Halloween 2 of 2009 is a sequel to the 2007 re-make of the original Halloween (made in 1978), which also had a sequel called Halloween 2. Hopefully that’s clear now. What’s also clear is that the director of the re-makes, Rob Zombie, is a risk-taker with his own unique vision of Michael Myers and his family. The fact that this vision does not always mesh with what came before it is sometimes an irritant but it is better to distinguish yourself than repackage weaker and weaker copies of the same original. The new movie’s underlying problem is that Zombie’s execution is not as crisp as seen in the Halloween of 2007. Halloween 2 shoots forward well at the beginning, paying homage to the original sequel, but afterwards becomes less focused and more jittery. The inclusion of a supernatural element could have worked better than it ultimately did and the ending leads to more confusion than insight.
Scout Taylor-Compton continues as Laurie Strode (performed in the original by Jamie Lee Curtis), the baby sister of the masked killer Michael Meyers. While the audience knew about this connection from the first film, Laurie does not discover the truth until part-way through Halloween 2. The new film takes place a year later, with several of the surviving characters of last year’s massacre moving on with their lives. Dr. Loomis (Michael McDowell) continues as a pseudo-celebrity on tour to celebrate his new book, while Sheriff Brackett (Brad Dourif) and his daughter Annie (Danielle Harris) still live in Haddonfield, with Laurie. Michael’s body disappeared after the Halloween killing spree, but the memory of him still lingers with Laurie. When Halloween rolls around again and people start dying, it isn’t long before she sees Michael again.
The characters in Zombie’s world are hard to relate to because of their extreme lifestyles and profanity-laced dialogue. A little swearing helps the story, distinguishes characters, and portrays extreme emotions but if everybody drops f-bombs all the time, it becomes almost comical. The beginning sequence in Halloween 2 gave me hope that Zombie would skew close to the original sequel. The scene in the hospital is terrifying, exciting and worthy of Zombie’s original film. The quality slides after this scene with too much jumpy camera work taking away from the action in the rest of the movie.
Sherri Moon Zombie returns as the apparition of Michael’s mother. Is she there or isn’t she as Michael trods through more bodies? Initially a creepy addition to the film, it becomes overused and under-explained. Dr. Loomis is completely wasted in this new movie, betraying his characterization in prior installments. He is not helpful, vain, and has no apparent connection to the plot until the very end. The ending is particularly frustrating, as Zombie was probably going for a twist ending but couldn’t manage to pull it off convincingly. There are occasional scares throughout the picture, especially in the beginning, but the underlying camera problems and story issues undercut the impact of the film. Overall, Zombie created a decent side story for the Michael Myers character but his versions cannot supplant the memory of the originals.
Rated R for strong brutal bloody violence throughout, terror, disturbing graphic images, language, and some crude sexual content and nudity.
