Next to Poltergeist, Ethan Wiley’s 1987 House II: The Second Story (such an awesome title) scared me to death.
I know that’s pretty embarrassing, but we’re family here at Bloody Disgusting, and I think we can all enjoy a good laugh at my expense.
I was 7 years old and went with some family friends to see it at the theater. When the rotting gunslinger comes rising out of the food trey (see below), it freaked me out so hard that I left the theater and waited in the lobby until it was over. Now, my face turns completely red any time I revisit House II.
Anyways, I have a personally connection to the franchise, and love the first two House films, especially Steve Miner’s 1986 classic in which a troubled writer moves into a haunted house after inheriting it from his aunt.
Friday the 13th‘s Sean S. Cunningham produced the film, and is now planning a remake.
“I’m doing [a remake] right now, Cunningham told Fangoria after accepting a Lifetime Achievement Award at the New York City Horror Film Festival. “We are deeply in development. We worked on [a new] House about four or five years ago and determined that the structure of [the original] is extremely strong, and that just remaking it in modern times wasn’t going to improve it, and wasn’t going to change it. It would have to be rethought, and there had to be a really good reason to do it.
“Recently, we came up with—and it sounds so obvious—what if we made a gender switch, so that it’s not a man in the house?” Cunningham continued. “Although they’re not involved, imagine House starring Kristen Wiig or Melissa McCarthy. It wouldn’t be either one of them…well, it could; I mean, that’s a dream. But suddenly we realized, oh wait, then everything would have to adjust. And also, if we did it that way, it would bring back the fun that House had. So that’s the direction I’m committed to going in. I would love to make that movie, and I hope to be able to keep all the elements of the personal story from the Bill Katt version and still have it be fun.”
Can you imagine a female-centric take on this classic horror story? Personally, I love the idea, and am far from anti-remake. To this writer, a good movie is a good movie, and a bad one is, well, you get.