Reading Marvel - House II: The Second Story

Cody is endeavoring to read his way through Marvel's entire publishing history. Let's see if he can do it!

This time, a comic book adaptation of a childhood favorite.

When Fred Dekker, who would go on to make Night of the Creeps and The Monster Squad, wrote the initial story that became the 1985 film House, he was aiming to make it one of the scariest haunted house movies ever. But when Dekker's story was fleshed out into a screenplay by Ethan Wiley, Wiley worked with director Steve Miner to turn it into a wild horror comedy. House was successful enough to get a sequel greenlit, and on this one Wiley was given the opportunity to make his feature directorial debut. While doing so, he made the sequel even wilder and sillier than the first movie. In the audio commentary he recorded for House II: The Second Story with producer Sean S. Cunningham, he also says that the film has a tone that's "more gentle" than the first House, and it turned out to be something that's "geared toward a younger audience," the sort of film that would be a good choice for a kid's introduction to horror.

House II wasn't the first horror movie I watched, but it was one I watched regularly during the early years of my horror fandom. It’s a movie I have loved since I was around 4 years old – but I had no idea it had received a comic book adaptation from Marvel Comics. When I found out about this, I had to secure a copy of the adaptation for myself. A comic book adaptation of one of my favorite horror comedies from my favorite comic book publisher had to be in my collection.

The sequel takes the anthology approach; it has no connection to the events of the first movie, it tells its own haunted house story. So you don't need to have seen House to watch House II, you can skip right to The Second Story - and I usually do.

The story begins in the early 1960s, when the frightened couple that lives in an old mansion (which seems to have drawn design inspiration from Aztec temples) send their infant child Jesse away with friends. Once they’re back inside their home, the parents are shot dead by a rotting cowboy called Slim Reeser. Jump ahead to the 1980s and the adult Jesse returns to the mansion with his girlfriend Kate, who works at a record company. They're soon joined by Jesse's goofball friend Charlie and his singer girlfriend Lana - so yes, a major reason why Charlie is here is to try to land a record deal for Lana from Kate. That plan works out, but it doesn't work out for Charlie or Jesse, because Lana and Kate end up leaving the mansion with Kate's associate John. Kate leaves believing that Jesse has cheated on her with his ex Rochelle, but he didn't and Rochelle is barely in the story, only showing up briefly at a party. Jesse and Charlie don't have much time to register these changes in their love lives, because they're too busy dealing with zombies, supernatural forces, and doorways to other dimensions.

Soon after moving into the mansion, Jesse has discovered that the great-great-grandfather he was named after was an outlaw in the Old West, and at one point the elder Jesse stole a crystal skull from an Aztec temple. A special crystal skull, with jewels in its eyes. A skull that can unlock the mysteries of the universe and bring eternal life to anyone who possesses it. Jesse guesses that his ancestor was buried with the skull, so he talks Charlie into helping him dig up great-great-grandpa. Jesse's right, they find the skull in the coffin. But they also find out that Gramps is still alive in the coffin, and has been waiting decades for some jackass to dig him up.

Of course, unearthing that skull causes a lot of trouble for Jesse, Charlie, and Gramps. This skull is what Slim, who rode with Gramps back in the day, was looking for when he killed Jesse's parents, and he's not the only one looking for it. As it turns out, there are portals to other dimensions hidden throughout the mansion, and whether it's Slim entering the house, a barbarian coming in from a prehistoric time populated by dinosaurs, or the Aztecs that live in one of the walls, our heroes have to keep the skull out of the wrong hands.

Jesse and Charlie have to follow the skull thieves into the other dimensions, and during their trip into the prehistoric dimension they inadvertently pick up a couple of very cute pets - a feathery baby pterodactyl and a creature called a caterpuppy, which is one of the most adorable things I've ever seen. There’s a swashbuckling action sequence in an Aztec temple that involves electrician Bill Towner (or Larry Towner in the comic), who isn’t surprised at all to find that the house has an "alternate dimension" in the wall. He just pulls out a sword and helps Jesse and Charlie save a virgin from being sacrificed by the Aztecs.

This all builds up to Jesse and Slim having a showdown that starts in an Old West ghost town.

House II is a ridiculous, fun and funny adventure movie. It was a very important movie to me in my childhood, and I still have a great deal of appreciation for it all these years later. I don't have anything bad to say about it; I've loved the movie since I was 4 years old, and my opinion of it hasn't changed at all since then. There’s only one negative thing in this equation: I didn’t add the Marvel Comics adaptation to my collection until 2026. I’ve been missing out on this for 39 years!

The adaptation was crafted by the team of writer Ralph Macchio (not the Karate Kid actor; a different guy), penciler Alan Kupperberg, inkers Hilary Barta, Danny Bulanadi, José Marzan Jr., Pat Redding, and Kupperberg, colorist Paul Becton, and letterer Agustin Mas. Although the comic book is missing certain moments and bit of nuance, as you would expect when the story of an 88-minute movie has to be condensed into about 44 pages of comic book, the adaptation turned out to be exactly what I hoped it would be: an entertaining alternate way for me to revisit the story and characters I have loved since I was a kid.

Sure, there might be a few too many pages of characters interacting through dialogue bubbles without anything crazy going on, but I can only imagine how many times and how often I would have read this book if I had it when I was a kid. Having the story of House II to flip through any time I wanted, instead of having to wait to catch the movie on TV or to rent it from a local video store? I would have been going through this book a lot, just like I did the comic book adaptations of Arachnophobia and The Rocketeer. Those were two of my favorite comics when I was a child, and this surely would have been right up there with them.