A HAUNTED HOUSE 2 (2014)

Genre: Comedy
Director: Mike Tiddes
Cast: Marlon Wayans, Essence Atkins, Gabriel Iglesias, Jaime Pressly, Ashley Rickards, Cedric the Entertainer, Affion Crockett, Dave Sheridan
RunTime: 1 hr 26 mins
Rating: R21 (Sexual scenes and Nudity)
Released By: GV
Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/AHauntedHouse

Opening Day: 17 July 2014

Synopsis: Crossing new lines and breaking old barriers, A Haunted House 2 is the sequel to the hilarious box-office hit starring Marlon Wayans as Malcolm who, after exorcising the demons of his ex, is starting fresh with his new girlfriend and her two children. After moving into their dream home, Malcolm is once again plagued by bizarre paranormal events. With spine-tingling tension and hilarious punch-lines A Haunted House 2 is inspired by the latest supernatural horror movie franchises and shows that this time... it's not just the house that's haunted!

Movie Review:

You may not have heard of the name Marlon Wayans, but you certainly would have heard of the ‘Scary Movie’ franchise. The two should be synonymous; after all, it was Marlon who, with his brothers Shawn and Kennen Ivory, had come up with the idea of spoofing them horror movies by way of lowbrow humour and were at the helm of the first two instalments. Unfortunately, the studio had other plans for the third, fourth and fifth chapters, and that did not include Marlon or any of his brothers for that matter. What does a comedian like Marlon do then?

Start a new horror spoof franchise, of course. That was exactly what Marlon did with ‘A Haunted House’, which parodied the ‘Paranormal Activity’ series to the tune of a mediocre US$40 million, enough for another sequel apparently. Marlon has here reteamed with his ‘A Haunted House’ director Michael Tiddes and co-writer Rick Alvarez to poke fun at (what else) the ‘Paranormal Activity’ movies yet again - though this time, for the sake of currency, they have also thrown in a little ‘Sinister’ and ‘The Conjuring’.

With just the barest link to its predecessor, ‘A Haunted House 2’ has Marlon’s Malcolm moving to a new house after his ex, Kisha (Essence Atkins), is summarily dispatched. Jaime Pressly plays his new ‘white’ girlfriend Megan, the racial dissimilarities providing much fodder for Wayans to riff on race. Mexicans too are not spared, as Wayans ends up trading a whole lot of racist barbs with his neighbour (e.g. all Mexicans are landscapers). If you’re looking for politically correct, well let’s just say right from the outset that this isn’t the place to be.

Instead, those looking for humour of the lowest common denominator will definitely not be disappointed. An early scene in the movie has Malcolm beginning an intimate relationship with a creepy-looking doll Megan finds in an old wardrobe inside the house - and if that sounds right out of the playbook of ‘The Conjuring’, you can be reassured that there is no coincidence here. That’s not all Malcolm has to contend with - Megan’s daughter Becky (Ashley Rickards) becomes obsessed with a large box she found in her closet, while her younger son Wyatt (Steele Stebbins) picks up an imaginary friend named Tony. Meanwhile, Malcolm himself stumbles upon an old film reel of a demon who had apparently killed off the previous occupants of the house.

Considering how ripped the plot is from ‘The Conjuring’, it is any wonder what sort of scriptwriting Wayans and Alvarez did in the first place, which makes the distinct lack of any kind of humour here even more appalling. A cock-fight between Wayans and a rooster his Mexican neighbour suggests to sacrifice in order to purge the house of its demons is probably the funniest scene in the entire movie; and the great news about that is you don’t even have to sit through the whole film to see it - after all, the best bits are already found in the trailer.

Wayans also calls on some familiar hands to support his sham of a comedy enterprise. Cedric the Entertainer returns as his gun-toting demon exterminator Father Williams, and Kisha makes a return at the most inopportune time to add to the madness. Hayes MacArthur and Missi Pyle are a new supporting pair, meant to represent the Warrens who had taken the lead to investigate the paranormal activities in ‘The Conjuring’, but besides the racist jokes, scat jokes, and paedophilic-priest jokes, prison-rape is also supposed to qualify as amusing.

Yes, that’s how desperate the filmmakers are at trying to find something to make their audience laugh; unfortunately, no amount of gesticulating, gyrating, mugging or screaming can distract from the fact that ‘A Haunted House 2’ is sloppily written, poorly directed and irredeemably dreadful. We feel sorry that Wayans lost his stake on the ‘Scary Movie’ property, but once you see what he does with this new spoof, you’ll be glad that they took away the reins of that from him a long time ago. 

Movie Rating:

(A frontrunner for the worst movie of the year, this dreadfully unfunny horror comedy spoof does no favours for everyone involved, in particular its star/ writer/ producer Marlon Wayans)

Review by Gabriel Chong