This sequel offers an alternate explanation, with much greater detail, for the reason, why Carol Anne was targeted in the first film. As it turns out, the Freelings' house in the first movie was also built over a massive underground cavern that was the final resting place of a religious cult, that died there in the early 19th century. The cult was led by Reverend Henry Kane (Julian Beck), a power-hungry zealot anxious to control the souls of his followers and the graveyard inhabitants in both life and death.