If Justin M. Seaman’s “The Barn” was “Ghoulies,” then “The Barn Part II” is the “Ghoulies II” of his horror movie series. His Halloween centric horror movie series has managed to deliver in surprises and good old fashioned vintage scares and I’ve enjoyed a lot of the mythos that Seaman and co. have created. “The Bart Part II” is superior to the first film in every way, as while the original is a very good small scale Halloween movie, this follow up doubles up on every aspect. There’s double the gore, double the body count, double the T&A and even larger scale monsters.
A year after the events of “The Barn” Michelle (Lexi Dripps returns), the sole survivor is now in college and part of a sorority, Gamma Tau Psi. Her sorority needs a place to hold their fall fundraiser since an incident involving fundraising the prior year they’ve been banned from holding it on campus. With the town Helen’s Valley’s mayor (Lloyd Kaufman) about to lift the ban on Halloween, the girls take advantage and decide to hold a Halloween haunt. By accident they happen to stage the haunt at the dreaded barn where the mythical cadre of demons has arisen once again to slaughter townies.
“The Barn Part II” is like a trick or treat bag of goodies that sticks to the concept of being a Halloween oriented movie. There is so much Halloween ephemera dripping from every element of this movie, right down to the monsters. Seaman brings back some of the old baddies from the original film, while also introducing a few new demons in the process. Along with The Boogeyman (Justin M. Seaman), Hallowed Jack (Caden Holmes), and the Candy Corn Scarecrow (Jedediah Giacchino, 10/31, The Barn), accompanying them is the disgusting Swine (Tanya R. Seaman, The Barn) and Screecher (Caden Holmes again), a skull faced bird creature with razor sharp talons.
To add to the chaos, there’s also a bonafide flesh eating zombie rampage, all made up of hapless towns folks that have fallen victim to these demons. If that’s not enough there are some great cameos and walk ons from horror icons including Doug Bradley, Joe Bob Briggs, Diana Prince, and Ari Lehman, while “Troma’s” Lloyd Kaufman, and Linnea Quigley return for some Halloween mayhem. Along with some great and gruesome effects, Seaman and co. have managed to build an amusing and pretty excellent gallery of original Halloween monsters. I really would love to see them in future films, or even spin offs, as they have a lot more potential to flourish in future projects.
“The Barn Part II” knows exactly what kind of movie it is and opts to entertain with as much good old fashioned fun as possible, and I loved it. It’s that kind of movie you put on during a Halloween party as a great mood enhancer for the festivities.