Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 8% of 38 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 2.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "Sloppy, vulgar, and manic, A Haunted House 2 might be worth a chuckle or two, but mostly it's a string of pop culture references and crude gags that fail to hit their intended targets." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 17 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike".
Bruce Demara of the Toronto Star gave the film half a star out of four, saying "It is a vile, wretched, appalling waste of time, a movie for morons that is offensive on so many levels. It is loud, profane and profoundly stupid. One has to question how a film so awful could even be made, it is that bad. Most regrettably, it is not funny, not even a tiny bit." John Semley of The Globe and Mail gave the film zero stars out of four, saying "A Haunted House 2 is dumber than dumb dumb, which at least has the nerve to be unapologetically dumb. Worse, it's Wayans dumb." Kevin C. Johnson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch gave the film three out of five stars, saying "This send-up of current horror movies is a go-for-broke hoot, a hot mess of a comedy that doesn't have a lick of sense. And knowing that going in adds to the often knee-slapping laughs." Jennifer Miller of Film.com gave the film a one out of ten, saying "There are almost no redeeming qualities to this movie. It is bad enough to trigger an existential crisis in the heartiest of movie-lovers." Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a negative review, saying "Wayans' performance again relies primarily on mugging it up and outrageous attempts at self-indulgent humor to elicit laughs, topped with copious doses of raunchy sexual innuendo and activity." Stephan Lee of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a D, saying "You don't walk into a movie like A Haunted House 2 expecting anything remotely scary or serious, but you don't expect to walk out feeling a terrible sense of dread, either."
Stephanie Merry of The Washington Post gave the film a negative review, saying "A Haunted House 2 is so bombastically stupid that its well-earned R rating doesn't seem sufficient. The movie should come with another warning: The following 87 minutes would be better spent alphabetizing your spice rack." Alonso Duralde of The Wrap gave the film a negative review, saying "Calling this one an improvement is like saying that being kicked in the shin is better than being punched in the stomach. Either way, it hurts." Andrew Barker of Variety gave the film a negative review, saying "Marlon Wayans' parody sequel is as inept and puerile as its predecessor, but let no one say its screenwriter and star doesn't give it his all." Sherilyn Connelly of The Village Voice gave the film a positive review, saying "Though he's not for all tastes, there's something admirable about Wayans's willingness to do anything for a laugh, often reminiscent of Jerry Lewis at his most frantic." Scott Tobias of The Dissolve gave the film a negative review, saying "Like sunrise over a steaming pile of garbage, A Haunted House 2 offers another sharp whiff of its predecessor, a Scary Movie-style spoof of the Paranormal Activity movies that makes up in volume what it lacks in invention." Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club gave the film a D+, saying "A Haunted House 2 is unlikely to put anyone to sleep. That's enough to mark it as an improvement over its predecessor, a Scary Movie take-off so poky and dull that it played more like a bad festival-circuit art film than a bad lowbrow comedy. However rubbery and manic, though, A Haunted House 2 still can't overcome star attraction Marlon Wayans' severely limited comic skill set."
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