Watch Halloween II (2009)

It has been on paper, by critics perhaps less sensitive to the horror genre, that Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2 is a recreate of the 1981 sequel to John Carpenter’s spanking new suburban slasher. It is significant to note that this is not the case. The tricky but imperative distinction is that, rather than a remake of a sequel, Halloween 2 is the sequel to Rob Zombie’s 2007 re-establish.There’s a subtheme running through HALLOWEEN II about the exploitation of the Michael Myers name for turnover, and Exhibit A is HALLOWEEN II itself. The film that Rob Zombie first said he’d never make, and then got quick to the screen by Dimension Films when he altered his mind, adds nothing to the mythology established by John Carpenter and Debra Hill in 1978 and embellished by Zombie two years ago, reduces Michael from a malefic All Hallows’ spirit to a lumbering, easily distracted hulk and, most crucially, is almost never creepy.
Two years ago, Zombie remade Carpenter’s original Halloween film, filling in Michael Myers’ childhood, folks, and progression into the untainted embodiment of evil. Roughly speaking though, it was a quite faithful adaptation. Rather than rehashing the 1981 sequel though, the new Halloween 2 makes a reverent nod towards the original franchise earlier than taking off into uncharted new territory. Whereas Zombie’s first film supplementary new content surrounding Michael’s origin as a killer, Halloween 2 takes us inside his head.
The bulk of the translation takes place a year after the events of the first film. Michael Myers is presumed dead, even though his body was lost, Dr. Loomis has become moneyed and pompous by exploiting Michael’s notoriety, and Laurie is leisurely sorting through the psychological trauma left from last year’s massacre. As another Halloween approaches though, a well-known face is recurring to Haddonfield leaving a trail of bodies in his wake.
Halloween 2 struggles with some of the same pacing issues that the 2007 Halloween suffered from, but Zombie’s fruition as a filmmaker is marked. The sequences depicting Laurie’s nightmares and the peeks in Michael’s head are visually stunning while still relying on relatively straightforward cinematic techniques. There is possibly even an eerie, gruesome elegance to the simplicity of these moments in comparison to the hyper-gore of the rest of the film and most contemporary horror.
It would be tantamount to heresy to say that Rob Zombie’s new Halloween 2 is on par with John Carpenter’s unmarked 1978 slasher opus. On the other hand though, the assessment isn’t really fair. Carpenter’s unmarked is the apex of the 1970s-80s era of holiday-themed and domestic slasher films. Zombie’s Halloween 2 is more modern, has a lot more wealth behind it, and is more mature in almost every sense of the word. There’s certainly no replacing Carpenter’s typical, but the new Halloween 2 has already stepped far above all of the seven original franchise sequels put together.
One of the things that made Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN, and Zombie’s to an level, so effective was the contrast between the inviting, autumnal environment of suburban Haddonfield by day and the menacing darkness that overtakes it when Halloween night falls. The new HALLOWEEN II, however, hammers on a note of gloom from the beginning, and while some of cinematographer Brandon Trost’s intentionally grainy images are visually striking, the overall lack of modulation in tone prevents the motion picture from building much suspense. Still, one can be thankful that there aren’t more attempts at intentional humor-at least if they would have wound up like the film’s most embarrassing moment, which sees Dr. Loomis on a snarky talk show where his fellow guest is “Weird Al” Yankovic. Later on, Loomis is seen scrutiny the program during its broadcast in his hotel room, and, evidently as mortified as addressees are likely to be, he buries his face in his hands and moans, “It’s over.” Truer words-at least, one can hope-were never spoken.