Here we go again. Last year, writers Marlon Wayans and Rick Alvarez collaborated with director Michael Tiddes for A Haunted House. It was, largely, a parody of the insufferable Paranormal Activity (only with action onscreen before the last minute of the film), with some notes of The Last Exorcism, The Exorcist, and The Exorcism of Emily Rose. It wasn't a good film, but it did really hit on some major flaws in the source material. A Haunted House 2 does the same thing for modern haunted house films that A Haunted House did for exorcism films. Marlon Wayans reprises his role as Malcolm, moving in with his new girlfriend Megan and her two children. Kisha, his ex, is presumed dead after causing a huge car crash at the start of the film. Too bad the haunting presence seems to be following Malcolm no matter where he goes.
This film nails the more ridiculous elements of the modern low budget haunted house film to perfection. Sinister gets the biggest punch, reimagining the demon who can escape from film as a bumbling fool who can't even destroy one family over many stunts. The Conjuring elements split between the better subject for a horror film Annabelle (as Malcolm's possessive mistress) and the Warrens fighting all the time over who is really in charge of the paranormal investigations. The Possession parody is a bit obvious, but that Dybbuk Box horror was so bad that the jokes write themselves.
The big problem with A Haunted House 2 is an over-reliance on sex. While there was certainly sexual humor in A Haunted House, the sequel is devoid of laughs in these scenes. The film grinds to a halt when Malcolm decides to sexually assault the Annabelle doll and only gets worse from there. The teenage daughter's only defining characteristic is having sex and every man who walks into the house wants to sleep with the Annabelle doll. It's just not funny.
Beyond that, the extra scenes shot for the film that resulted in the release date being pushed back two months don't fit in the story. Only the initial scene with Kisha is necessary to transition to Malcolm's relationship with Megan. When Kisha starts to pop up again and again (with no consistency in character afterwards), it becomes a distraction. It's even clearer that the Kisha scenes were never intended to be in the sequel when you realize that most of the cast does not appear with her onscreen and Jamie Presley's Megan looks very different in the Kisha versus non-Kisha scenes.
If A Haunted House 2 focused on the cliches and absurdity of the modern ghost stories that have been dominating the box office, it could have been a solid parody film. Unfortunately, there are just too many scenes that have little to do with the plot or horror at all.