The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		1.0

The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 9, 2021

The scariest thing about The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 is arguably not anything actually in this lame brained follow up to Meet the Blacks, but instead co-star Bresha Webb breathlessly announcing in one of the supplements included on this disc that the creative (?) team involved in this enterprise is absolutely sure they're building a "franchise", which is a truly horrifying thought. While the cast and crew are ostensibly very enthused about this project, as evidenced by those very aforementioned supplements, where a typical litany of self congratulatory nonsense is spewed by any number of them, it's perhaps salient to note that the first Meet the Blacks film was met with critical brickbats and box office returns that only looked relatively successful because the film was so cheaply produced. And it's probably equally salient to note that the IMDb lists the production dates for this film as 2017, which suggests this sophomore effort experienced that oft quoted "slump" before it was ever even screened.

Carl Black (Mike Epps) and family have survived " The Purge" that was the underlying conceit of the first film, and Mike has written a supposed best seller about the experience. Family life is as dysfunctional as ever, with supposed hilarity ensuing not just from Carl's interactions with wife Lorena (Zulay Henao), kids Allie (Bresha Webb) and Carl Jr. (Alex Henderson), but also hanger on Cronut (Lil Duval). When a mysterious guy named Dr. Mamuwalde* (Katt Williams) moves in next door, Carl becomes convinced the good (?) doctor and his brood are really vampires. And that's it, "plot" wise, though while there is a screenplay credited to Corey Harrell and director Deon Taylor, there's the unmistakable feeling that virtually all of this film was improvised, and frankly not very well.

The bonus features on this disc suggest (repeatedly) that there is comedy gold to be found in this pretty trite premise, especially when brought to life (or at least undeath) by such an ostensibly gifted cast. And yet — The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 is one of the most resolutely unfunny films in recent memory. The cast is obviously working overtime to deliver some kind of laughter, and that amount of desperation never really tends to pay off. The whole "is he or isn't he a vampire?" setup is also never played for mystery, let alone laughs, and the entire outing may encourage enterprising Van Helsings to find a mirror to hold up to this film so that it will hopefully disappear.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf evidently was similarly unimpressed with The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

*For those not getting this hilarious (?) "in joke", I refer you to Blacula / Scream Blacula Scream (but take a deep breath before you see how much this out of print disc is fetching these days).

The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Some of the supplements show what look like Arri cameras, and the IMDb lists the Alexa Mini and a 2K DI as relevant data points. This is a competent but hardly inspiring looking presentation that often resembles a made for television movie in terms of overall "look" and especially with regard to some less than lustrous special effects. Practical items like props and costumes boast considerable detail levels when lighting regimens allow, and close-ups reveal good fine detail on facial features and the like. The palette is rather nicely suffused most of the time, with a lot of the supposedly spooky nighttime material graded toward predictable blue tones.

The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 features an intermittently energetic DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. There's once again a glut of source cues that populate the film, some stretching back to prior music "eras" and others more contemporary, but they tend to provide some of the most consistent surround activity, as subliminal as some may be. Occasional effects work like Dr. Mamuwalde going "poof" in the moonlight also offer occasionally reasonably decent effects. Outdoor material does typically have at least some engagement of the side and rear channels for ambient environmental sounds. Dialogue, when it's not being screamed, is clearly presented. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Cast & Crew


• The House Next Door: Meet the Dope Cast (HD; 9:41) offers a brief look at the performers.


• Hidden Empire: Paving a New Way (HD; 7:25) is a rather interesting short documenting Epps' team's efforts to form their own production company after having been told "no" by the usual suspects in Hollywood. The subtext that there may be more films from this group may be slightly unsettling for some.


• Bloopers (HD; 5:08)


• Deleted Scenes (HD; 14:45)

Additionally, a Bookmarking feature is offered.

The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As if sitting on the veritable shelf for several years wasn't injury enough, the "insult" of a global pandemic evidently only further delayed the release of this film, which may be the one good thing about the calamities the world has been facing. That's obviously said in jest, but the fact that The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 barely raised a ripple at the box office might suggest that Bresha Webb's excited pronouncement that eager audiences have a new "franchise" to look forward to may be wishful thinking at best. I can't remember another film of recent vintage that was so relentlessly "busy" without ever getting anywhere, let alone offering a comedy that is so resolutely devoid of any real laughs. I can't imagine even fans of the cast being overly enthused about this film. That said, technical merits are generally solid for those who are considering a purchase.