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 Halloween
II (Theatrical - 2009)
Dimension Films / 2009
Directed by Rob Zombie
Written by Rob Zombie
Cast: Scout Taylor-Compton, Tyler Mane, Malcolm McDowell,
Sheri Moon Zombie, Brad Dourif, Danielle Harris
Review by Jude Felton
Rob Zombie's 2007 remake/re-imagining, call it what you
will, of John Carpenter's Halloween seemed to divide
audiences. Me, I kinda liked it. Well, I did like the first
half considerably more than the latter, but on the whole I
wasn't offended by it and I have revisited it a few times.
With this sequel though I feel that the split may well be a
little more cut and dry. Why is that you may ask? Because,
truth be known it is a poor movie.
Starting pretty much where the 2007 movie left off it
follows big Mike Myers as he is transported in an ambulance
to a hospital. Guess what though, he's not dead. Sorry, if I
spoilt it for you but he's not. Carnage quickly ensues as he
is guided by the ghost of his mother, played once again by
Sheri Moon Zombie, back to Haddonfield to finish off what he
started before.
The survivors of the first movie, Laurie Strode
(Taylor-Compton) and Annie Brackett (Harris), recover from
their injuries in hospital. Although Annie seemed to come
off far worse she deals with the situation a whole lot
better than Laurie does. She jumps right back into her life
whereas Laurie is plagued with nightmares and spends most of
her time at her psychiatrist's. That is when she's not busy
trying to grunge up her image.
Alongside all of this we also follow Dr Loomis (McDowell) as
he gallivants around the country promoting his new book
about Michael.
Now, this had a little potential to be a half decent movie.
However, it didn't pan out as one. Firstly, the whole movie
seems incredibly rushed with the script suffering more than
anything else. Why do we need a ghost of Michael's mother
guiding him on his way to more bloodshed? Characters are
thrown onto the screen purely to be killed off. Now this
might be a modern day slasher flick but I expected a little
more from this, especially after the thought that went into
the first half of the 2007 movie.
Instead, this movie is a mish-mish of events that just seem
to happen, with no real cohesion or thought to the outcome.
And did it need to be quite so over the top in the death
scenes? After 5 minutes of someone getting stabbed I kinda
got the picture, they're dead ok! I really did get the
impression that the violence contained within was just there
to make up for the rest of the film's shortcomings.
On the plus side, yes there is one, I did enjoy McDowell's
return as Loomis. Sure, he's no Donald Pleasance, but he did
add another dimension to the character. There are some nice
visuals here and there, and the the last five minutes or so
I thought were cool. That aside I did feel truly let down. I
watched The Devil's Rejects shortly after viewing this
movie, and it's hard to believe that it is from the same
writer/director.
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