House II: The Second Story (1987)
Starring: Arye Gross, Jonathan Stark, Royal Dano
Writer and Director: Ethan Wiley
****MAJOR SPOILERS****
Not continuing the story from House at all, Jesse and Kate move into a mansion that's been in his family for many generations. Later that night, his nutty-buddy Charley shows up with aspiring diva girlfriend, Amy. The following day, Jesse learns of his Great, Great Grandfather's endeavors that lead him to the discovery of an ancient crystal skull, which supposedly possesses the power of eternal life, though, no one knows where it is. Jesse and Charley both get wild hairs up their asses and decide to go dig up poor ole Great, Great, Gramps, in hopes of finding this mysterious Aztec skull. And find it they do- buried with Gramps, who turns out to be a happy go-lucky partying zombie. Problem is, evil is always on the pursuit of this ancient relic, as well... which leads to Slim.
Slim and Gramps were good friends, until they got into a spat about who should be in control of the skull... so Gramps shot his ass and left him for dead.
As you may have guessed, Slim is pretty pissed off about that.
95% of the time, I will choose horror over adventure, whether we're talking film or literature... it's just what I prefer. I catch ridicule from my girlfriend all the time for not finishing up with Harry Potter; it's not that I dislike it, I actually think it's brilliant, but I'd just rather be reading or watching something that's gonna scare or disgust the shit outta me. So, I was pretty damn surprised after re-visiting the first two House films to discover that I am more a fan of the second. Now, the first movie isn't a gorefest by any means, but it is more horror than adventure. I dunno, there's just something about the second story that hit home with me, even if the horror aspect did take a back seat.
Ethan Wiley took Steve Miner's spot in the director's chair, and also wrote the story. With the first House film, Wiley adapted a screenplay originally conceived by Fred Dekker, and some major changes were made. I think the big difference here is that this was entirely his baby in terms of the narrative, and it ends up being a big mash of some of Wiley's favorite genres. It's extremely ambitious. Plus, I feel relationships and personalities of the main characters are fleshed out really well, and the comedy is more on point.
This being Wiley's directorial debut, producer Sean S. Cunningham kinda took him under his wing and brought in all the right people to make things less painstaking. Mac Ahlberg (From Beyond, Re-Animator) returned as cinematographer, as did production designer, the late Gregg Fonseca (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Critters). The film has great lighting and nifty camera closeups on characters, especially at a Halloween party scene and an on location in the woods at a makeshift cemetery. In addition, the massive house has a dark and gothic appearance on the outside, while the interior is littered with all kinds of cool old-time western and adventurer type props.
There's extensive use of matte paintings mixed with stop motion FX, and damn, it's awesome. The bulk of it takes place in a part of the film where a room serves as a portal to prehistoric times; Jesse and Charley must venture there to retrieve the magical skull that was stolen by a 'built like a brick shit-house' caveman. Every background here is a matte painting, such as a volcano background with an awesome stop-motion Brontosaurus feeding and drinking in the forefront. Does the stop-motion look real? No... but neither does the CGI in Jurassic Park, so whatevs.
I totally loved the trio of Jesse, Charley and Gramps, played by Arye Gross (TV show Ellen), Jonathan Stark (Fright Night) and Royal Dano (The Dark Half), respectively. Gross and Stark have the buddy relationship down pat, with Jesse being the more down to earth guy and Charley as the crazy party dude. It gets about 100 times better when Gramps (whose name is actually also Jesse, but we will continue with Gramps to alleviate confusion) is thrown in, though. The late Dano (who acted in nearly 180 pieces of big screen and television work) puts so much heart into his lovable, zombie cowboy persona. You really grasp the emotion of all these characters in a scene where Jesse and Charley are in the basement getting drunk with the overly old-timer, listening to his stories of treasure hunting, robberies and how his friendship with Slim went south. The trio are awesome together, but Royal Dano in particular owns it.
On the asshole or just kinda annoying front, we got Kate, Jana and John, played by Lar Park Lincoln (Friday the 13th part 7, Freddy's Nightmares), Amy Yasbeck (Dracula: Dead and Loving It) and Bill Maher (Real Time With Bill Maher). Kate is Jesse's girlfriend, kinda bitchy, all business, works for a record company. Lincoln is okay here; she was hate-able, and I DID hate her, so it worked! Yasbeck plays more of an annoying character as Charley's girlfriend, Jana, an aspiring 80's pop Madonna-wannabe. Bill Mayer as John, a bigwig from the same record company Kate works at, is a straight up snide shitbag, wishin' he had 'Jesse's girl'. Maher sure nails the part, standing out as the token jerk dude.
Also good but given very little to do is Dean Cleverdon as Slim, Gramps' ex treasure huntin' buddy and the film's main antagonist. He moves around in all his makeup and heavy clothing almost perfectly. However, due to budget restraints they were unable to devise a way for him to open his zombified mouth and speak, so his dialogue was dubbed in later and you only hear it when he's not on camera.
Now, I'm gonna bring up two characters that I wish were given more of a part in the story. First- John Ratzenberger (Cheers, Motel Hell, Pixar voice actor extraordinaire) as Bill, electrician and adventurer. This guy comes into the movie past the halfway mark to do some electrical work, tears out a wall, and discovers an alternate Universe where a ceremonial Aztec virgin sacrifice is about to go down. This is where Ethan Wiley's love for swashbuckling adventure comes in, and Ratzenberger (having previous training in stage combat and martial arts) fucking tears some shit up! His fight choreography is awesome, making Ayre Gross and Jonathan Stark look like a couple of wimps. After this scene, he's out; shame. Secondly- Jayne Modean, playing Rochelle, an apparent ex love interest of Jesse's that shows up at the Halloween party. Gah, Modean is/was so incredibly cute and the character seems sweet as a peach. After the prehistoric room mishap Jesse and Charley get into, the next time we see Rochelle is in a closet drunk as shit, and they send her ass packin'. Bam... gone... this guy (points at self), disappointed.
As much as I dug the makeup FX and prosthetic work of the first film, you just can't beat Chris Walas creature designs. I may be biased because I love his work in Gremlins, but damn the dude knows his stuff. In House II, he basically came up with most of the designs, and Jim Isaac (Enemy Mine, eXistenZ) coordinated a crew to help make it happen. The makeup job on Gramps and Slim is absolutely incredible, especially their hands, looking so thin that knuckles will poke through at any moment. Skull work on slim has insane attention to detail, too. Plus, we get an awesome baby pterodactyl, and my favorite: A cutest thing I've ever fucking seen Caterpuppy, and any fan of Gizmo will want one at first glance. As previously mentioned, I really enjoyed the stop motion animation by Randy Dutra (Robocop, Willow), especially a zombie horse that shows up during the finale.
As I mentioned in my House review, I've always loved Harry Manfredini's (Deepstar Six, Friday the 13th) musical scores, and with House II comes some of his most creative work. There's a few areas that hint to Friday 7: A New Blood, which would come the following year, but a lot of it was a new sound for him. There's a southern twang that coexists with the film's western feel, and many moments sound so adventure-based that you expect Allan Quatermain to come struttin' around a corner at any moment. I really loved the song that plays during the opening theme, with the patented breakneck start and stop moments that made me love Manfredini's scores in the first place.
A few problems I have: The skull is supposed to bless eternal life to the possessor of it, which is Gramps... So how does Slim come back? Also, when Gramps looks into the mirror he gets as sad as a kid falling off a bike and says he's supposed to be young again, obviously because of the skull. This is never explored any further, they just leave it at that and it annoyed the shit outta me. Anyway...
If you have never seen House II, please, don't let my heavy amount of ass-kissery persuade you into thinking it's awesome. After its release, it was panned by critics and fans alike, and was a box office stinker. While I enjoyed it more than I probably should, many fans of the first film will more than likely not. I'm not saying don't take a chance on it, as I would love to be responsible for readers to give it a go (or a second go, if you nearly barfed when you originally viewed it), I'm just saying try to go into it with an open mind. I will say it's a great starting point for younger viewers who are expressing an interest in monster movies, because this PG-13 low-budgeter is relatively harmless.
Trivia snipets:
Kane Hodder does stunt work like in the first film, as well as providing a cameo role at the Halloween party.
John Ratzenberger makes the second actor from Cheers to appear in the House series, with George Wendt being William Katt's neighbor in the previous movie.
