The Devil’s Reject – ‘Halloween II’ Review…

Posted on September 9, 2009 - 10:52pm by michael I’m glad to see that Rob Zombie has moved in a more original direction with the sequel to his 2007 Halloween remake, since the 1981 Halloween II kind of sucked, although unfortunately he has now inserted too much of his own personal style and moved to far away from the original formula, resulting in a Halloween movie that doesn’t feel at all like a Halloween movie except for the occasional slasher scenes. The original music has been all but completely removed and replaced with a monotonous and largely generic horror score and nauseating sound effects, but at least the latter render the highly visceral kill scenes even more effective in the gross-out department. But unfortunately the sporadic kills are interspersed with bizarre nightmares and hazy visions of Michael’s mother in a flowing white dress leading a white horse around. Supposedly the white horse is linked to a subconscious drive toward physical chaos and destruction, but such an image just doesn’t seem to fit in a Halloween movie, you know? On the other hand, it’s not hard to see why it’s there. One of the best things about the Original Remake ™ was the way it went deeper into the troubled mind of Michael Myers and showed how he came to be the vicious killer that we all know so well. But this time, Zombie goes too far, giving us these visions and reminders of the kind of twisted mass of dysfunctional memories that fill his mind, and even go so far as to have Michael grunt whenever he stabs someone. This might seem trivial, but it’s actually a pretty clear example of where the movie goes wrong. By having Michael make sounds resulting from the exertion he puts into his kills, it becomes possible to imagine the expression on his face behind that mask, which essentially takes the mask away and transforms him in the mind of the viewer from a mysterious, unstoppable force of death and into a guy wearing a mask. This is not good. [caption id="attachment_54511" align="alignleft" width="211" caption="Laurie Strode, a picture of psychological health."][/caption] Like the original Halloween II, Zombie’s H2 starts off exactly where the first film left off but then cuts to one year later, and then much of the rest of the movie deals with the chaos of the two or three days before Halloween night, during which time Michael is Making His Way Home again. Sheriff Brackett (Brad Dourif) has taken Laurie (Scout Taylor-Compton) into his house as one of the family, and she has been suffering from recurring nightmares and other post traumatic stress problems due to the incident with her brother from the year before. Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) has become famous for his books about the Michael Myers case, although this fame and fortune is also bringing down an avalanche of vicious criticism onto his head. His promotional book tour through Haddonfield, not surprisingly, was not entirely well received. The movie opens with the scene at the end of the first film where Laurie shoots Michael point blank in the face, splattering his blood all over herself, and then a couple of greasy EMT’s take him away in the ambulance. Due to the driver’s inability to avoid cows in the road, soon they’re both dead and Michael’s body is never found. He lays low for the following year, living on the streets until his favorite season rolls around and he can start getting all stabby again. But the visual manifestations of his damaged psyche take an unintentionally goofy turn as that white horse keeps showing up and a weird psychic link with his sister is hinted at, to say nothing of the mechanical switching back and forth between the dreams and the kill scenes, resulting in a feeling of a lot of disjointed deaths interwoven with bizarre nightmares about mom. But my biggest problem with the movie is how obvious the scares are and  how all the cardinal rules of horror movie behavior are so plainly violated, sometimes to the point where it approaches self-parody. There’s a scene early in the film, for example, where Laurie is being pursued by Michael, and runs to a security guard for help. He doesn’t take her too seriously, putting her in his little rent-a-cop office while he goes to call for help, leaving her all by herself and going “Don’t worry, I’ll be riiiiiiight baaaaaack…..” His subsequent death is, to say the least, not a surprise. The movie’s most interesting bit of horror drama comes when an Angel Myers learns from Loomis’s new book “The Devil Walks Among Us” that she is Michael Myers’ sister. Sadly, this curious development also comes with a lot of flagrantly broken horror movie laws, as her discovery sets her off on a tangent of drinking and partying, after which she finds herself standing on her porch, screaming into the sky her terror about her plight, “I’m so f**ked! What am I gonna do?” I don’t know, young lady, but I’m gonna go ahead and suggest that hanging out at home, alone, falling over drunk, on Halloween night, is not going to be the best decision. The performances are essentially the same as the last movie. McDowell is good as Dr. Loomis struggling to deal with the results of his fame, Brad Dourif takes another good turn as Sheriff Brackett, a character who is interesting enough that he should have been explored more deeply, and Chase Vanek is remarkably effective and creepy as the young Michael Myers, replacing Daeg Faerch, who it was decided had grown too much to take the role again. Scout Taylor-Compton is as un-noteworthy as she was in the first movie, as is most of the rest of the cast. Weird Al also has a brief but amusing cameo. I appreciate that Rob Zombie decided to take his Halloween sequel in a new direction for the series, but even though the movie has a distinctive and welcome feel of a Rob Zombie horror film, too much of the aura and unique feel of a Halloween film has been lost, not the least reason for which is the nearly total removal of the classic score. I don’t need exactly the same music every time, but I still feel like it’s an essential part of the Halloween movies, and even a part of the character of Michael Myers. There are a lot of interesting ideas in the movie and cleverly presented images, but too many that don’t feel like they belong in a Halloween film. There is, however, a nice standoff at the end of the movie and even an interesting twist, but all in all it’s no surprising that Zombie has opted not to take the directing reigns of the upcoming Halloween 3D... The Bean Meter [caption id="attachment_54515" align="aligncenter" width="188" caption="2.5 Beans out of 5."][/caption]