Halloween II Review

I was a fan of Rob Zombie’s 2007 remake of Halloween.  For all of it’s gritty violence, the film kept us grounded via some pretty decent characterizations — namely those of Scout Taylor-Compton’s Laurie Strode and Sheri Moon Zombie’s Deborah Myers.  We felt the connection Deborah had with young Michael and the strong connection Laurie had with her step-parents as well; it felt authentic.  There also seemed to be a plot in that film as well, as its two hour run seemed to fly right on by.

Halloween 2 is a mixed bag.  In the first film Zombie successfully gave us a slasher film without all of the unnecessary cheesy scare tactics (”the cat in the closet” type deal).  In fact, that film’s strength relied on the fact that every thing was very straight forward and focused on Micheal’s raw and extreme power without all of that ridiculous suspense.  The film also never copped out and gave us scenes of people being killed only for us to find out we’ve been watching someone’s dream and nothing has really happened.

For the new film it seems that Zombie had one great idea and was forced to pad the rest of the film with useless drivel.  The great idea was to show the slow deterioration of Laurie’s mental state after the events of the first film.  Again, Zombie is extremely honest with Laurie’s characterization and we understand that if someone had endured what she has, then this is the way they would behave as well.  No, she hasn’t necessarily become some crazed wild child, though that it is how it may appear; she’s simply a very confused, very traumatized young girl.

Zombie also shows us scenes from Michael’s point of view as well — views that are just as deranged as we could imagine.  It’s fairly interesting and works insomuch as we’ve never seen things from this side of Michael before.

Where the film really loses itself, though, is in shear continuity holes and dream sequences that are, save for maybe one, completely useless.

Take one of the opening scenes.  Laurie is in the hospital and Michael is being carried away by a coroner.  The coroner van crashes into a cow (well that’s just inconvenient isn’t it?) and Michael escapes.  Sure he was shot in the face at the close of the first movie, but I guess that doesn’t seem to stop him from standing up again and going on his merry way without a single line of explanation.  Meanwhile Laurie is in the hospital when suddenly Michael shows up and begins wreaking havoc once again.  In what is roughly a ten minute scene of Michael killing and chasing Laurie throughout the hospital, the scene cuts away and BOOM! we’re in Laurie’s bedroom as she awakes screaming from her nightmare.

Michael never came to the hospital, you see, it was all just in her head: ten whole minutes wasted.  But wait, was the coroner van crash scene not real, either?  Well, it was (I guess?) since as we find out, Micheal’s body was never recovered.  Does this worry anybody?  Only Laurie, it seems, and here we go falling back into the annoying plot holes of some of the original sequels.  So yes, Michael magically survives without explanation and exactly one year later he returns.  Where was he hiding?  We don’t know.  We only catch up with him as he makes his way back and finds a home in an abandoned shack a few days before Halloween.

Sheriff Bracket and his daughter, Annie, are back, both heavily scarred by the events as well.  Bracket does his best to keep Annie’s and Laurie’s (who has moved in with them) home life as normal as possible.  Annie is sorely underused as the person who has been heavily affected by Michael almost as much as Laurie, yet is still trying to hold it all together and keep it going one day at a time.  These three characters are by far the most interesting of the movie as we feel this is far and away the most realistic depiction of a group of people still trying to cope with tragedy as any slasher movie has ever given us.

Dr. Loomis is back as well, and Sheriff Bracket is furious with him.  Since the first film, Loomis has become something of a media whore, cashing in on his “first hand” experience in dealing with the psychopath that is Michael Myers.  Sure, he dealt with him when he was kid, but then he was only a doctor; now he’s also a survivor.  He was a new book where he names specific details of Michael’s case, specifically the one that deals with Laurie being his sister.  You see, Laurie was never given this information, even after the events of the first film, because it really would not have helped her situation.  We know this because once she gets her hands on the book and finally finds out, her mental state begins to deteriorate even further, which finally culminates with the return of Michael on Halloween night.

As in the first film, Zombie has some nice cinematography and some genuinely spooky shots, but the film itself just does not go anywhere.  Michael is chasing Laurie once again, killing anyone in his path, the only difference this time is that Laurie is far worse off to deal with the situation.  If nothing else, the film has a logical ending that I actually found fairly satisfying.  And I must say that, as in the first film, I found Scout Taylor-Compton to be a very fine and very charming actress, and it is her believability as Laurie that seems to carry this film all the way through.