Film

House II: The Second Story

Name: House II: The Second Story
Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Comedy
Released: 1987
Cast: Arye Gross, Jonathan Stark, Royal Dano, Bill Maher, John Ratzenberger

Fantasy
Strange

A giddy 1987 creature-feature comedy where a young man inherits a house that becomes a revolving door for ghosts, mummies, and interdimensional weirdness. It's silly, practical-effects-driven mayhem that knows exactly what it is: low-stakes fun with genuine charm. For people who love horror comedies that prioritize laughs over scares.

TMDb rating

2.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love loopy, gleefully overcooked horror-comedy where the gags pile up faster than the scares and the set pieces get sillier with every minute.

Skip it if you want horror that frighten, since the scares here are mostly a pretext for slapstick and the tone rarely stays put long enough to build real dread.

What it asks of you: Brisk at under ninety minutes, it keeps switching gears between goofy and gruesome and rarely lets you settle, so just go along with its strangeness.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Gremlins1984

Spielberg-produced creature comedy with the same mix of dark humour and practical monster effects. Chaotic supernatural guests destroy a small town; here they wreck a house. Both are genuinely funny without winking at the audience.

But Gremlins leans darker and meaner than House II, which might feel like a step up or down depending what you want from the evening.

Innerspace1987

Another 1987 comedy where logic takes a back seat to inventive visual gags and character charm. Dennis Quaid and Martin Short are infectious; the plot is wonderfully bonkers. Same spirit of "let's just see what happens next."

But It's a Joe Dante film about a man shrunk inside another man's body—if that premise sounds tedious rather than inspired, skip it.

Poltergeist1982

The spiritual ancestor: a house that's alive with supernatural chaos, but Spielberg and Tobe Hooper lean into genuine dread beneath the spectacle. Scarier than House II, but with the same practical ingenuity and family-in-peril warmth.

But It's genuinely unsettling in places. If you want House II's lightness throughout, Poltergeist's scares might feel like a tonal shift.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from House II: The Second Story

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Beetlejuice1988

A house that becomes a home for supernatural guests; both films find humour and heart in the collision between the living and the undead sharing the same space, with the house itself as the true protagonist.

Tim Burton's house-haunting comedy where the dead are as much a problem as the living. Michael Keaton steals the film as a manic poltergeist. It's visually lush where House II is scrappy, but both treat a house as a character and chaos as entertainment.

But Beetlejuice is a Tim Burton film—stylistically dense, art-directed within an inch of its life. House II is delightfully plain by comparison.

The Frighteners1996

Peter Jackson's comedy-horror love letter: a con artist who can see ghosts, practical effects that still hold up, and a refusal to pick a lane between laughs and genuine menace. Michael J. Fox carries the chaos with infectious energy.

But It's longer and more ambitious than House II—if you want something leaner and dumber, this might feel overstuffed.

Evil Dead II1987

Released the same year. Bruce Campbell in a cabin fighting deadites with slapstick violence and genuine wit. Sam Raimi's energy is relentless; the practical effects and stop-motion are inventive. Comedy and horror in perfect balance.

But It's messier and more aggressive than House II—the gore-as-comedy angle won't appeal to everyone.

Tremors1990

Desert town vs. underground worm monsters, played with deadpan charm by Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward. Monster-movie mechanics treated with affection; laughs come from character and situation, not irony. Effortlessly fun.

But It's a creature feature first, comedy second. If you want more jokes and fewer practical stakes, this skews action-adventure.

Ghostbusters1984

The obvious touchstone: a New York building haunted by supernatural weirdness, treated as a job to be solved by funny, competent people. Practical effects and character warmth over spectacle. A template House II gleefully ignores.

But Ghostbusters is so famous it can feel inevitable. House II has more genuine oddness and less mainstream polish.

The Monster Squad1987

Kid heroes, classic monsters (Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy), practical effects, and genuine affection for the source material. Another '87 release that balances horror-comedy tone with real craft and heart.

But It's a kids' movie at heart, which means softer stakes and less of the anything-goes chaos House II embraces.

Big Trouble in Little China1986

John Carpenter's maximalist adventure-comedy where the plot is secondary to spectacle, practical effects, and Kurt Russell's refusal to be cool. Gloriously weird and unafraid of its own strangeness.

But It's more ambitious visually than House II and built at a bigger scale—some find it messy rather than charming.

The Killer Shrews1959

Both embrace pulp-movie logic where the premise is accepted without question and the entertainment comes from watching earnest characters navigate increasingly absurd supernatural situations with practical ingenuity rather than explanation.

Giant mutant shrews attack researchers on an island. It's earnest B-movie nonsense shot in crisp black-and-white. No irony, no meta-commentary—just people reacting seriously to ridiculous giant-animal chaos. House II's sensibility, but from an earlier era and played completely straight.

But It's almost plotless and the shrews are clearly actors in costumes. If you watch it as kitsch rather than adventure, you'll hate it.