Halloween II
Dir: Rob Zombie
2009
*
I tried to be as positive about Rob Zombie’s 2007 remake of Halloween but it really didn’t deserve a sequel. I think he has a great eye for visuals but he got the tone wrong and his story left a lot to be desired. The 2009 follow up is nothing short of atrocious. It is possibly one of the worst films I have ever seen. There are plenty of terrible horror films out there, the ones I generally hate the most are the ones that have had no money spent on them but they have amazing posters. The fraudulent horrors if you will. They are usually made by studios who spend half their time making horror films and the other making Christmas films – occasionally delving into the talking puppy genre. You can see them coming a mile away and you only have yourself to blame for getting hooked in. Halloween II on the other hand had some money behind it and a big studio. There were few aspects of the first film that warranted a sequel but I understand it was left with unanswered questions, so there were a few who wanted to know what happened next and the franchise itself would always attract the hardcore fans but I have no idea what it was about Zombie’s 2009 script that made the studio think this would make a good film. It is beyond awful. Much like the original Halloween, the second film follows where the last one left off. In a flashback, Deborah Myers (Sheri Moon Zombie) visits her son, a young Michael Myers (Chase Wright Vanek), at Smith's Grove Sanitarium. She gives him a white horse statuette as a gift. Michael says that the horse reminds him of a dream he had of Deborah's ghost, all dressed in white and telling him she was going to bring him home. Moving ahead fifteen years, Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) is wandering around in shock after having shot an adult Michael (Tyler Mane) as seen at the end of the last film. Sheriff Leigh Brackett (Brad Dourif) finds Laurie and takes her to the emergency room. Meanwhile, the paramedics pick up Annie Brackett (Danielle Harris) and Michael's psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis (Malcolm McDowell), who are still alive after being attacked by Michael, and take them to the hospital. Michael’s body is taken in another ambulance by EMTs Gary Scott (Richard Brake) and Alan Hooks (Dayton Callie). While Hooks and Scott converse, the ambulance crashes into a cow. Hooks dies in the crash and Michael awakens and decapitates a disoriented Scott. Fast-forward two years after the events of the first film, Laurie is now living with the Bracketts. Michael has been missing since last Halloween and is presumed dead, while Laurie has been having recurring nightmares about the event. While Laurie deals with her trauma through therapy, Dr. Loomis has chosen to turn the event into an opportunity to write another book. Elsewhere, Michael, who is still alive, has been having visions of his mother's ghost and a younger version of himself, who instruct him that it is time to bring Laurie home, so he sets off for Haddonfield. As Michael travels to Haddonfield, Laurie begins having hallucinations that mirror Michael's, which involves Deborah's ghost and a young Michael in a clown costume. Her hallucinations also begin to include her acting out Michael's murders. Meanwhile, Loomis goes on tour to promote his new book, only to be criticized by the public, who blame him for Michael's actions and for exploiting the deaths of Michael's victims. When Loomis' book is released, Laurie discovers that she is really Angel Myers, Michael's long-lost sister. She goes to a Halloween party with Mya (Brea Grant) and Harley (Angela Trimbur) to escape how she is feeling. Michael appears at the party and kills Harley, then goes to the Brackett house and fatally wounds Annie. When Laurie and Mya return to the house, they find Annie, who dies in Laurie's arms. Michael kills Mya and then comes after Laurie, who manages to escape. Sheriff Brackett arrives home and finds his daughter dead. Laurie flags down a car, but Michael kills the driver and flips the car over with Laurie still inside. Michael then takes the unconscious Laurie to an abandoned shed. The police discover Michael's location and surround the shed. Loomis arrives and goes inside to try to reason with Michael. Inside, he finds Laurie, who is hallucinating a younger Michael holding her down, and tries telling her that no one is restraining her. Just then, Deborah instructs the older Michael that it is time to go home; Michael attacks Loomis and kills him. Stepping in front of a window while holding Loomis' body, Michael is shot twice by Sheriff Brackett, and falls into the spikes of some farming equipment. Apparently released from her visions, Laurie walks over and tells Michael she loves him, then stabs him repeatedly. The shed door opens and Laurie walks out, wearing Michael's mask. Later, Laurie sits in isolation in a psychiatric ward, grinning at a vision of Deborah. Producer Malek Akkad, who had produced every Halloween film since the fourth installment, told Zombie "'Don't feel hindered by any of the rules we've had in the past. I want this to be your vision and I want you to express that vision." – so Zombie ignored him and made a fairly flat remake that felt like every Halloween film made, only worse. Zombie decided to focus more on the connection between Laurie and Michael, and the idea that they share similar psychological problems. He wanted the sequel to be more realistic and more violent than its 2007 predecessor. He also wanted to show the connection between Laurie and Michael, and provide a glimpse into each character's psyche. This is handled badly, with no character ever convincing us of their actions. When it came time to provide a musical score, Zombie had trouble finding a place to include John Carpenter's original Halloween theme music. Although Carpenter's theme was used throughout Zombie's remake, the theme was only included in the final shot of the sequel. For me this tells you everything you need to know about the film. There is no mystery, no creeping and no terror. Myers is just a giant mass-murderer on a killing mission. It’s a boring and unoriginal horror that ends up being more splatter than slasher. Zombie is clueless to the rule that what you don’t see is always far more scary. He doesn’t allow the audience to use their own imagination because he hasn’t got one himself. I can’t help but think the nonsense regarding Michael’s mother was written just as an excuse to feature his wife once more. I hated Laurie Strode and Dr. Loomis in this version and I wasn’t at all scared by Michael. Brad Dourif’s performance and the cameo by Margot Kidder were the only redeeming features of this god-awful film. The Weird Al Yankovic scene is painful to watch. The joke here is that Rob Zombie originally stated he would never do a sequel to Halloween, until the studio decided to make it. Then he signed on to write and direct, because he didn't want someone to ruin his vision. Ha! He pretty much killed the franchise and made the worst Halloween film of the series – which at this point is quite an achievement.