Watch The Houses October Built 2 For Free

Good concept, poorly executed.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Let me start by saying that I am a big fan of the first movie so much that I have seen it 3 times. Actually I am a big fan of haunted houses-found footage-halloween movies like Hellhouse LLC etc. But this one...omfg. This one was a disaster...same story to the detail,characters were thin and you didn't feel any sympathy for them like in the prequel,acting was terrible,payed too much attention to the attractions and the actual plot start 80mins into the movie.Also the ending was terrible and the drone parts ridiculous. I didn't ever expect to say it for a movie of this kind but I wasted 105 minutes of my life.

"Anything to get a scare, right?" It must have been a challenge to go about a sequel to a film in which the original cast all appeared to die, but to its credit, 'The Houses October Built 2' – from here on in, THOB2 - actually begins as the earlier instalment ended – with the group of haunted house 'enthusiasts' being buried alive. Pretty soon, the 'five thrill seekers' are free once more.Like the earlier production, this plays with the idea of found footage, in that it cheats with the concept by apparently including scenes that would have been impossible for the characters to film – but when it helps the flow and heightens the chaotic sense of the grotesque brutality to this extent, it is forgivable.Like the Blair Witch trilogy before it, THOB2 takes the events from the previous movie and treats them as reality; the YouTube exploits of Zack, Mikey, Bobbie and Jeff have made headline news – and made a star out of the sole female of the group Brandy (Brandy Schaefer). Problem is, this new fame pushes the others to go further into the world of haunted houses and realistic funfair demons than ever before – and Brandy, or 'Coffin Girl' who has attracted 24 million YouTube hits, assuredly wants no part of it. I don't like the way the boys cajole Brandy into the gang again, even considering the pressure they are under from their audience. Before, the group were extreme but likable; now, that appeal has been diminished, although their recklessness proves to be entirely in character. Also, it would be unrealistic if at least one of the gang wasn't reticent about coming for another journey. To help to understand why people enter into this kind of macabre exhibitionism, Brandy meets Dr Margee Kerr, who engages with scary things to help her 'grow'. It wouldn't convince me! Other than that, it is business 'as unusual', as they traverse haunted houses and extreme Halloween attractions much as before. Their travelogue becomes a world where every face is horrifying, around every corner is a new reason to shudder, and fairground horrors become their life. The 'bigger and better' scares (and use of a drone to film them) open things up in the way sequels often strive for, but in turn, events lose some of the grimy intimacy of the first film. The enigmatic Blue Skeleton organisation is still trailing the gang, for reasons that are never clearly stated, other than their notoriety. Throughout, the haunted house network encourages them to 'seek out Hellbent' (a phrase which is more profound than they imagine) as an example of the most extreme experience you can get. Inevitably, when they arrive there, things are not as they seem … I thought this was terrific. I'm not sure it topped the weirdness of the first, but Director Bobby Roe certainly tapped into the same vein. My favourite character from the first, the jerky, awful Doll Girl is here briefly and this time there are others like her. As sequels go, this is a good one. But I can't see – now that the main characters have been exposed in such a way – how there can be any more instalments.

Despite its shortcomings, I found a certain level of enjoyment in the first film. What it lacked, it made up for in effectively capturing the Halloween spirit. The concept of an October road trip with a group of friends looking to seek out the best/most extreme backwoods haunted houses made for a great premise. However, the sequel fails to deliver on the aspects that made the first film entertaining. The entire film comes off like someone's holiday travel vlog. The "haunts" they attend cover everything from a 5K run to a food eating contest, they mostly feel like filler. There is an attempt to incorporate drone footage but it's completely unnecessary and poorly implemented. I also question a lot of the editing, particularly near the end. Much of the burden falls on the plot, probably the weakest part of the entire film. While the first movie's plot was simple and worked as a one-off, the second film finds the same characters essentially re- hashing the first plot but with the temptation of profiting this time around. The lone female character, "Brandy" goes from being completely freaked out by briefly seeing the familiar blue skeleton mask on a man in one of the haunted houses, to perfectly fine with wandering into the abandoned site of "Hellbent." This is even after they were gassed and driven to the location unbeknownst to them. Like I originally stated, for me, its biggest failure is the lack of Halloween spirit. Without it, in my opinion, there's not much here to enjoy.

When i heard the idea for the first "film" I was blown away by it, unfortunately the movie i wrote in my head in the five minutes after seeing the trailer was better than both "films combined. The potential they had could of delivered us the best found footage film since cloverfield. To try and cash in on the same pathetic idea again is an insult to me and should be to you too. PEACE