Halloween 2

Yes I'm one of the few people who thoroughly enjoyed rob zombie's remake of halloween. So I was extremely excited to find out he was making the second one.

I love Zombie's directing style and I do think he is somewhat talented. But this movie just wasn't his best. The style and feel of the film was perfect. But the storyline was complete trash. He should have stuck to the original story.

Zombie's "re-imagining" of the second coming of Michael Myers was way off. Yeah he spiced up the original with Michael's backstory, but he completely redid the second one.

So if you just want to see people get stabbed with a cool directorial style and nice lighting(oh and boobs, lots of those) then yeah you might like it.

But for what it's worth, the backbone of any good movie is good source material, and the source material for this was Zombie's lackluster screenplay.

Shame. The first one was so promising. This one definitely ended it. Not only because Zombie says he won't direct another, but because it went so far downhill from the first one it basically killed itself.

Oh and the final scene in the movie is ridiculously laughable and will most likely give you a WTF look on your face.

5/10 for this one. Just don't take it too seriously and think of it as another slasher flick and you may enjoy it for what it is. Just another slasher flick. Nothing special here.

Zombie's first remake was a little different by having a background story of a young Michael Myers and how he turned into a killer. This movie was just your typical slasher film; plus it was annoying as to how many dream sequences there were. The film picks up were the last one left off. Somehow a dead Michael Myers escapes a crashed coroner van and brutally kills the van's passenger. A year later and it's almost Halloween again. Michael has visions of his mother, a white horse, and his younger self telling him to bring them all home, including his sister. So, we are too believe Michael has been living for a year in hiding and not killing and all of a sudden knows it's Halloween so returns to his hometown. We have some kills at a strip club and some rednecks. And before long he's chasing Laurie.

FINAL VERDICT: There are a few good scenes for the gore fans and that's the best thing I can say about the movie. I wouldn't pay to see it, but if you catch it on cable, it's good for a bad horror movie.

Before I say anything, I am a fan of horror movies. I like eighties horror, I like some nineties horror, and there's still some horror movies coming out today that are fantastic. Rob Zombies take on Halloween 2 unfortunately does not fall into that category at all. His wife being in the film is completely unneeded. This I believe stems from Rob Zombies need to put his wife in every film he makes. Basically stealing from Friday the 13th, Mikey sees his mom telling him to kill in his head. Also little Mikey and a horse pop up pretty frequently too. And for some reason Laurie sometimes sees his psychotic hallucination, which makes no sense at all. Everyone is trailer park style. Bracket has a huge mullet. Laurie is an unwashed annoying vegan trailer park resident. Annie looks like she should have a pack of cigarettes in one hand and a can of lucky in the other. A very large portion, I'd have to say about 20-30 min of the movie was wasted on filler dream sequences. In fact, a good amount of this film was just that: filler. It's almost as if he was having trouble deciding if he wanted a slasher, an art film, a gore porn, or a survivor drama. And what he ended up making was a horrible mess. In the original films, you barely ever see him sans mask. I believe there were two scenes in parts 4 and 5. In this movie he's constantly shown without it. And his hair/beard makes him look like a mid 80's rob zombie in that crap white zombie band. And finally, the biggest tragedy: the characters. Even in the first remake, Myers acted more like leatherface than the shape. He's supposed to be quiet, robotic, unfeeling, not running into a room yelling and screaming and stabbing the crap out of anything that moves. He's not supposed to have any emotions period. That's what made him creepy. Then he turned Loomis from the hero, the guy who blamed himself for what this monster did and wanted to correct it, into a opportunistic weasel. Donald Pleasence's Loomis was a bit of a jerk, and a little bit nutty, but at least he wasn't a profiteering slimebag. Rob Zombie is the biggest hack in Hollywood currently. House of 1000 corpses stole so much from Texas Chainsaw massacre. Halloween 1 was a barely acceptable mess, and Halloween 2 almost made it look passable. Hopefully this sequel puts the stake back in the franchise, because god forbid a third one comes out, I will not even watch it.

For a person who took a strong disliking to Rob Zombie's Halloween remake, I must say the follow-up, HALLOWEEN II was a breath of fresh air for an avid fan of the Halloween series. It might not be a return to the "Gone of the Wind" of horror movies, but an overall improvement in story, suspense, as well as a pacing that clearly shows Zombie was not in clutches and struggle of trying to rehash John Carpenter's original film while trying to put a spin on it. There were story elements to pick a bone with and the constraints of the 2007 film are obvious. Luckily, Zombie has his white-trash-reality pieces to a minimum in this movie. Though there are accidental homages to the Rick Rosenthal's Halloween II, don't be mistaken. This entry is very different and something completely of Rob Zombie's sole vision. THIS IS NOT A REMAKE, THIS IS A PURE SEQUEL.

The direction was much more focal and clear and Zombie actually delivers some scares, which the first round lacked very much. I also liked the element of Michael Myers having a serious sense of overkill on his victims. And it was also enlightening to see emotional points as well as examinations of the crazed mind, as Michael sees apparitions of his mother as well as him as a child, and as Laurie learns more about herself, begins to have visions and dreams of her own, leading us to question her mental state as events unfold. The characters were way better and the rhythm of the film was refreshing.

Not that it didn't have its moments with necessity to nitpick a bit. Though the "death rides a pale horse" theme of the movie was an awesome story element, it also seemed at times corny as hell. People who aren't big fans of Sheri Moon being in his movies might find it somewhat hard to stomach, but overall the concept had legs. The "ogre" hobo look made Michael Myers seem less threatening at times, but there's also some cool shots as he wanders on his journey. My biggest stake with this film is how much the Dr. Loomis character has strayed into a complete slimeball, instead of the crazed doctor out to get Michael. That left a disheartening taste in my mouth. The score lacked the Halloween themes until the ending, but thankfully what was there throughout wasn't a pretentious modern horror score, playing as more of an ambiance than a shrieking powerful score, which intensified the film a bit to my surprise.

Where all the movies have entertained to a small or large extent, the Halloween series in general has had its extreme highs and unbearable lows. And though there are story elements in this movie that some might dislike (including the "un-reality" sequences), it sure beats Michael's Curse of Thorn or the Man in Black from Halloween 5 & 6, where the filmmakers strayed away from continuity. Only to get busy in series reboots like H20 and Resurrection (the latter being the worst of all the sequels and the first being a weak recharge). What I recommend for next time is a straight ahead sequel to tie up all the loose ends left by sequels that failed to take things in different directions, seeing as tho this is Rob's last venture into Halloweenland. But as his closing film in the Halloween saga, this movie was a serious improvement and I give kudos to this as opposed to a remake that half loved and half could barely fathom.

7/10

Halloween II (2009)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Sequel to Zombie's 2007 remake starts off shortly after the events in that film as Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) has a hard time getting over the fact that all of her friends are dead. She doesn't have too long to sit around as brother Michael Myers is back, killing and slaughtering by the orders of the ghost of his mother (Sheri Moon Zombie) but Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) is back as well to try and make up for a damning book he wrote on the earlier events. There's no secret that I didn't care for anything in Zombie's remake and this film here proves that he needs to quit writing screenplays. I think this film, as well as his previous ones, have shown that he can handle the director's chair but as far as writing goes he's starting to become very boring as he doesn't know how to write a story, characters or dialogue. What does someone do when they get scared? Say the "F" word countless times. What does someone do when they're having fun? Say the "F" word countless times. What does someone do when they're sad? Why, of course, say the "F" word countless times. Zombie's screenplays come off like they're written by little children because he can't write dialogue that has anything more than cuss words being thrown around. It's hard to find a single line that doesn't feature some fifth-grade level cussing. Not only that but other logical problems come up like how Michael is able to be deep in the woods on scene but then back in town the next only to appear back in the woods for the next scene. How on Earth does Loomis see the end events on television and yet a second later he's right there? Not to mention a stupid flashback scene where we learn that Michael is going to be seeing his mother's ghost throughout the rest of the movie, which basically is just a stupid way for Zombie to give his wife a part. Even if you take away all the dumb logic you are then treated to countless, graphic and at time vile violence. It's clear Zombie believes that no one should be given pity because even characters we care for get slaughtered. Bad characters die brutal deaths just like the nice people. Taylor-Compton isn't too bad in her role even though it's not written too well. McDowell is one hand to cash a paycheck but Zombie's screenplay mostly has him doing talk shows including one with Weird Al. Brad Dourif comes off the best as Sheriff Brackett and Danielle Harris also gets to come back. As with the first film, this one here features cameos by various people including Caroline Williams (TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2). Now, I would probably say this movie is better than the first due to some nice sequences including one early on where Zombie has a nice scene where a nurse is about to be stabbed but before getting it, we see a close up of her face as it prepares for the blow. This was an effective scene as was one a few minutes later when Laurie is trapped inside a small shack with Myers trying to break through. Once again Zombie's vision is perfectly clear and he moves the film along just fine but with a screenplay so bad there's really no winning in the end. It's clear Zombie has a very good movie in his but it's not going to happen when the only thing he can write is dialogue for white trash, which appears to be the only thing he knows.