“The Houses October Built 2” (2017) is a sequel to “The Houses October Built” (2014), a found footage film about a group of five childhood friends who went on a road trip to tour haunted houses October 2013 until they attract the attention of “The Blue Skeleton,” an extreme haunt group that kidnapped and buried them alive. The sequel starts with the police intervening, which forces Blue Skeleton to release them. A year later, Brandy, who becomes known as “Coffin Girl,” refuses to rejoin her guy friends and get paid to do what they used to do for free. The backers start dropping out when the guys appear without her, so the guys guilt her into rejoining them by billing it as therapeutic and reassuring her that lightning won’t strike twice. As they record their cross-country journey and visit various attractions as minor celebrities, it is apparent that someone is following them, but the guys dismiss Brandy’s concerns as overreacting. Considering what happened before, why are they finishing what they started?
“The Houses October Built 2” took everything that was likeable in the origin story and tossed it. When I first saw the sequel, I wondered if my memory was rose-colored so I decided to rewatch the first movie, and it had its charms though I would not consider it a must-see film even for found footage films. The original film had me convinced that the group cared for each other. As the stakes raised, the guys got more protective of Brandy and started to express misgivings. There was a plausible reason that they were doing a road trip and not intentionally putting themselves in danger: a Halloween road trip/documentary about the people who work at haunts and whether the lack of regulation put visitors in danger. I did not notice until I rewatched the film that Zack and Brandy were dating and Mike and Bobby are brothers, especially since Mike and Brandy seemed closer than anyone else. Other than occasional news broadcasts, the film adhered to the found footage genre and used filters to distinguish footage that the group shot from footage that Blue Skelton shot.
While the first film had some charm as the group interviewed the workers and connected to everyone, the sequel feels lower in quality and as if it was someone’s idea of a public access travel show focused on Halloween as a theme except instead of scares, the group has regressed even more and care more about partying than recapturing the childlike ability to feel genuine terror. They visit escape rooms, haunts, zombie pub crawls and zombie runs. They act like celebrities when even in this film, they are not the most famous person in the room. “The Houses October Built 2” never even considers going to Salem, MA. I know that they are not a genuine travel show and have limited resources, but seriously?
While the first movie had some scares rooted in sexual violence, “The Houses October Built 2” relies on it. While I do not miss the shaky cam, if anything distinguishes Blue Skeleton from the regular scares, it is the fact that they are less hams and can be quiet and stand still. The overacting in the haunts bored me this time around though the production quality improved.
“The Houses October Built 2” only works if a viewer treats it like the “Jurassic Park” franchise and can root against everyone. The guys act like Brandy is a jerk and crazy for being traumatized when the first movie shows that each guy crapped his pants when separated from the group, which gives away the twist at the end. It sets up a gender divide that was less of an issue in the first film until they went to a Halloween themed strip club. Any subtlety that existed in the first film, which is a generous characterization, goes out the window. Brandy goes from being one of the guys, i.e. the cool girl, to the spoilsport woman trope.
“The Houses October Built 2” also expects viewers to remember and be invested in all these characters, and I was not. If the film has value, it is as a film about maintaining boundaries and not being manipulated. The guys frame Brandy’s reasonable wariness as the cause of their loss of opportunity and financial woes. The film promulgates the idea that only women, not men, are valued instead of the real reason: women as victims is more consumable and entertaining than men. I was begging for Brandy to say, “Your financial problems sound like a you problem, not a me problem.” Also when Brandy has objective proof, she is doubted and they turn to a guy, Jeff, for his view because she is not considered credible.
Forget the gender divide, all of them seem like idiots this time around considering their shared history. It is as if “The Houses October Built 2” looked at the first film and said to itself, “Everyone is too affable. How can we make everyone annoying?” Not since “The Walking Dead” heavily reedited Glen escaping the dumpster has visual media so backtracked from the original version. I get that y’all wanted to come back and make a second movie, but as trash?
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“The Houses October Built 2” has a big twist that I saw coming a mile away. The Blue Skeleton and “Seek Out Hellbent” are an anagram, and the guys set up Brandy to get drugged and scared, but the Blue Skeleton decide that let her in on the trick and turn the tables so instead of being an extreme scare group, they are the horror version of interventionists so Brandy could stop sacrificing herself for a bunch of jerks who do not genuinely care about her. I liked it better when The Blue Skeleton was a bunch of psychos terrorizing people endangering their livelihood and trying to reign supreme as the most extreme haunt. Now they want people to value themselves more and uphold their boundaries?!? GTFOH. They did not lay this groundwork in the first film. Stop it!
Side note: there is no world where I would be Brandi, but if there was, I would not just fight the dudes in The Blue Skelton yet listen to the women in The Blue Skelton. Does she not remember the first film? I don’t know any of you. And even if there was a world where I saw the footage and realized that the guys needed to be scared as much as they scared me, I would not put a gun to my head and pull the trigger. People have gotten hurt doing less, and The Blue Skeleton is just a group of amateurs, not professionals on a movie set. You could die!
Please do not make another sequel. Dreckitude. The only worse found footage sequel is “Unfriended: Dark Web” (2018).
