My quick rating - 5.4/10. I recently checked out the first one so I'll roll with the second. I am digging the 90s hair band rock montage as the girls get the barn ready for the haunted house. This flick assumes you saw the first one since it follows the story pretty much to a tee. The Halloween ban is now lifted in Helen's Valley, and the sorority girls of Gamma Tau Psi place Michelle in charge of their annual haunted house. Unfortunately for Michelle (Lexi Dripps), some uninvited trick-or-treaters from her past come knocking. The monsters are genuinely just masked right out of a catalog which adds to the humor factor. Justin M. Seaman returns taking on duties including directing to bring these Halloween monsters back to life. The resurrection occurs quickly so there is no time wasted in getting to the killing. And I will say there are some very fun and graphic slaughters to be had. Although there is plenty of blood and gore it is completely in a more comedic way and never looks real enough to bother the squeamish. Adding to the body count, the ones that aren't mutilated do rise up from the dead to join in the festivities. The whole ritual is explained in this one a bit better than I recall the first one doing in case you were a stickler for how this whole thing continues to happen. That still does not make it plausible at all but that shouldn't detract from the entertainment value of B-budget masked ghouls massacring sorority chicks and the frat guys that come to take a trip through the haunted house they elected to run again even knowing the cursed history. As far as the cast goes, that is a huge highlight with Lloyd Kaufman playing the mayor, Doug Bradley as one townsman, and a rare treat of seeing THE original Jason Vorhees playing a witness to the court hearings on the barn being allowed to open again. None other than Ari Lehman plays Dr. Rock and yes he was that kid who jumped up in the end (if that is a spoiler, the movie was in 1980 so you deserve it.) And could you really have a a flick of this genre without the iconic Linnea Quigley teaming up with a recent staple in the modern buxom horror queens Diana Prince. I really like how they didn't use the increased budget to change up the silly look of the monsters but instead brought in a great nostalgia-inducing cast for genre fans. They did however bring us a unique final ghastly creature to end out this Halloween nightmare. Every aspect is just overall improved this time around and is complemented by a rockin' soundtrack. Not joking, the music is quite good and used in the right scenes. Nice to see an upgrade and I am now looking forward to part 3. And yes I am aware I just checked out a couple #shocktober flix in February but oh well.
