavemen and ancient Mayan warriors show up and try to steal the skull. This means that Jesse and Charlie have to go and retrieve the magical object. The main antagonist is Slim Razor (Cleverdon), Gramps\u2019 former partner-turned-bitter enemy. He too wants the skull and will stop at nothing to obtain it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It goes without saying that House II<\/strong> is shamelessly campy. How else do you describe a movie in which the heroes have a baby pterodactyl and a caterpillar-dog as house pets? They picked them up during their excursion to prehistoric times. After Kate storms out on Jesse, he hooks up with a Mexican virgin (DeVasquez, Can\u2019t Buy Me Love) that he rescues from a sacrificial altar.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I mentioned earlier my preference for the cast of actors in House II<\/strong>. They really are good! Bill Maher (D.C. Cab) shows up as Kate\u2019s smarmy boss. Jayne Modean (Spring Break) plays an ex-girlfriend of Jesse\u2019s. John Ratzenberger (Cliff from Cheers) contributes a hilarious cameo as an electrician that moonlights as an adventurer. I\u2019m about to be a total guy here and say that I love that House II contains three beautiful and talented ladies- Lincoln, DeVasquez and Modean. Dano goes a great job as Gramps. The whole cast looks like they\u2019re having a ball, so why shouldn\u2019t the audience as well?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Manfredini\u2019s score is great as always. I don\u2019t know the exact budget, but House II<\/strong> never looks shoddy or cheap at any point. It\u2019s clearly a low budget job, but the makers know how to put their dollars to good use. Writer Ethan Wiley (Children of the Corn V) serves as director this time out and does a fine job of it. Here\u2019s the deal. House II<\/strong> is a total no-brainer. It\u2019s not a particularly good movie, but it\u2019s fun and that\u2019s what really counts with a B-movie. It\u2019s best to enter into it with no expectations. Do that and you might have a good time with it.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House II: The Second Story\u00a0(1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Comedy-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 88 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, creature violence, mild sexual innuendo)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ethan Wiley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ethan Wiley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Harry Manfredini\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Mac Ahlberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 28, 1987 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Arye Gross, Jonathan Stark, Royal Dano, Bill Maher, Lar Park Lincoln, Amy Yasbeck, John Ratzenberger, Dwier Brown, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/House-II-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1294"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1907,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294\/revisions\/1907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}