Halloween II (2009)
Written and Directed by … Rob Zombie
Executive Produced by … Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Matthew Stein and Andy La Marca
Produced by … Malek Akkad, Andy Gould and Rob Zombie
Cinematography by … Brandon Trost
Production Design by … Garreth Stover
Costume Design by … Mary E. McLeod
Art Direction by … T.K. Kirkpatrick
Editing by … Glenn Garland and Joel Pashby
Original Score by … Tyler Bates
Sheri Moon Zombie ... Deborah Myers
Chase Wright Vanek ... Young Michael Myers
Scout Taylor-Compton ... Laurie Strode
Brad Dourif ... Sheriff Lee Brackett
Caroline Williams ... Dr. Maple
Malcolm McDowell ... Dr. Samuel Loomis
Tyler Mane ... Michael Myers
Dayton Callie ... Coroner Hooks
Richard Brake ... Gary Scott
Octavia Spencer ... Nurse Daniels
Danielle Harris ... Annie Brackett
Richard Riehle ... Buddy the Night Watchman
Margot Kidder ... Barbara Collier
Mary Birdsong ... Nancy McDonald
Brea Grant ... Mya Rockwell
Howard Hesseman ... Uncle Meat
Angela Trimbur ... Harley David
Diane Ayala Goldner ... Jane Salvador
Adam Boyer ... Bruce Cabot
Duane Whitaker ... Sherman Benny
Betsy Rue ... Jazlean Benny
Mark Boone Junior ... Floyd
Nicky Whelan ... Wendy Snow
Jeffrey Daniel Phillips ... Howard
Daniel Roebuck ... Big Lou
Sylvia Jefferies ... Misty Dawn
Silas Weir Mitchell ... Chett Johns
Robert Curtis Brown ... Kyle Van Der Klok
Chris Hardwick ... David Newman
'Weird Al' Yankovic ... Al Yankovic
Matthew Lintz ... Mark
Graham Marema ... Janet
Jesse Dayton ... Captain Clegg
Mark Lynch ... Teenage Zombie
Matt Bush ... Wolfifie
Laurie Strode struggles to come to terms with her brother Michael's deadly return to Haddonfield, Illinois; meanwhile, Michael prepares for another reunion with his sister.
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If there’s one thing that’s considerably trickier than creating the sequel to an established film…it’d have to be creating the sequel to a reimagining of one.
So on that basis, Writer/Director Rob Zombie (“House of 1000 Corpses,” “The Devil’s Rejects”
had the odds stacked fairly high against him when the time came to continue forward with his vision of ‘The Night HE Came Home’ that he’d constructed with 2007’s “Halloween.”
And, for me personally…this was definitely a hit and miss film, as hard as that is for me to admit.
Now don’t misunderstand me when I say this…because in truth, I respect the film AND the filmmaker; very much so. I can’t commend Rob enough for what he set out to do…and it stems from that risk he took to do something fresh and unique that I enjoyed as much of the film as I did.
The story of the film picks up in a flashback to young Michael’s time in the fabled Smith’s Grove Sanitarium; Christmas to be exact. His mother Deborah (Sherri-Moon Zombie) gives him the gift of a small ornamental statue…a statue of a White Horse (the film opens up with a quote from a Psychology Text about what the ‘White Horse’ represents in Dreams, etc.)
We are immediately hit with the aftermath of Myer’s rampage through the sleepy town of Haddonfield, Illinois…Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor Compton) is a wandering shell of a human being now, stuttering about having shot Michael dead while Sherriff Brackett (Brad Dourif) and the Paramedics are cleaning up the mess in the Myers House.
From there, we’re treated to a blood-soaked tale of Michael’s arduous trek back to Haddonfield and the repercussions both of the initial attack on that Halloween night…and the furthering of events a year later (the film’s present day) involving Laurie, the Sherriff and his daughter Annie (Danielle Harris) and Dr. Samuel Loomis (Malcolm McDowell).
I’m going to take the opportunity to run down a ‘Pro-Con’ list, which is very rare for me…but first I WILL give one major prop to Mr. Zombie.
The actual tangible events of “Halloween II” feel like such a natural progression…it makes so much sense.
Case in point…if Dr. Loomis were in a position to completely exploit the incident…it’s logical that he would. That moment when Lynda’s father pulls a gun on Loomis for getting his daughter killed by not keeping a closer eye on Myers is so raw and powerful. The film, aside from the psychosis angle, felt extremely grounded. Now yeah there’s some suspension of disbelief (‘how’d he survive getting SHOT IN THE FACE!?’
but Michael’s always been a physical manifestation of the truth that evil never dies so…who am I to hold that glaring reality against him?
Anyway…We’ll go ahead and take a look at the cons first.
The film, as a whole, feels awfully disjointed. I’m sure some of that can be attributed to the psychological and borderline subliminal underpinnings that run the course of the film…but some of it is downright odd. One instance Laurie’s an emotional wreck in therapy (hey Margot Kidder!) and the next she’s laughing like a care free soul at her job in the local beanery…then she’s shrieking her head off at finding out she’s Michael’s sister…then she wants to party and get drunk.
Wait…GUH!?
I get that Laurie’s mental state isn’t in the best of health at this point, but she was so hot and cold at times that it got a bit absurd.
Also, some of Brandon Trost’s cinematography is a tad dark…now of course there are plenty of moments where that works tremendously well. That moment when Michael puts his mask on in the field and kills the hicks or when the little boy asks of Michael’s a giant and whether or not they could be friends (CREEPY!) are great because they’re so dark. But there are other moments where it’s difficult to make things out.
Other then that, I really had no other major problems with the film so lets move on to the Pros.
It seems to me that those who are complaining the most about the film just didn’t get it from a storytelling perspective, which I got almost immediately.
If Rob’s original “Halloween” is, at its core, the story of Michael Myers and his descent into madness (which it is)…”Halloween II” is truly the parallel story of Laurie Strode and her own descent. You have to bear in mind that they’re cut from the same twisted, bloody cloth.
Now by extension of that fact, the biggest compliment I can give to the picture is that, rather to have it be yet another bloated knock off trying to breathe life into the motif of “Michael stalks around Haddonfield killing people” this one actually had the balls to doing something different. Sure the aforementioned motif is still in place, but that’s honestly not the lynchpin of the film.
Here we’re given a gaze into the distorted macabre of Michael’s psyche…something that’s never been explored to this sheer depth. And let me tell you, it’s not pretty.
Mary McLeod’s costuming is a shining point here…especially at that freaky banquet in Michael’s head (complete with a skeleton adorned with Michael’s trademark mask! Freakin’ AWESOME!). Those attendees with the rotting pumpkin heads and the like? Dude that’s f**ked up!
I just find it very easy to give Rob my respect because he took these characters and this world that I’ve come to know so well and completely spin it on its head, even more so than he did in his first film.
Perhaps that’s why I ended up liking the film more as well. Not only am I a fan of John Carpenter and his original film (which for all you wanting to keep score yes…his original ‘Halloween’ is far and away the best film to bear the title) but I’m a fan of the world and characters presented in this series. Loomis, Brackett, Haddonfield…all of it.
And, speaking as a fan of the series as a whole…who didn’t love that opening homage to the original “Halloween II” with Michael terrorizing Laurie in the hospital? In fact, that might be my favorite moment of the entire film due to the pacing…the rain-soaked photography…and the use of The Moody Blue’s “Knights in White Satin.” All of the elements work very well in that sequence.
The cast is exceptional here, with favorite performances going to Malcolm McDowell and Brad Dourif.
I love that, rather than invest in the collective performance of Donald Pleasance (which Malcolm still hasn’t seen), McDowell creates an equally valid portrayal of the good doctor…again casting a more realistic light on him as he peddles his brand new book of the Halloween massacre.
Brad has a bit more to do here, and his emotional distraught over Annie’s death is so raw and ripe with anger and enmity for both Michael and Loomis that it manages enough of a fight to put Charlie Cyphers’ “Halloween II” performance to shame.
The most noteworthy performance in the film, however, goes to Scout Taylor Compton, specifically in her ‘freakout’ mode. As I stated earlier, she’s emotionally all over the place in the film…but scenes such as when she reads Loomis’ book and discovers her connection to Michael (what a way to find out, huh!?) and in the finale where she consoles Michael just before killing him...I thought she did a tremendous job there.
I thought all of the cameos really helped to flesh the film out and a lot of them worked well with what little they were given. Margot Kidder, Brea Grant, Weird Al…wait, Weird Al!? Oh well…haha.
Lastly, Kudos also go to Tyler Mane. Now sure…I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I’m of two minds concerning Michael’s appearance in the film. On the one hand it’s interesting to see Michael as a weathered and tempered figure, beaten down but still ticking, while on the other I’d call shenanigans for turning him into a homeless Grizzly Adams (at least have him keep the mask on the entire time!).
But on the flip side, Rob and Tyler have to be given due credit for creating, in my humble opinion, the most brutal portrayal of Michael Myers EVER!
From stomping the ‘Rabbit in Red’ bouncer’s head into pulpy hamburger to stuffing his bearded mouth with raw dog entrails…WHEW…this depiction of the dreaded Shape doesn’t pull ANY punches.
Speaking of which, the deaths in this puppy were the most vicious in the franchise, again in my opinion.
When Michael stabs that nurse during the Hospital Dream…Holy S**T! Other nods go to pinning Floyd (Mark Boone Junior) onto the huge deer antlers on his truck’s front grill (!) and, as mentioned, stomping the bouncer’s head.
Going off of Floyd, one of the things I never understood were the audience’s collective hostility towards Zombie’s use of hillbillies and hicks in his “Halloween” films.
Umm…aren’t we in the American Midwest? Illinois, which is surrounded by the likes of Tennessee and Kansas…it makes sense that the farming community would be a bunch of hicks. It seems more logical than a film purely made up of white suburbia like the original two films. And besides, I don’t hear anyone giving “Halloween 4” any grief for having Earl and his shotgun-toting beer bellies…so uh, yeah, never understood the hate for that element.
The production design of the film is more or less common this time around…standouts include the Brackett Farmhouse (a Pentagram on the Bathroom door? SWEET!) and the Rabbit in Red Strip Lounge…which was originally set to have a larger presence in the first film, so it’s nice to see it get its due here…complete with a convenient red lighting motif to boot!
Oh and the finale! Wow…not since “Halloween 4” has Michael been faced with such an onslaught of armed forces. I was pumped to see Michael stare down a freakin’ police copter!
And much like Michael’s appearance I’m at odds on how I feel about Loomis’ death. On the one hand I like the Loomis character (even McDowell’s ******* version) enough to not want him to die…especially since he’s one of the best protagonists in contemporary American horror. But of course I understand that the need to be different was important to Rob. It took serious guts to kill off Loomis, and I respect that.
In the end, “Halloween II” isn’t so much a sequel…rather an elongated epilogue to Zombie’s original film. It sets out to bring closure, for better or worse, to all the characters and wrap the story up in a proper, logical way that feels as final as it can be…and in those regards, I feel the film succeeded.
All in all, the film is the darkest exploration into the world of Michael Myers that the series has taken…and that plays a big part of why I enjoyed it as much as I did.
But my feelings on the film are so mixed that the film, ultimately, suffers for me.
So much more could’ve been done…story wise, technically speaking…I honestly regret that Zombie didn’t take more time making it, especially since he seemed so much more passionate about this one than the first.
Live and learn.
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6/10
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