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Rob Zombie’s Halloween II (2009) - Unrated Director's Cut
Since going into filmmaking Rob Zombie’s made a lot of new fans and quite honestly a few enemies as well. Personally I was really thrilled with Zombie when he was making horror films, especially after how much I originally enjoyed his film “House of 1000 Corpses” after it’s release in the theater (which after watching it a few times since, I’ve kind of soured on). I also was completely blown away at Zombie’s efforts in “The Devil’s Rejects” which is a film I still find as brilliant as the first time I saw it in the theater. But when I first heard he was tapped to direct a remake of John Carpenter’s “Halloween” I was kind of taken back. Not only did I think it would be a mistake for him because it’s a lot to live up to, I was also thinking it was a mistake because Zombie’s talents certainly don’t make me think of anything “Halloween” related. First off Zombie’s films aren’t exactly dripping with suspense, which was one of the major strengths of Carpenter’s classic. But once I started to see trailers for the film I was actually getting excited as I thought it showed a lot of promise. When I first seen the film opening night with a bunch of friends I quickly found out I was wrong....dead wrong. Zombie’s version of “Halloween” is one of the worst examples of a remaking in my opinion and I totally hated it. So to say I was very much looking forward to a sequel would be a lie. But as time wore on I found myself somewhat intrigued by the film and how it turned out. Thanks to the folks at Sony Entertainment I got to check it out on DVD and I have to say that I was somewhat surprised at what I saw.
“Halloween II” practically starts out after the events of the first film and we are quickly introduced once again to the character of Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor Compton). We start to see the effects that the events in the first film have had over time on the surviving characters. Laurie is now living with her friend Anne and her father Sheriff Brackett. She’s meeting with a doctor to talk about what’s happened and for her to help take steps to get over what happened. Of course during this time Michael Myers has escaped after being found dead after the film’s events. Now he’s hellbent on finding Laurie and exacting his revenge as everyone thinks he’s already dead.
Considering how much I didn’t care for the first film I was actually a bit surprised by this one. Now I don’t think it’s a great film in the least, but I do think there was a lot more in this film that was done right than in it’s previous installment. Something that made me enjoy this one more is the fact that it’s completely Zombie’s story and it has nothing at all to do with anything John Carpenter ever added into the series. I liked the fact that this film felt to be fully in Rob Zombie’s world, even though that doesn’ t mean that it’s perfect. One of the first things that comes to mind is how Zombie uses music in his films. Personally I think he does a great job of doing so, when it’s not directly involving the characters and it’s just basically playing in the background. Perfect example is a scene in the movie where a group of girls are singing and dancing to the MC5's song “Kick Out the Jams”. It’s honestly embarrassing in the film to watch the scene and should have easily ended up on the cutting room floor, but instead it’s trickled it’s way into the director’s cut of the film. It’s stuff like this that sometimes makes me wonder if Zombie was nothing but lucky with “The Devil’s Rejects”.
Another thing in the film that annoys me is how Zombie seriously feels the need to use time in his film to make fun of certain types of fans, basically summing us all up as crazy fucking weirdos. Strange too because if it wasn’t for people of that type it’s hard to imagine Zombie would be a rich man these days. It just comes off as vindictive and childish to me and didn’t add a damn thing to the movie whatsoever. For those of you wondering what I’m talking about, watch the scene in which Dr. Loomis is signing books for fans.
The biggest problem I have about the film though is the character of Dr. Loomis. Not only is he basically a moot point in the film but Zombie managed to turn his character into an egocentric asshole. That’s just so far out of the scope of what this film should have in it I almost don’t know where to begin when talking about it. I know not all people have to love all the characters in a movie to get into it and I’m not like that all the time, but it’s really necessary in a film like this. But instead we get a lot of characters that aren’t very likeable at all therefore making it feel like it’s just a bunch of jumbled nonsense. Zombie even managed to turn the Laurie Strode character 360 degrees as well into a prescription fueled party girl that seems way deeper than she divulges during the film’s running time.
The biggest bright spot to me in the movie was the wonderful performance from Brad Dourif as Sheriff Brackett. In all actuality he was the only sympathetic character in the film that was even remotely relatable. This however gives me hope that all isn’t lost in Zombie’s writing because Brackett seems to be a well written, well handled character. Not only that but Douriff is great at roles like this one where he needs to be sympathetic at times and totally badass in others. It was nice to see his role expanded on and since Dr Loomis’ role was shortened so much, it was something that would have completely ruined the film for me if it hadn’t been done that way.
Overall I would say that “Halloween II” is going to be hit or miss with a lot of people and it was kind of that way for me. There were things that I certainly liked about it, but it’s far from perfect and really has some issues. It’s a much better effort from Zombie this time out as opposed to the original remake but that’s not really saying much either. I would have to recommend a rental before you spend good money on it, but if you’re a fan of Zombie I’m sure you’ll like it. For me personally the jury is still out on Rob Zombie but that’s going to take films not including Michael Myers for me to make up my mind. Watch at your own risk.
Rating - **1/2
-Ed Demko
