Rob Zombie's Halloween II - Rob Does Indeed Complete His Vision

I'll be very interested to see what most people think about the latest slashing adventures of Michael Meyers. Rob Zombie has not made your typical slasher flick, and that's even though it does contain some amazingly bloody moments. One crushing death plays like an homage to the fire extinguisher scene from Gaspar Noe's "Irreversible." I have also heard some complain that this one doesn't even feel like a "Halloween" movie, but wasn't that the whole point of this "re-imagining"? Do you really want the same old slasher formula that we have all gotten burned out on? Isn't that why Rob Zombie was brought on to do the remake? You know, to give this long running series a complete reinvigoration?

Rob Zombie's vision of Michael Meyers will never be as scary as John Carpenter's was, but I wasn't expecting it to. With Zombie's take on the "Halloween" saga, we actually have something that is more of a character study of how Michael Meyers came to be. That's something we have never gotten in any of the other films in this amazingly endless franchise. While getting at the mystery of this iconic boogeyman threatens to make him seem less threatening, it is what has made Rob Zombie's "Halloween" movies compelling in their own way. "Halloween II" is definitely on a par with the previous film, and everything comes full circle, and we do see that family is forever with the Meyers.

"Halloween II" starts right after the end of the previous film with Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) walking down the street all bloodied up and with the gun she shot Michael with in her hand. However, it turns out that Laurie didn't actually kill him. The bullet pretty much creased or bounced off his skull knocking him unconscious. This seems to be a reasonable excuse to bring Michael back, and the producers have always managed to find a way thanks to all the profits.

The previous Halloween movies have managed to come up with the most incredibly ridiculous excuses to bring this seemingly immortal psycho back from the dead. One of my favorites was at the beginning of "Halloween Resurrection" when it turns out that Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis in this one) didn't actually behead Michael in "H20." Somewhere in the midst of all the carnage, Michael got a hold of some paramedic, smashed his vocal chords so he couldn't talk, took his uniform and walked off into the night. There was no way for Laurie to know that it wasn't Michael, but it sure didn't explain Michael's sudden ingenuity in the midst of his obessesion to kill his sister. No psycho I know of thinks more than one-dimensionally.

As Laurie is wheeled into a hospital crying hysterically (the first of many times she does this in the film), shades of Rick Rosenthal's "Halloween II" emerge, but this one is no retread of that first sequel. Meanwhile, the drivers of the coroner van ended up getting talking about the joys of necrophilia when they hit a cow and severely injure themselves in a nasty car wreck. This allows Michael to kick open the doors and escape to live and see another October. Because in the end, what is Halloween without Michael Meyers?

While he eviscerates the drivers, we see Laurie getting patched up in surgery in a most gruesome way that gets right at where you live. The detail given to this moment is unsettling and looks very realistic, just the way Zombie wants it. You look at Laurie's mangled body, and you think to yourself that it's a miracle she lived through all of this.

After Laurie's desperate escape from the hospital, which actually turns out to be a dream (errrrrr), we see her a year later and still deeply traumatized from those horrific events that left her friends and her parents dead. Laurie ends up being adopted by Sheriff Lee Brackett (Brad Dourif) and his daughter and best friend Annie ("Halloween" veteran Danielle Harris). While the previous movie was told through the eyes of Michael Meyers, this one is seen through Laurie Strode, and we see the damage that has been done to her.

One of the big differences with this entry is the way it is filmed. Whereas his remake was filmed in 35mm, Zombie's "Halloween II" is filmed in 16mm which gives it a much more harsh edge. This worked very effectively for Zombie on what is still his best movie, "The Devil's Rejects," and it makes the killings in this second of "Halloween II" movies all the more brutal. And boy oh boy, this movie is BRUTAL!! Michael Meyers doesn't just slash his victims; he pounds them all to a bloody pulp. Those who survive his vicious rampage will probably wish they were dead when he is through.

Tyler Mane once against gives us the most lethal and threatening Michael Meyers that has ever been unleashed on the big screen. Being as huge as he is, it's a wonder why anyone would want to take him on. Here's another interesting thing about Michael in this one, he has a beard. That's right, for the first time ever we get to see this iconic character with a ton of facial hair! I found this ironic because Michael proves to be so effective with any kind of knife, and that had me believing that he could give himself among other people the closest shave humanly possible. But in the end, Meyers clearly has more on his mind than facial hair and which razor is the best.

Scout Taylor-Compton will probably get a lot of crap thrown in her general direction since she screams a lot throughout this movie, and the louder the endless screams, the more the audience will want her to be murdered. Her Laurie Strode is not the chaste and resourceful character that Jamie Lee Curtis originated, but this is not you John Carpenter's "Halloween." Scout has to dig deep with this role and go to places no ordinary person would ever want to go. You think she is at bottom when the movie starts, but she's not anywhere near it. Scout makes you care about Laurie as she comes to the realization of what family she really belongs to, and you want her to escape the abyss she is may end up drowning in. You want to help her.

Besides, the "Halloween" movies are not the ones where you root for people to die (not all the time anyway). You need to watch "Friday The 13^th" sequels for that because they have some truly amazing idiots in those ones. Part V has some of the most annoyingly dense individuals of just about any movie I have ever seen. Now I don't know about you, but I couldn't wait for some of them to get butchered, and not just in the average way either.

One performance that I really liked here was from Brad Dourif, and he gets more screen time in this sequel. The Sheriff could have been one of those many dumb ass adults who should know better but don't, but a parent who is a caring adult and who always has safety on his mind, especially after what previously happened the year before. Brad is great here in a way you would not usually expect in a film like this, and he is one of the most underrated character actors working today in film. It's great that he has a friend in Rob Zombie.

That's the great thing about Rob Zombie's contributions to the "Halloween" franchise; he is not out to give us the usual clichéd dead teenager movie. With this and his previous film, Zombie takes the time to develop his characters if not fully, then more than all those one-dimensional stereotypes we expect to see as they unknowingly make their way to the gory slaughterhouse. While he still employs his usual white trash stereotypes, Rob is starting to move beyond that to other kinds of characters that have not appeared in his previous films. This shows growth on his part that makes me look forward to his future movies even more.

Rob does come up with some very weird imagery throughout this movie as we get a closer look into Michael's deeply disturbed mind. Sheri Moon Zombie returns as Michael's mother, but this time she appears in a ghostly white façade as she speaks to her murderous son from the grave. She convinces her son that by killing Laurie, he can bring the whole family back together again. This is the last thing I would have expected to see in any of these "Halloween" sequels, and the image of the white horse is an interesting choice. Sheri still manages to hold this piece of the puzzle together, and she is a better actress than people ever give her credit for.

This whole white horse thing may seem a little ridiculous, but it is so much better than that stupid Thorn cult that was featured in the worst sequel of this series entitled "The Curse of Michael Meyers." Man that was stupid beyond all repair!

Danielle Harris also returns as the Sheriff's daughter, Annie Brackett. It's great to see her here again, and I like how Rob doesn't have her doing the same thing she did in the last film. Considering that she almost died in that one, she is nowhere as foolish this time around (not completely anyway). Annie, along with her dad, is the rock that helps to keep Laurie's slipping sanity in one place, and I liked some of the dialogue Rob gave her this time. Some may not agree (and that's their problem), but I really think she is developing into a fine actress.

But of course, we cannot forget Malcolm McDowell who returns as Dr. Sam Loomis. I liked his performance better this time around as he truly appears to be enjoying himself. This time around, Malcolm gives us a Sam Loomis who is a pure asshole getting high off the fame he obtains by exploiting his involvement with Michael Meyers and his surrounding family. Loomis is no longer the helpful psychiatrist he was before, and he is instead a profiteer off the misfortunes of others. His sudden change of heart towards the film's climax may feel a bit forced, but Malcolm sells it to where I actually felt his pain at the damage he has wrought. I believed it when he told Sheriff Brackett that he owes him as he attends to unfinished business with Michael, and it's clear he owes it to everybody else in the small town of Haddonfield.

I also got to mention the brilliant sound design in "Halloween II" that is a major asset to Zombie as it was before. Michael doesn't just crash through windows and walls in this one. You feel him bashing his way through whatever is in his path, and that gives the movie a tremendously visceral thrill that the other sequels could only dream of having. Rob is not out to give you a bunch of cheap scares, and he is instead out to horrify you as much as possible as we suffer along with Laurie while Michael continues his endless chase after her.

Zombie also does a better job with suspense this time around, and it really boils in certain moments to where our anticipation gets the best of us. We know Michael is going to strike, and we fear the bloody damage we know he will brutally inflict. I'm glad that Rob came back to do this one even though he said he never would. Having anyone else take over these characters after what he did with them would never have worked as well.

Is this a great movie? No. It does have its problems, and some parts are a bit laughable. As great as it was to Sheri Moon Zombie back, her appearance at times gets to be a little too much. I also have to tell you that I am sick of these dream sequences where you believe the character is in trouble, but it turns out that none of it was real. There has been far too much of that in the movies. Far too much.

No, it is not on the same level of John Carpenter's original, but I never expected it to be nor did I care. In many ways, "Halloween" was a one of a kind film that you could argue should have stayed that way were it not such a huge success. Zombie is not trying to outdo Carpenter, but to merely make Michael Meyers and all these other characters his own. While "Halloween II" is no masterpiece, I think Zombie succeeded in bringing his own vision to it which is way more than anyone else could have.

So, will there be another "Halloween III?" Hard to say because the way Zombie ends this one, it could very well stand as the final nail in the franchise's coffin. Some of the audience I saw it with at Mann's Chinese in Hollywood booed at the movie's end, so it may not meet the expectations of many fans, but I liked that Rob was going for something different. The way I see it, that's probably just as well because this series has largely overstayed its welcome and it is finally time to let Michael Meyers rest in peace. At least with Rob Zombie, he got one hell of a brutal exit.

Besides, who wants to hear that annoying Silver Shamrock song all over again?

*** out of ****