MovieChat Forums > House II: The Second Story (1987) Discussion > Was House II originally a different film...

Was House II originally a different film?

posted 13 years ago by BalanceOfPower
6 replies | jump to latest

I recently revisited House II on Netflix after not having seen it for many years (probably since the late 80s / early 90s when it would broadcast on cable tv). Watching it again for the first time I am totally taken aback by the difference in tone and suspense compared to its predecessor. It's practically a kid's movie compared to the first one; barely a drop of blood, zero suspense and the goofy characters (i.e., Gramps and the Dogworm) totally alienate this film from the first film

Don't get me wrong, I'm not at all hating on this film. I enjoyed watching it through-and-through this second time around. But I was struck by the difference in the movies.

I kept saying to my girlfriend as we watched (and giggled at) the film, that House II must have been a script floating around Hollywood that got re-written to take advantage of the original film's success.

Unfortunately IMDB and Wikipedia have no background information on this movie. I'm hoping that one of you lovely people might know from interviews or other sources that might shed some light on the creative choices made by the filmmakers of House II.

Thanks in advance.

[–] darkshadowkein 13 years ago

Na, both House 1 and House 2 were penned by the same guy, Ethan Wiley. He even directed the 2nd one. He purposefully wanted to make the sequel more of a comedy and a bit goofier than the first movie on purpose.

[–] BigWhiskers 12 years ago

I don't know for sure if the original idea was for it to be a direct sequel but I did read somewhere that the ending was supposed to be a lot darker with not only Gramps dying but Lana,Kate,John and Charlie also getting killed with only Jessie surviving. I for one wouldn't have minded that ending as I hated Bill Maher period and wanted his limp wristed character killed off.

"So, a thought crossed your mind? Must have been a long and lonely journey"

[–] BalanceOfPower 12 years ago

Great replies! Thanks for chiming in darkshadowkein and BigWhiskers.

and yeah, Bill Maher's character was a real bastard; he should have been gotten it at the end :)

[–] specter19 11 years ago

if anything part 3 felt like a different movie and thye just slapped the house name on it it.

nWo 4-Life! Halloween Rules!(The Holiday)

[–] DevastationBob-3 11 years ago

I read somewhere that the intent was to do a movie detailing a different "House" each time. I never thought of this as a Horror Film, but the box art probably fooled a lot of people.

He asked us, "Be you angels?"
and we said, "NAY, we are but men," ROCK!

[–] VinnieRattolle 10 years ago

Wiley answers your questions on the DVD commentary.

As I recall, I wrote this script in a very short time. We were suddenly realizing that if we didn't get going into production we wouldn't be ready for it the next year. And for whatever reasons, we weren't bringing back the same actors and storyline, and so we decided to go into the direction of creating an anthology, possibly of haunted house movies, with each one having its own house and characters and circumstances.

We wanted to create a new film with a new atmosphere, kind of a new tone of its own, and take it along the same kind of premise where different doorways can lead to different worlds. I just wrote this story of this guy going into the past and rediscovering his grandfather, and him kind of connecting up with that. And somehow the film took a tone that was a little bit more gentle and not as horrific, even though House isn't really hardcore, you know, horror. Looking back on it now, it seems to me it almost foreshadows the Goosebumps thriller things, that it's kind of geared a little bit more toward a younger audience.

I think I thought, "I may never get another shot to ever direct again, so I'm gonna put in dinosaur scenes, I'm gonna have a swashbuckling scene..." So I put everything including the kitchen sink into this movie.

Wiley went on to say that he broke into showbiz by fabricating Ewok feet for "Return of the Jedi" and then he worked as a puppeteer on "Gremlins" from its inception before selling his screenplay for "House." Knowing where his head was at the time, it sort of explains why this film has puppets and a lighter tone.