House II: The Second Story starts with with a scene where two people are shot dead by a mysterious figure in a large house just after they hand their young baby over to someone or other, I don't really know who or care to be honest. An on screen caption now informs us that it's '25 Years Later'. Jesse (Arye Gross) & his girlfriend Kate (Lar Park-Lincoln) move in, the two people shot & killed earlier in the film just happen to be Jesse's parents. Precisely why Jesse has decided to move in now is unclear to me, I mean wouldn't the house have changed hands or had new owners in the space of 25 years?, but once again I'm really not bothered in the slightest bit so just accept it. Jesse's friend Charlie (Jonathan Stark) & his girlfriend Jana (Amy Yasbeck) also move in as well. While doing some research Jesse discovers that his great great Grandfather was a notorious outlaw in the wild west famous for stealing a crystal skull. Jesse, by some stupid reasoning, thinks that the valuable crystal skull maybe buried with his great great Grandfather's corpse & together with Charlie decides to dig him up. As luck would have it the crystal skull was indeed buried with Jesse's great great Grandfather & even luckier that no one else had thought to look for it there... However it seems that the crystal skull has magical powers & Jesse's great great Grandfather, who thankfully for my typing finger likes to know as just Gramps (Royal Dano), is alive. Jesse & Charlie take Gramps back to the house & Gramps tells them the story of the magical crystal skull, unfortunately it's very boring & uninteresting so I won't bother retelling it here. All you need to know in a nutshell is that the crystal skull has magical powers & the house was built as a temple to it & various people & creatures throughout time & space want it including Gramps old partner in crime Slim (Dean Cleverdon). Jesse & Charlie feel they must protect the skull from all these evil people & things, the end. Wrtten & directed by Ethan Wiley I didn't think that much of House II: The Second Story at all. The script is a bit of a mess as it tries, unsuccessfully in my opinion, to cross various genres like western, horror, comedy, fantasy & adventure with unsatisfactory results on all fronts. The characters are silly as are the monsters & situations the film creates, I mean what's that electrician guy Bill (John Ratzenbereger) all about? I thought he was one of the most stupid characters I've come across in a film for some time. It moves along at a fair pace but I wasn't really that interested in anything or anyone. The two main leads seem to be having a contest over who can come across the most annoying & it's a pretty tough call at the end of the day as they both obviously put a lot of effort into winning. There's no blood or gore & the only horror element is the rotten zombie Slim who looks quite good but isn't in the film that much, I also liked Slim's zombie horse as well. Talking of Slim's zombie horse the special effects on it are poor, as are most of the special effects in House II: The Second Story in fact, although as I've already said the zombie Slim looked good. On a technical level House II: The Second story is fine, editing, photography, music & overall production values are adequate. The acting isn't so fine, those two male leads are just so annoying to watch it's untrue & they are definitely not funny in any way shape or form. Generally speaking House II: The Second Story was a bit of a waste of time as far as I'm concerned but it moves along nicely, it tries to be a little bit different & provided me with at least some entertainment, it was just a shame that the film ended up all rather pedestrian, tame & somewhat dull. Not really my cup of tea at all, I think I'll stick with the original House (1986) rather than opt for a move...