The original "House" with William Katt, is a grossly underrated mid- 1980's horror/comedy gem. Even though I do not really watch horror films anymore, I will always fondly remember "House", and it's dry sense of humor, but also fairly serious plot threads of overcoming the demons of your past, it is a movie that is serious while having a very dark sense of humor, that rises far above the low-brow humor of most horror comedies. This sequel "House II" is not a direct sequel, but rather a thematic sequel, it has an entirely new cast of characters, and a different house all-together, and it does not rehash the same story, but it is very much in the same spirit as the original house, although far less serious, if that is possible.The acting is surprisingly well-done, campy, and over-the-top, why yes it is! However, if you're coming to this movie with expectations of a serious film, you are sorely mistaken. This is a very goofy movie, with an even goofier plot, but the creativity is boundless, which makes for a fun and inventive viewing experience. Unlike some, I do not find the tone to be uneven, even though it starts with a fairly ominous beginning, and seems to "drop" this plot thread, it definitely doesn't, it is percolating in the background the entire film, and gave me an overall sense of dread, wondering when things were going to come back full circle. Everything ties together, and all of the plot threads due tie up by the end of the film, in a very goofy over-the-top fashion. The conclusion actually makes logical sense within the continuity of the film, and unlike more horror themed films, your not left thinking, "Yeah, but they just committed a ton of crimes in the process and getting away and will likely go to jail."The effects are better than in the original "House" and extremely well-done for the time it was made. Many of the effects still stand up today, though some of the stop-motion does look fairly dated. The caterpuppy is so adorable, and very uniquely 1980's creation which would fit right into the film "Labyrinth". While many questions are left unanswered by the end, I don't think of it as a bad thing, there just wasn't enough time to answer them all. The film is non-stop entertaining, from beginning to end, and yes, John Ratzenberger's cameo is hands-down, the best moment of the film, but Royal Dano is also endlessly entertaining as the great, great, great, grandfather. Some might be annoyed by Jonathan Stark's character, but his acting is always appropriately over-the- top, and Arye Gross, plays things mostly straight, and mostly anchors the film on his own as he deals with one ludicrous scenario after the next. A film worth watching if you love 1980's effects and fantasy films that have very outlandish plots, no offense to Ridley Scott, but this film is on the whole, a lot more entertaining than the straight-up fantasy film "Legend", which is often bogged down by a in-your-face moralistic message, a stilted love story, and stilted dialog, while "Legend" really would have benefited from some of the fun and adventurous tone of "House II", it obviously came out 2yrs before "House II". "House II" is watchable not because of a coherent plot, though it is more coherent than it should be, or because of deep character studies, there is none to be had, it is entertaining because that is what it seeks to do, be a fun entertaining popcorn movie, and it does well at that.Have the proper expectations and you'll be pleasantly surprised.God Bless ~Amy

Wow! This film was so incredibly awful, my two children are still mad at me for showing it. My wife was the smart one; she left after ten minutes to read a book. It's stunning how anyone could give this piece of cinematic basura a respectable review. I do a weekly film program at my library and showed the original House (one of my favorites!) and people loved it. I'll never understand why filmmakers try to make sequels convoluted and over-the-top. The first House had the right mixture of horror and comedy. William Katt was perfect in his role and Richard Moll a great villain. The 'Gramps' character was just plain stupid and the two main actors were Wonderbread bland. No one saw this disaster coming? In a nutshell: bad story + bad acting = bad movie!

I didn't like the original House but naturally I had to see the franchise but what a mistake this was. Thousands and thousands of flicks I have seen since the end of the seventies all horror and sci-fi but this here is just one utterly boring flick that I even used the fast forward button, a thing I normally never do. House was one for teenagers but this here is for toddlers. Ethan Wiley, also involved in House (screenplay) did wrote and directed this dull flick. The directing was okay and so many genre actors were involved coming from Fright Night ((1985) Jonathan Stark), to Lar Park-Lincoln (Friday the 13th part VII (1988)) to Royal Dano (Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)) but I just can't understand that they agreed to this childish flick. The creatures or animals looked really stupid and I didn't like them, for a horror. And the use of blue key (skeleton horse) and stop/motion (dinosaurs) really was outdated for 1987. The best part is only the last 15 minutes, at that part are a few nice effects. But overall it's just a family film in the tradition of Harry and the Hendersons (1987). Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 1/5 Comedy 0/5

Jesse and his girlfriend move into an old mansion that his parent died in 25 years ago. He starts to learn about his past through old books in the basement and learns of his great grandfather who was an adventure and found a crystal skull. Jesse decides that he is going to find the crystal skull with the help of his friend Charles, but he soon finds more than he bargained for.House was a quirky horror comedy in the vain of Evil Dead, House 2 drops all the horror and bumps up the comedy and becomes more of a goofy kids movie in the vain of The Goonies. The monsters in this one are for the most part non-threatening cute puppets and such and the comedy is mostly bizarre (why does Charles have an uzi?, Why is the electrician an adventurer?) Nothing really makes sense, but the random nature makes it funny.This film is also more of an adventure film in which the house opens up portals into other time periods which gives the film an overall episodic feel and keeps things a bit fresh and interesting.The acting isn't very good, but in a film like this it doesn't need to be. The special effects are fairly good and I loved the cute monster puppets and stop motion effects.House 2 is a stupid movie, I can't see fans of the first movie liking the second one to well. It has almost nothing in common with the first one, there are no returning characters and even the house is different. But I still kind of liked it, maybe even better than the first. This one is more for kids than adults, but if you like bizarre random humor, you might get a kick out of this.** out of ****