Written & Directed by Rob Zombie
Deborah: "We're done waiting. Only a river of blood can bring us back together. It's up to you. It's always been up to you, Michael."
If there was something the world didn't need, it was a remake of Halloween courtesy of Rob Zombie and to top it off, the world also wasn't asking for a sequel to said remake. Okay, think nice thoughts - I guess I'm grateful that this is an original sequel that's not a remake of the original sequel, so I guess there's that and I have to give the movie attempted props for trying to deal with trauma as well.
Following the slaughter fest of the first, both survivors Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) and Annie Brackett (Danielle Harris) are handling nearly being killed by Michael Myers (Tyler Mane) in different but reasonably believable ways. Annie's mainly seems to be getting on with things while also balancing the act of trying to distance herself from Laurie while also being there for her friends now that Laurie is also living with her and her father, Sheriff Brackett (Brad Douf).
Like I said in my review for the first movie, I'm pleased that Rob Zombie actually allowed Annie to survive as it's arguably the best thing he did in that movie. Annie is also arguably the best thing about the second movie, so I appreciate that when Michael actually does kill her off, it's not until towards the end of the movie but Zombie's penchant for Annie being nude every time Michael tries (and this time succeeds) to kill her is somewhat tedious.
Speaking of Michael, he spent some down time trying to recover while also continuing his hunt for his estranged younger sister. This time around, both Michael and Laurie are haunted by cryptic dreams/nightmares of their mother Deborah as Zombie shamelessly has to shoehorn his wife into this sequel despite her death in the previous movie.
I don't mind Deborah's inclusion as such but it's completely unnecessary to the whole movie and like the first movie, there's a lot of padding here, courtesy of unwarranted flashbacks to a younger Michael (Chase Wright Vanek) and the various meandering dream stuff with Deborah wanting her children to come home and be together.
Speaking of which, the way in which Laurie finds out that she's Michael Myers half-sister in this movie is certainly unpleasant as she reads this vital bit of family information in Dr Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) tell all book about Michael. In this movie, Laurie is a pretty ineffectual final girl, shrieking her way through the entire movie at everyone around until her final reunion with her murderous brother takes a rather dark turn for the character.
As for Loomis, well not since The Revenge Of Michael Myers has a movie managed to make him even more unsympathetic. He profits off Michael's murderous rampage, is a jerk to his publicist and not particularly concerned when Lynda's father publicly castigates. He also spends a great deal of the movie being angered over the idea of Michael being alive before he gets a rather rushed 'redemptive arc' resulting in a rather predictable outcome.
- Nice appearance from Margot Kidder (whose had her own horror history with The Amityville Horror and Black Christmas) as Laurie's therapist. There's also appearances from Chris Hardwick and Weird Al Yankovic here.
- Laurie's real name here is Angel Myers, which seems somewhat on the nose. She's also dressed as Magenta from Rocky Horror Picture Show during her final scenes with Michael.
- The opening sequence (which was an overextended nightmare of Laurie's) did feel like a homage to Halloween 2.
- Chronology: Two years from the events of the previous movie.
Halloween II marks the end of Rob Zombie's largely misguided reboot series and I would say it ends on a high note, but I'd be lying. I'll admit some of Zombie's crasser excesses are somewhat toned down for the movie and there's some nice visuals but there's also a lot of padding and general pacing issues. Overall, Zombie's take on the franchise should serve as a "what not to do" guide for any other film maker who gets to reboot a popular or flagging horror franchise in the near future.
Rating: 4 out of 10
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