House II: The Second Story (1987) - Not really a sequel

The second instalment in the 'House' franchise is a difficult film for me to rate.  I absolutely loved the original.  I watched it when I was actually quite small and I loved all the creepy monsters and it was one of the films which added to my long-standing love of the horror genre.  Therefore, I was only to happy to watch the sequel.  Only it wasn't really a sequel.  Or was it?

The first film centred around a haunted house.  One where the setting was a major part of the story.  This time, it's like the screenplay could have been some sort of generic horror film and they simply slapped the 'House II' name as the title in a way to drum up a few extra bums on seats.

The original film was a bit tongue in cheek, but - ultimately - it was definitely a horror film and the monsters were pretty nicely grim.  However, part II has certainly been turned into more of a light-hearted comedy with only a few horror elements.  Some of the scenarios almost border on slapstick and I wondered whether I was actually watching a 'Home Alone' film by mistake.

I think if I'd seen part II first I'd have probably enjoyed it more, but seeing it after - the far superior - part I, the tonal shift really was hard to get over.

But, saying all that, I certainly didn't hate it.  It did have a few good elements that kept me sticking with it until the end.  The undead gunslinger 'Gramps' is fun, seeing as he's actually quite a nice monster/zombie.  But the character who really stole every scene was the electrician who isn't in it nearly enough.

Some of the effects - although visibly stop-motion - are actually quite good for a low budget production like this and I did enjoy the scenes set in the 'alternate dimension' - even if they didn't make much sense in terms of plot.

Overall, it's a fun enough film, but I'd definitely take it as a stand-alone movie instead of anything to do with the first - much better - outing.

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights