Review: ‘Halloween II’

Continuing the nightmare he began two years ago, Rob Zombie has returned for another go-around with the Haddonfield slasher, Michael Myers.  Of course, the nightmare he began with his remake of John Carpenter’s 1978 classic, ‘Halloween,’ was not just a nightmare for the characters in the film.  Many believed Zombie tried too hard to recreate Carpenter’s film, a la Gus Van Sant with ‘Psycho,’ while others felt the film deviated far too much.  Still others, myself included, felt Zombie’s first effort with these characters was jarring, disjointed, and, oftentimes, uncomfortable to watch.  Much of that probably had to do with Zombie’s own discomfort in trying to make his own film amidst the overall narrative of something nearly 30 years old.  However, with ‘Halloween II,’ Zombie has found his comfort.  No longer plagued by the belief he had to please all the people all the time, his latest film feels much more his own, and his comfort as writer and director can be seen in the finished product.

Sure, there is a slight nod to the 1981 ‘Halloween II.’  The opening moments of Zombie’s new film, much like the sequel to Carpenter’s original, begins mere moments after the first film.  Laurie Strode, played by Scout Taylor-Compton, is wandering the streets of Haddonfield, Illinois, a gun in her hand and soaked in the blood of the seemingly dead Michael Myers.  She soon finds herself in the hospital, and Myers, surprise, surprise, is anything but dead.

However, Zombie has no intentions of remaking ‘Halloween II.’  Instead, much of his ‘Halloween II’ takes place one year after the events of the first film.  Laurie is trying to get on with her life, now living with Sheriff Brackett, played by Brad Dourif, and his daughter, Annie, played by Danielle Harris.  In the previous year, Laurie has changed from the innocent, naive high schooler.  She has grown up, become somewhat of a hippie, and even sports a few tattoos.  Nonetheless, though she may have changed, she still has horrible nightmare and visions of a returning Michael Myers.  Needless to say, her visions are not entirely unfounded, and, as October 31st fast approaches, Myers returns to the town of his birth in search of Laurie and destroying anyone who gets in his path.

For better or for worse, Zombie’s sequel even further distances his vision of the story from that of Carpenter.  The famous Carpenter theme isn’t heard until the film’s closing credits.  Michael Myers, as in Zombie’s first ‘Halloween,’ is not a stealthy, stalking killer.  He is a hulking beast played by Tyler Mane, and, in ‘Halloween II,’ he is given even more of a humanistic quality than before.  We see Michael in the days before Halloween living as a bum on other people’s land, feeding off dogs and whatever form of sustenance he can find.  It is a very interesting dichotomy that Zombie develops with Michael, one that some may appreciate while others will not.  The classic, white mask Michael Myers wears has become tattered and torn in places, and, for a large part of the movie, Michael does not even wear it.  Either that, or he hides it under a hood.  This, too, will have many fans of the original series up in arms.  Regardless, whether it flows with the original visions of Michael Myers or not, it certainly falls into the logic of what Zombie has created with his first film.  Much of what he does with Michael Myers in ‘Halloween II’ flows right along with the story he has built up for the character.  And, for that alone, Zombie cannot be faulted for the directions he takes these character in this film.  So, too, can be said for the Dr. Samuel Loomis character, played with affable glee by Malcolm McDowell.  No longer the kind, gentle child psychologist, McDowell fleshes out the smarmy writer/businessman Loomis wonderfully.

For the aged protector in ‘Halloween II,’ Zombie turns to Dourif as Sheriff Brackett, who ends up being the deepest character in the entire film.  Brackett is a lonely, single father and sheriff of a small town who wants nothing more than to protect his daughter and her live-in friend.  The scenes where he is unable to do so are near heartbreaking, and much of this comes from Dourif’s incredible portrayal of the character.  Laurie may be the clear protagonist of ‘Halloween II,’ but it is with Dourif’s Sheriff Brackett that you connect most of all.

Back to the Michael Myers character a bit, Zombie produces near unintentional comedy in Michael’s visions of his mother, played by Sheri Moon Zombie.  He communicates with her through an apparitional avatar of himself as a young child.  Unfortunately, these moments hinder more than help the overall film.  Sheri Moon Zombie has grown so much as an actress since ‘House of 1000 Corpses,’ but she still doesn’t have the complete package to play this role of a ghostly vision of one’s mother.  The young actor playing Michael as a child, Chase Wright Vanek, is none too talented, and you long for the days of Daeg Faerch.  The white horse…let’s just say we all know where Zombie was going with that one, but it does miss the mark.  Zombie tries too hard in analyzing Michael’s psyche, and, in the end, it just boils down to Sheri Moon Zombie leading a white horse.  Intentions aside, it does grow somewhat laughable before long.

Scene for scene, ‘Halloween II’ is an impressively shot film.  Zombie has come into his own in the near decade has been directing films.  He composes off-kilter shots and utilizes lighting to the best of their ability.  However, as wonderful as his shots are, a large problem arises while moving throughout the narrative of ‘Halloween II.’  There is very little cohesion to the story.  Much of the film jumps from character to character without of word of how much time has passed or even where this scene is in direct relation to another scene.  Much of this is noticeable in Loomis’ scenes, which seem to be offering very little to the plot until the film’s final moments.  Loomis is on a book tour through Haddonfield.  He has a book signing, a scene featuring a character’s father which offers one of the better moments in the entire mythology for fans of the series.  He goes on a talk show with Weird Al Yankovic, which, believe it or not, produces some genuine moments of comedy.  These scenes with Loomis are really the only moments in Zombie’s sequel that feel disjointed, that hearken back to the issues Zombie had creating his first ‘Halloween’ film.  After the film is over, one can go back over each scene and see how they were building to a point, but, within the film itself, they are disconnected and almost pointless.  There is also one scene in particular involving one of Laurie’s friends whose mere presence causes frustration.  It involves a van, so you’ll know it when it comes along, but it doesn’t need to be here.  It doesn’t add anything.  If anything, it hurts the flow of the film.  This is one time where trimming an entire scene out and leaving it for the DVD special features would have helped tremendously.

Nonetheless, laughable Jungian subtext and insequential plot point ordering aside, there are some very suspenseful and very horrific moments in ‘Halloween II’ for horror fans to take solace in.  Zombie doesn’t shy away from using Michael, and he succeeds in making Michael the unstoppable killing force that he is, even more so than in his first film.  Fans of Zombie’s previous films will be happy to know that still knows how to utilize gore effects, and ‘Halloween II’ offers up some intense and satisfying kill scenes.  It is all logical, as well.  We aren’t left at the Level 1 slice and dice of Michael wielding a butcher’s knife, nor are we subjected to Michael devising elaborate schemes to take out his victims.  He uses what he can, and, when that doesn’t work, he turns to brute force to get the job done.

Zombie’s film, though never entirely scary, is intense, but it doesn’t push the pace to a breakneck speed, either.  He allows the story to breath, gives his characters time to set themselves before all hell breaks loose.  For this reason, alone, ‘Halloween II’ is a far better presented film than Zombie’s previous entry into the franchise.  Much of this stems from the comfort that is noticeable in his direction.  Never before have we had a helicopter shot of Michael walking in a field far in the distance, and this shot is just one in an entire film that allows us to sit back and take in the film at hand.  With the nightmare and vision scenes, Zombie is also allowed to create some intense and surreal imagery, as well.  Though there may be one or two too many of these, they are intriguing uses of his visual style.  One scene in particular makes you wonder how much more interesting a Rob Zombie vision of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ would be than the upcoming one from Tim Burton.

‘Halloween II’ is anything but a perfect slasher film.  There are several counts of logic loss and the second half of the film, the payoff, is nowhere near as satisfying as the buildup.  The psychoanalysis of Michael Myers began in 2007’s ‘Halloween’ and it continues to grow.  You can’t say Zombie abandons something once he sets his mind to exploring it.  For that, he earns points.  Regardless of the film’s flaws, ‘Halloween II’ is an intense whirlwind of macabre and grainy horror, the kind of unstoppable serial killer movie you just knew Zombie was going to make some day.  While it goes nowhere near touching Carpenter’s original, something so unobtainable you can’t even fault it for not trying, Zombie’s latest is a healthy helping of everything that defines his style of horror.  Love it or hate it, you know exactly what you are getting going in.  With that, Zombie has succeeded in what he set out to accomplish two years ago.  He has created a ‘Halloween’ story that both pleases fans of the genre and franchise and takes on a new life all its own.  This is Zombie’s ‘Halloween,’ and it tries to be nothing else.  In that, the film is triumphant.  In the annals of the slasher film, it still offers enough thrills and chills to prove a solid effort of the genre.