House II: The Second Story

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House II: The Second Story
Directed by	Ethan Wiley
Produced by	Sean S. Cunningham
Written by	Ethan Wiley
Starring	Arye Gross Jonathan Stark Royal Dano Bill Maher John Ratzenberger Lar Park Lincoln Amy Yasbeck Gregory Walcott Darren Galerkin
Music by	Harry Manfredini
Cinematography	Mac Ahlberg
Editing by	Martin Nicholson
Distributed by	New World Pictures
Release date(s)	August 28, 1987 (USA)
Running time	88 minutes
Language	English
Budget	Unknown
Gross revenue	$7,800,000 (USA) (sub-total)
Preceded by	House
Followed by	The Horror Show
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House II: The Second Story is the 1987 sequel to the 1986 film, House. While it is a sequel, this film ignores the storyline and characters from the first film, in favor of a new supernatural comedy.

[edit] Storyline

Young urban professionals Jesse (Arye Gross) and his girlfriend Kate (Lar Park Lincoln), move into an old mansion that has been in Jesse's family for generations. They are soon joined by Jesse's goofy friend Charlie (Jonathan Stark), who brought along his diva girlfriend Jana (Amy Yasbeck), in the hopes of being discovered by Kate (who works for a record company). Jesse has returned to this old family mansion after his parents were murdered when he was just a little baby, and he quickly locates a mysterious skull.

Jesse and Charlie decide to dig up Jesse's great-great-grandfather (Royal Dano), who is a friendly cowboy zombie that likes to party and talk about how he found the skull with his partner, Slim. Its promise of eternal life and time travel prompted the two cowboys to become eternal villains, with Slim responsible for the death of Jesse's parents. Jesse, Gramps and Charlie must try to keep Slim from getting a hold of the skull, while dealing with the fact that the skull has transformed the mansion so that each of its rooms act as hidden doorways across space and time. The time travelling trio pick up a baby pterodactyl, a caterpillar-dog, and an Ancient Mexican woman about to be sacrificed along with battling various time travelling thugs that want the skull, including Slim.

Eventually, Jesse must face off with Slim in the Wild West, and while he is victorious, Gramps has been mortally wounded and passes away with a final warning about the power of the skull. The film ends with the suggestion that the heroes have decided to use the skull to time travel.

[edit] Comic adaptation

In October 1987, Marvel Comics released a comic book adaptation of House II. It was written by Ralph Macchio, with artwork by Alan Kupperberg (pencils) and Kupperberg, Hilary Barta, Danny Bulanadi, Jose Marzan Jr. and Pat Redding (inks). It's cover price was $2.^[1]