New streaming on Screambox

BARN II (2023)

Directed/written by Justin M. Seaman.
Starring Lexi Dripps, Sable Griedel, Will Stout, Jordan Beltz, Alyss Winkler, Timothy Skyler Dunigan, Mitchell Musolino, Daniel Alan Kiely, John Hale III, Diana Prince, Linnea Quigley, Lloyd Kaufman, Doug Bradley, John Bloom, Julie Anne Prescott, Ari Lehman, Jason Brooks, Kaylee Williams, Wayne W. Johnson, Drew Marvick, Justin M. Seaman, Brian Papandrea, P.J. Starks, Ben Dietels, Jeremy Todd Morehead, Max Groah, Jerry Larew, Brooklyn Ewing, Jedediah Giacchino, Tanya R. Seaman, Chad Bruns, Degan Marvick, James Baker, Alonna Lee, Caden Holmes, Anthony Brownlee, Keith Uram, Ginny Griedel, James Weldon, Justin Ewing, Marissa Sabatucci, Matt Starr Bores, Victoria Clarke

I liked THE BARN enough. It was meant to be a love letter to old school horror fans with a trio of supernatural slashers rising from a hell pit and killing a bunch of folks. It had practical effects, a low budget attitude, and some hammy acting and comedy. And that’s pretty much what the creators of THE BARN PART II has to offer in the sequel.

Having been the sole survivor of the last installment of THE BARN, Michelle (Lexi Dripps) is still trying to piece her life back together two years later. Now in college, Michelle suggests her sorority sisters to put on a Halloween haunted house party as a fundraiser and finds the perfect place to hold it…a barn, of course. Since the last time the town celebrated Halloween went so well, as depicted in the first movie, the town council lead by the Mayor (Lloyd Kaufman) and the local bible-thumper Sara (Linnea Quigley), are unaware that the party is happening. But when a new portal opens up in the new barn, monsters, demons and zombies are unleashed upon the town, forcing the town council and a handful of kids to team up and take them on with all sorts of edged weaponry.

This is pretty much what happened in the first THE BARN, though PART II has a larger scope and actually leaves the barn and heads to the nearby city. The cast is much bigger too, with all sorts of cameos from Doug “Pinhead” Bradley to Ari “Young Jason” Lehman to Jo Bob Briggs to Diana “Darcy the Mail Girl” Prince. Most likely, THE BARN PART II was scheduled to be filmed to coincide with a Flashback Weekend or some other horror convention where all kinds of obscure horror names were able to film a scene or two for the film. These cameos aren’t bad, per se, but these characters are basically playing themselves wearing the same type of stuff they usually wear at a horror convention. Watching THE BARN PART II is al most like walking down the celebrity tables at a con, wondering which blast from the past you’re going to run into next.

The expanded story has some trouble feeling natural as half of the film is simply a bunch of gals and guys getting offed by the monsters as they make their way through the haunted house attraction, usually turning the theme of the room they are in back on the people working there. So you get an S&M mockup room that is besieged by a corn monster who ties up its victims and a mad doctor’s office where the miner monster dissects them. These scenes are fun, but the more they occur, the less they contribute to the actual story. The film ends big, with all of the stars taking on about twenty monsters, ghouls, zombies, and demons. It does get pretty bloody—it was especially fun to see Linnea Quigley covered in blood and brandishing a chainsaw again, but a lot of the effects are simply extras wearing masks that look like they were purchased from a clearance sale from Spencer Gifts.

The acting is pretty rough too with the lead, Lexi Dripps doing a decent job at the beginning, but later in the film when she is supposed to have some heavy emotional scenes seem too much for her to fully achieve. As I said earlier, the star appearances are the highlight of the movie, while everything else is pretty low tier. Still, I don’t want to rag too much on THE BARN PART II. It once again seems to be a labor of love made by people who are lifetime horror fans and wanting to put as much homages and callbacks in the film as possible. The problem is that, with the original being seven years ago, it doesn’t feel like there has been a lot of growth from all involved as THE BARN PART II feels like a rehash of what they did before. It’s campy, harmless, sometimes gory fun, but I can only give it a mild recommendation.

Check out the trailer here!!