H2 Review

HALLOWEEN II (2009)
By Chris Ward

How is it that a high profile sequel to a high profile movie, made by a (fairly) high profile director, can generate so much hatred? Surely there’s enough love for Rob Zombie and the ‘Halloween’ franchise as a whole to give it a fair go and look for the positives, and after all, considering the varying quality levels of the 1978 movie’s numerous sequels, at least it was made by the same team as the previous installment, meaning continuity and such like? Could it really be that bad? Read on…

The movie starts immediately after the events of the 2007 remake, where Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) is left wondering the streets in what could be called ‘a bit of a state’, after shooting psychopathic killer Michael Myers (Tyler Mane) in the head. Found by Sheriff Brackett (Brad Dourif), Laurie and Brackett’s daughter Annie (Danielle Harris), who also survived Michael’s attack, are sent to hospital. While this is going on, the van containing Michael’s body crashes into a cow (yes, I know!) and a somewhat revived Michael begins the trek to the hospital to finish what he started. It sounds simple, but there is more to it than that; Michael is now having visions of his mother and his childhood self, who are instructing him to hunt down and kill Laurie – who, incidentally, is Michael’s younger sister – so that the family can be together again. There are other twists and turns (or plot holes, as they should be called) that try to add to the plot but to mention them all here would mean spoilers.

As a summing up statement, this movie is garbled mess and somebody of Rob Zombie’s calibre and knowledge of horror movies should know better. The heart of the matter is there’s no real depth to anything; the characters, with the exception of Sheriff Brackett, are all pretty loathsome, the story just seems to jump from kill scene to Laurie-getting-upset-and-having-a-bad-dream-scene and back to a kill scene with little else to hold your attention and the script is pretty monotonous, even by Zombie’s standards.

Malcolm McDowell returns as Dr. Samuel Loomis (no, he didn’t die in the first movie – durrr!), and to be honest, even though his character this time around is prety vile – he is now a best-selling author exploiting his history with Myers – it was a vast improvement on the sheer wetness he displayed last time around (“Michael, it’s me. It’s Samuel” – the worst delivered line in movie history!). Also an improvement in terms of character depth is Sheriff Brackett’s involvement within the plot. As always Brad Dourif is excellent, and even though the character himself doesn’t have any great lines or a defining screen moment to speak of, his on-screen presence is enough to make audiences empathize with him and make him the only character you’re likely to care about.

But that’s only two characters – what about the rest? There’s the character of Laurie, the main protagonist – the one character we’re supposed to be rooting for – but she’s really quite annoying. Not annoying like, say, a typical teen in an ‘American Pie’ type movie is annoying, but annoying because she’s really just uncharismatic and bland – and she shouldn’t be! When Jamie Lee Curtis played the role, she exuded charm and had a warmth and depth about her; Scout Taylor-Compton is a capable actress, but a leading scream-queen she is not. Sheri Moon Zombie returns as Deborah Myers (who, incidentally, died in the first movie and now appears in Michael’s head), and is, oddly, encouraging Michael to kill Laurie. She was a loving mother who couldn’t cope with her son being a psychopath in the first movie, and now she’s a ghost who wants all her family to die? Just seems like a flimsy excuse for Rob Zombie to put his wife in the movie.

All the other characters are equally as non-descript as this, and that’s why Zombie should hang his head in shame. This is a guy who knows his horror movies, he knows what works and what doesn’t, what makes a good sequel and what doesn’t, and what audiences expect from this sort of movie – and he doesn’t give it to them! Yes, the murders are bloody, violent and gloriously grisly, but just having Myers killing random people who’ve literally just appeared on-screen and called him names is pretty pathetic. If the audience had time to get to know these characters, then it makes more of an impact when they get offed. If they walk into shot, shout a bit and then get stabbed – who cares?

The other major fault with this movie is the rather ambiguous ending. Taken at face value, it’s quite similar to the ending of ‘Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers’ from the original series, although a deeper analysis hints at something else altogether. Zombie himself has suggested that the ending is not what what everyone would expect, but if you interpret it that way and look back at the movie, it doesn’t add up. There’s too many plot holes to make that suggestion carry any weight.

Overall, this movie is a huge disappointment. Credit to Rob Zombie for realising that the studio was going to make the movie anyway, so he may as well sign up to direct it, but maybe next time he should actually have a decent idea for a plot first. Rob Zombie is a good director with a very unique style, and he can certainly pull off violent and gory scenes as well as any of the big-name horror directors, but some decent content between the violent scenes and pacing that allows for character development wouldn’t go amiss. Casual viewers may not care about these things and just want to get their fill of gore – and they’ll be well catered for here – but for those of us who care about our horror icons, this is one slasher that just doesn’t cut it (sorry, couldn’t help it!).