Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.5

House II: The Second Story Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 5, 2017

Note: This film is available as part of the House: Two Stories set.

There’s a virtual embarrassment of riches when it comes to films featuring haunted houses, a subgenre which goes back at least as far as such relatively early efforts as 1921’s The Haunted House, 1925’s The Monster, 1926’s The Bat, 1929’s Seven Footprints to Satan and another film entitled The Haunted House, and 1932’s now iconic The Old Dark House. It’s interesting to note that several of these early offerings blended horror with comedy, and didn’t always feature houses that were “really” haunted. More traditional horror offerings accrued with great regularity over the ensuing decades, with a barely even cursory list including such titles as The Haunting , The Amityville Horror Trilogy, Poltergeist, The Uninvited and The Others . One could probably make at least a passing case that none other than Alfred Hitchcock rejiggered certain haunted house elements for one of his most legendary films, Psycho. Perhaps unsurprisingly (and as should already be obvious, given the aforementioned list of titles), there are a ton of haunted house films with the word “house” in the actual title, including House on Haunted Hill, The Dark House (just one of several haunted house films featuring this title), The House That Screamed and Housebound. Credit writers Fred Dekker and Ethan WIley, then, with cutting to the veritable chase by naming their goofy horror comedy concoction House, several years before the Hugh Laurie series House M.D. (which often is listed without that “M.D.” appendage) kind of usurped bragging rights for the moniker. The original House became an unexpected hit, leading of course to several sequels, the first of which Arrow has collected with its progenitor in a handsomely packaged new two Blu-ray set which also includes Arrow's typically wide assortment of supplements, which in this case include not just on disc bonus material but a nice hardback book entitled The House Companion.

Several of the guys responsible for the first two House films reveal their connections in the supplementary documentaries offered with each film, and it probably wouldn’t be too far off to say what many of them “really” wanted to do was to direct. That included House and House II: The Second Story scribe Ethan Wiley, who helmed this sequel. There are a of interesting, if at times patently derivative, elements at play in this piece, including time travel and what might be thought of as wormholes to distant places, though the film never seems to be able to properly capitalize upon them.

Instead of positing a lone fighter against supernatural phenomena as the first film did, House II: The Second Story ups the ante by having not one but two couples traipsing around an undeniably cool looking Gothic mansion. Jesse (Arye Gross) and Kate (Lar Park Lincoln) are an upwardly mobile young couple who move into Jesse’s family home, despite the fact that (as with the first House film) bad stuff, including horrifying deaths, has happened there. Unlike the first House film, though, there’s no barely subtextual melancholy at play, and Wiley decides to more or less build a slightly askew domestic sitcom when buddy Charlie (Jonathan Stark) and his girlfriend Lana (Amy Yasbeck), and Jesse and Charlie end up looking for a priceless artifact by digging up the corpse of Jesse’s long departed great great grandfather. Only—great great grandad (Royal Dano) isn’t all that departed.

House II: The Second Story does have its fun elements, and it also has some perhaps tangential pleasures by offering a young Bill Maher as the sort of guy he’d rail against years later on his HBO show, not to mention offering yet another Cheers alum, John Ratzenberger, the chance to ham it up (the first film featured George Wendt). But for whatever reason the comedy doesn't always completely connect and that in turn negatively affects the impact of some of the supposed scares.

House II: The Second Story Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

House II: The Second Story is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. An insert in each keepcase provides the following information:

House and House II: The Second Story have been exclusively restored in 2K resolution for this release by Arrow Films. Both films are presented in their original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with 2.0 and 5.1 sound.

For House, the original 35mm interpositive was scanned in 2K resolution on a pin-registered 4K Lasergraphics Director Scanner at Deluxe Burbank. Picture grading was completed on a DaVinci Resolve. Picture restoration was performed using PFClean software.

For House II: The Second Story, the original 35mm interpositive was scanned in 2K resolution on a pin-registered Northlight Scanner at Pinewood Studios. Picture grading was completed on a DaVinci Resolve. Picture restoration was performed using PFClean software.

All restoration work was completed at Pinewood Studios.

Before getting into the look of these transfers, I'd like you all to know what my idea of a personal horror film is. I'm a Blu-ray reviewer and seemingly every single cult horror release I'm supposed to review has something wrong or at least different about it. Someone's changed the color timing. Someone's mishandled foley effects or reversed the stereo imaging of the soundtrack. Someone's provided a misframed master. It's like Groundhog Day with a home video collector twist. Of course this is said (kind of) in jest, but is meant to point out that once again a cult item is receiving a home video release where the framing inexplicably shows information that shouldn't be there, including in this instance part of a crew member on the left side of the frame. Personally, I'm simply going to chalk this up to Roger's PTSD and choose to believe it's another hallucination he's experiencing, which gives a nice Pirandello-esque "meta" quality to what he's going through in the first film (again, this is said in jest, for those who don't get my admittedly odd sense of humor).

House II: The Second Story has an image quality much in line with that seen in the first film, though to my eyes the grain is more consistent looking. That said, it occasionally spikes at odd moments, though perhaps not to the degree as seen in the first film, and also more transitorily. The palette looks quite good here, with nicely suffused primaries and a good range of interstitial tones. Fine detail is also very good, especially with regard to Gramps' makeup and some of the fun if hokey "pets" that show up. There are some shadow detail deficits in the "dinosaur" scenes as well as a long scene in the basement of the house, but fans should be well pleased with this presentation. The less than optimal shadow definition also extends to a couple of long nighttime scenes that are bathed in blue.

House II: The Second Story Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

House II: The Second Story features LPCM 2.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks. While both tracks offer good fidelity and smart prioritization, there's quite a bit of extra "oomph" delivered in the surround track at key moments, including the fun trip back to Jurassic times, where some rumbly LFE helps to animate the sonics. Harry Manfredini contributes another fun score which also has quite a bit more breathing room in the surround version. Dialogue is rendered without any problems on both tracks.

House II: The Second Story Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• It's Getting Weirder! (1080p; 57:38) is another fun retrospective, featuring interviews with Ethan Wiley, Sean S. Cunningham, Arye Gross and Jonathan Stark among others.


• Vintage EPK (1080i; 14:38) hails from the time of the film's production and features the typical blend of interviews, behind the scenes footage and snippets from both films.


• Still Gallery (1080p; 6:14) offers only an Auto Advance option.


• TV Spot (1080i; 00:33)


• Audio Commentary features Ethan Wiley and Sean Cunningham.

House II: The Second Story Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm kind of surprised by the viscerally negative reaction House II: The Second Story seems to evoke in even some fans of this franchise. The film doesn't quite work, but it's kind of goofily enjoyable on its own terms, and some of the effects are kind of quaintly lovable as well. Technical merits are generally strong and the supplemental package very enjoyable for those considering a purchase.