The five friends somehow survived the events of the first movie, and exactly how is left vague for most of the runtime. It’s actually a spoiler, but the mystery is so distracting, it effectively kills the setup of this film from the jump. Based on what we know, based on how the last movie left off, none of the actions of the four male friends make any sense.

They’re once again exploring haunted houses, and given that previously doing this nearly cost them their lives, it doesn’t make sense that they would jump right back in only a year later. This time, it’s not even for a documentary. They’ve become famous for having survived Blue Skeleton, and video of them, or rather Brandy, went viral. Now everyone wants her stamp of approval to certify that their haunted houses are the real deal. The guys want to exploit this for money, but Brandy is traumatized, and rightfully so. She refuses to join them at first, but Mikey, the bearded friend, somehow convinces her to join them later. How he does this is not shown, and one of the characters even wonders about it aloud, which I suppose is good because I wondered the same thing.

There’s strange attention paid to establishing a therapist that specializes in fear and overcoming trauma that gets hired to help Brandy while she’s on the road with them, but it goes nowhere. If there’s meant to be some sort of revelation about her identity or motives, it never happens.

I was mildly irritated during the first half of this movie. It’s boring, repeating the same plot points as the first, but without the built-in concept of the documentary. There’s really no reason for them to be filming this, except, I suppose, as advertisements so they can show that Brandy approves of the attractions? But that’s not really made clear. It’s just sort of accepted that they’re filming it.

The first film was certainly a slow-burn. We’re introduced to who will eventually become the villains relatively early on, but we’re not aware that they will become villains. The slow reveal as they pop up again and again, escalating their interactions each time, is very effective in building tension. Instead, this time we keep cutting to someone from Blue skeleton filming them…and that’s it. For most of the runtime. It’s extended sequences of them exploring haunted houses, no interviews because there is no pretense of a documentary, then random shots of Blue Skeleton filming them. There is no escalation, there is no building of tension, it’s just haunted house, shot of blue skeleton filming them, haunted house, shot of blue skeleton filming them, rinse, repeat.

If this were an unnecessary retread of the first film, I wouldn’t have given it such a low score. Not that it would have a high score, but unnecessary sequels happen all the time. This film pulls some nonsensical turns that piss all over the first film, its plot, and its characters. We guessed the final revelations pretty early on, but couldn’t believe it to be the case because it was too stupid and repugnant.

Do yourself a favor, pull up the Wikipedia article and read the spoilers if you’re curious. If you like the first one, just pretend this one doesn’t exist. For two-thirds to three-quarters of the movie, this is a boring, needless rehash of the first. The last act is a bizarre takedown of the original. It’s not only bad as an ending to this film, since it raises a lot of questions and makes certain scenes nonsensical and confusing, it also ruins the first movie, and I don’t say that lightly.