Halloween II
Directed by Rob Zombie
Dimension Films, 2009
By Sean Kelly and Caesar Martini
[I must preface this by noting that this is not a true point-counterpoint article. Each reviewer wrote his piece oblivious to the work being done by the other. It just lines up sometimes that two reviewers happen to find themselves on opposite sides of the coin on a given picture and it's worth contrasting their opinions directly. Enjoy! - Ed.]
Going In
Sean:
A few years ago I finally saw John Carpenter’s original Halloween and ever since then I’ve made it a tradition to watch it on Halloween night. Michael Myers became a horror icon a couple years before anybody had heard anything about Freddy or Jason — donning his white mask, with its blank expression, he was able to make even the simplest act of crossing the street terrifying.
When Rob Zombie came on board two years ago to “reimagine” the film, I must admit that I was intrigued, to say the least. When I saw the film, I was sort of digging the new expanded back-story Rob Zombie created for Michael Myers. However, when it came to the actual remake portion of the film, it became apparent that Zombie had no real care for anyone other than Myers and pretty much the bulk of the plot of the original film was compressed into a 45 minute or so third act.
So why then am I bothering with the sequel? The reason is that it appeared that Zombie was heading in his own direction as opposed to remaking the original Halloween II (though the film does contain a brief homage to it.) As such, I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt to see if the rebooted series could be salvaged.
Caesar:
Let me make this clear right from the start: I am not a horror movie fan. It’s just not my thing. Unlike my high-school chums, I never felt that curious, tingling glee in watching Jason or Freddy brutally tear what were obviously pieces of soggy rubber from the special-effects abdomens of silly teenagers who apparently weren’t smart enough not to frolic and get their tits out in the abandoned graveyard where all those people got killed last week.
To me, most horror films are utterly and unforgivably boring. So many of them have no point or no concern other than to show as many stupid/naked people dying in as graphic a way as possible. There’s no real story involved beyond “here is a psycho, watch him kill some ass,” there’s very little character growth or development, the filmmaking is typically something that could charitably be called amateurish and more accurately be called a steaming pile of rancid turds, and most of the characters are utterly unlikable. It’s one trick, repeated over and over ad nauseum until I wish the killer would show up in my theater and kill me so I wouldn’t have to be subjected to this mindless, pointless repetition.
Thus, I went into H2 fully expecting to not much care for it. And not much care for it I surely did. “Well obviously!” you may cry, “Because of all that stuff you just said!” Well, fair point. I’m sure if instead of a terrible movie about dismemberment, I saw an equally terrible movie about something I like, say, kung fu, I would have tolerated it to a much greater degree, but I still wouldn’t think it was good. In fact, I saw Zombie’s 2007 remake of Halloween and though it wasn’t quite my cup of tea, I at least found it interesting and worthy of some modicum of respect. So what did H2 do so wrong, besides embodying all the traits of a genre of films that I wish had died out in the ’80s?
Story
Sean:
As it turned out, like the Friday the 13th reboot from earlier this year, the original story was the best thing that could have been done for this film. The film still has flaws and your enjoyment will probably be dependant on how much of a Halloween purist you are, but I do say that this film was a HUGE improvement from the last Zombie-directed one.
The first thing that Zombie does right is to bring the focus of the story back to Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) where it belongs. Laurie is suffering from major post-traumatic stress after the encounter with Michael Myers and she is living with “now a survivor” Annie (Danielle Harris) and her father, Sheriff Brackett (Brad Dourif). Sam Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) is also a survivor and he has been re-interpreted more in the vein of Gale Weathers from Scream 2 in that he has now written a tell-all book (emphasis on tell-all), which is met with scorn from all the others involved in the events.
Caesar:
At least the first Halloween had something of a story for me to follow, chronicling the transformation of Michael Myers from fat, weird kid to psychotic killing machine, and at least it didn’t look like all the cameramen were extremely nearsighted and possibly drunk. Rob Zombie has said that H2 is more “his” movie than the first, as he was trying to make a faithful recreation of the original Halloween in his first go about. It appears that once he got that out of the way, he felt free to abandon all the things that were good about his first effort and concentrate on making a contemporary version of a terrible horror movie you might have seen somewhere around the time Friday The 13th part 6 came out, and indeed you might have enjoyed Halloween II if it came out at that time.
Characters and Performance
Sean:
Unlike the last film, which introduced characters only to have Michael Myers kill them soon after, I found that this film at least attempts to develop the characters (at the least the ones closest to Laurie). The stand-out among these new characters is Laurie’s co-worker Mya (played by Brea Grant from Heroes). That said, there are still many transition scenes throughout the film (that’s my best description) where some new Myers fodder is introduced briefly only to be killed in some very brutal and gory ways (you call tell Rob Zombie has more creative control when one of the deaths involves Myers crushing someone’s head by stomping it with his foot).
If there is one element of the film that I had a bit of a beef with, it’s the various ghostly visions of Michael Myers’ mother (Sheri Moon Zombie), which seems like an excuse for Zombie to cast his wife, like he always does. However, their inclusion does help with one of the major plot developments.
Caesar:
The protagonist, Laurie or whatever her damn name is, Michael Myers’ unwitting sister, is unbelievably annoying. Her method of delivery oscillated between: 1) screaming and blubbering incoherently in mad stark terror and 2) screaming and blubbering incoherently in blissful drunken glee. There was no middle ground, which means she was always screaming. Terrified? Screaming. Happy? Screaming. Reading the paper with a nice cup of tea and an English muffin? Screaming. You know you’ve failed to make a compelling or engrossing movie when the character I’m supposed to sympathize with the most is the one I want to die the soonest. And in fact, she is the only character we are meant to sympathize with, as almost everyone in this film is either an asshole or pants-on-head retarded.
Aesthetics and Directing
Sean:
Before I finish, I want to talk a bit about the music. The score is once again done by Tyler Bates; however, there are not as many cues from John Carpenter’s original soundtrack this time around. The familiar theme music doesn’t show up until the end credits. But I do have to say that the film features a very chilling rendition of “Laurie’s Theme” from the original (which is probably my other favourite of the Halloween themes).
Caesar:
Well, the directing is uglier than a hatful of assholes. Zombie never seems to be able to fit more than one person’s face on the screen at one time; the whole thing is just a succession of grainy closeups. He allows the camera to zoom out only when it’s absolutely necessary, and when it does he seems to get spiteful about it and throws some sort of random visual obstacle in the way, just to make it harder for you to see the movie he spent so much time working on. I suppose he was going for a claustrophobic or disorienting feel, and I guess he achieved that, along with making me wish I was watching something else.
Concluding Remarks
Sean:
At the very least Rob Zombie salvaged the Halloween series before he goes on to other projects (including, reportedly, a new remake of The Blob). I still have to say I prefer John Carpenter’s original above all else; however, this was a decent entry in the series.
Caesar:
In hindsight, I should probably thank Rob Zombie for making a film like this. Now, instead of providing an itemized list of all the things I don’t like about horror films, I can just point to a copy of Halloween II and say, “pretty much that.”
