The Original
House is a great Saturday afternoon movie. It’s a nice comedy-horror mash-up that works on a low key level. I don’t think it’s anybody’s favorite horror comedy, but it’s enjoyable. You’ve got William Katt as the owner of an apparently haunted house, George Wendt as his goofy next-door neighbor, Richard Moll as a vengeful skeleton soldiers, weird and disturbing monstrosities, it’s great.
The Sequel
House 2 shares almost nothing with its predecessor beyond a weird palatial mansion where weird shit happens and an actor from Cheers appearing in a scene. Instead of George Wendt we have John Ratzenberger as Bill the Electrician. Bill is a no-nonsense blue collar guy who also happens to be a professional adventurer, knows a portal to an alternate dimension when he sees one, and always carries a cutlass with him just in case. If you watch this movie for no other reason, watch it for Bill. Ignoring scene-stealing turns by former sitcom stars, House 2 boasts a plethora of goofy delights including a caveman, a dog slug, a baby pterodactyl, zombie cowboys, and some super racist depictions of Mayan or Aztec priests, and Bill Maher playing an asshole because that is his resting state.
Does It Hold Up?
Not really, but it’s a lot of fun anyway. House 2 isn’t even really a horror movie by my standards, and I’ll call anything horror. It’s a very screwball ’80s action-adventure with some vague horror overtones. Also, remember how I said there were scores of other movies with Zach Galligan ready roles played by actors of lower quality than Zach Galligan? Well look to this film’s main character, Jessie.
I will say that the house from House 2 is way cooler than the house from House. If I ever become the steward of an irresponsible amount of money I plan to build a 1:1 replica of the Gothic Mansion/Aztec Temple house from this movie. I love it so much.
House is a better movie but House 2 but the sequel has the alchemy of a cult favorite. We can all agree that it’s at least a much more worthwhile effort than the third movie in the trilogy, House 4. Yes, due to The Horror Show being marketed as House 3, the third movie is called House 4. It’s also an entirely different story but features William Katt as a character with the same name as his character from the first movie. Here’s the only good part of the movie so you never have to watch it. I know that made you want to watch it, but there’s nothing else remotely like that in the rest of House 4 and it totally dropped the ball by not having another Cheers actor show up. Fuck House 4. Buy hey, House 2 is great!
Watch, Toss, Or Buy?
Bill would want you to buy it.
Where Can I Find It?
You can get both movies on DVD or watch it on Amazon Instant.