A Review of Halloween II

From the moment Rob Zombie’s Halloween II begins, the viewer should know that they are in for a truly unique and bizarre experience. Static, white text fills the screen telling the viewer of a psychological white horse vision, which later on becomes the very imagery that appears to drive Michael Myers to his murderous ways. Ten minutes later, as a hulking Myers walks away from a destroyed, crashed ambulance to see a vision of a pale, white satin bound Sherri Moon Zombie and a white horse, the viewer should really know they’re in for a bizarre experience if they didn’t already. And did I mention that this takes place right after Michael cuts off a necrophilic paramedic’s head slowly and painstakingly with a piece of broken glass?

With bizarre visions of white horses and horrific scenes of startling, realistic violence, it’s hard to see this as a Halloween movie.  And that’s because Halloween II is not a Halloween movie. It’s a Rob Zombie movie one hundred percent. This is both a good and bad thing.

Out of all the movies to be released this year, Rob Zombie’s Halloween II may easily be the most misunderstood. The movie is kind of like a slap in the face to the viewer. In fact, at times, it almost feels as if Zombie was testing us all. The film is angry, bleak, at times inspired and completely erratic. It never calms down, moving one hundred miles per hour, never giving the viewer any time to breath. Overall, it’s a complete mess of a film but I really feel that there was some interesting stuff going on in it that cannot be ignored.

First off, let me say that I was in the minority two years ago when Zombie’s first Halloween remake was released. While the film was incredibly flawed and, at times way too over-the-top (the breakfast scene at the beginning), I enjoyed it for the most part as Zombie’s own, unique love letter to Carpenter’s original, classic film (you can read an article where I compare the remake and original here if you are interested). So, with that said, I went into this film slightly interested to see what Zombie could come up with but also very cautious to the quality of the film.

The movie I got was something that I wasn’t prepared or what I wanted. Still, it was an experience that I won’t soon forget. Halloween II is one of the angriest movies I think I’ve ever seen. It’s a movie about the aftermath of a horrific murder spree and how even those that survived will never really completely recover physically or emotionally.

This is where I felt the movie really excelled. In other horror films, the survivors of the previous film's massacre don’t really seem that affected. Here, Zombie spells the resulting dysfunction and emotional pain out both in blatant and subtle methods. Laurie Strode, once preppy and slightly innocent, now sleeps in a room plastered with a poster of Charlie Manson (with spray-painted text saying “In Charlie We Trust”), lives in therapy sessions, suffers from horrible nightmares every night, curses like a sailor and seems to be on the verge of a complete emotional breakdown.

The most interesting relationship I saw that resulted from Michael’s first reign of terror was the one between Sheriff Brackett (the amazing Brad Dourif) and his daughter Annie (an equally impressive Danielle Harris). Annie wears horrible scars from her encounter with Michael in the first film. In a really subtle performance, Harris also manages to get out the emotional scarring that resulted from that encounter. Her interactions with Dourif are very natural and really showed how their bond has strengthened since the horrible attacks the previous Halloween. The fact that we never see Annie outside of the confines of her father’s house really says a lot about how her life has drastically changed because of Michael’s actions.

Dourif really manages to be the standout performance in the cast by his very subtle performance as Sheriff Brackett. This is one of the few times where I actually found one of Zombie’s characters stronger than Carpenter’s original version. Dourif really manages to get across the struggle Brackett is going through in trying to keep the world together for himself, Annie and Laurie since the attacks and how easily it can all fall apart.

The last survivor of the first film’s massacre also has some interesting things going on. While many reviews have criticized Malcolm McDowell’s Dr. Loomis as adding nothing to Zombie’s film, I beg to differ. Loomis spends most of the film away from Haddonfield doing a promotional tour for his newest “blood-money” novel on Michael Myers. McDowell revels in making Loomis greedy and uncaring, something that really can be difficult to take as a fan of the original Halloween series. However, his performance really gives the film some nice comic relief at times. I also enjoyed seeing how he really had to recognize the moral decisions that needed to be made in the end to right all the wrongs he had been apart of. For me, his character really reminded me of Scatman Crothers’ Halloran in The Shining. He spends most of the movie away in the background and then has to make a return in the end to make a vital sacrifice. I felt that this was interesting.

Another way that Zombie really excels at selling the “aftermath” of violence is his actual portrayal of violence in the film. Unlike most horror films, which sell their violence as “fun” and “gory gags and set pieces,” Zombie shows his violence as gritty and horrible as it really is. The only instance where he really explored this kind of realistic, brutal violence in the first film was in the killing of the child bully (a scene so disturbing in its realism that it sparked a lot of walk outs when I saw the film in theaters; both my sister Avery and friend Guy stopped watching the first movie after this scene). In Halloween II, almost every kill follows the realism of this moment and even surpasses it at times. When people are killed, Michael is showed grunting and getting into the kills. Instead of people getting stabbed once or twice, Michael stabs them at an upwards of twenty times (this really isn’t much of an exaggeration). One victim is slammed on the ground and Michael proceeds to stomp his head in with his giant foot, leaving only a little slab of mangled flesh and bone. It’s these extra few stabs and time spent focusing on the kills that really makes the experience of watching the event a horrible thing for the audience. All of a sudden, the horror film isn’t a thrilling experience. For once, Zombie really forces the viewer to realize what they are watching: another human being completely destroy another. The reality of the discovery is a little sickening. By doing all of this, Zombie really alienates his audience but also manages to make a satire of the horror genre and a valid point: murder is a truly awful thing, whether it’s in real life or film.

Zombie also really gains points due to the pure artistic nature he achieves in some of the “visions” and dream sequences that occur in the film. In one standout scene, Laurie arrives at a dinner table surrounded by pumpkin-faced children and ancient looking adults. A skeleton hangs on the wall opposite the table with the iconic Michael Myers mask on top of it. The cinematography and artistry of the sequence is almost that of a vision that Guillermo del Toro would put to film. A latter sequence in which Laurie imagines herself killing someone close to her is full of truly horrific imagery and manages to be pretty creepy to watch. However, despite the inventiveness of these sequences (and a truly haunting moment at the end of the film in the shack), they really take away from the extreme, brutal, angry reality that Zombie seems intent on establishing in other sequences.

Like every film Zombie has made since The Devil’s Rejects, the soundtrack for Halloween II is pretty well done. Zombie really integrates music into his movies well, much like Quentin Tarantino. For most people, the ending of The Devil’s Rejects set to Lynard Skynard’s “Freebird” will never leave their minds. Zombie really manages to get an effective usage out of The Moody Blue’s “Nights in White Satin” in the hospital sequence of this film. The song, already melancholy and haunting, really adds to the creepy nature of this sequence. However, it also works as a linkage between Laurie and Michael. The song's title and main lyric is an obvious allusion to the image of the ghost of Deborah Myers in her white, satin dress that drives Michael to find Laurie.

While Zombie does have some truly interesting things going on in this film, the fact remains that it’s a mess. Michael spends most of the movie wandering around and killing people that have nothing to do with the overall story (rednecks, strippers, horny teens). If he’s so eager to get to Laurie then why is he wasting time knifing hicks in a cornfield? It doesn’t make much sense.  Another scene features Michael at the same Halloween party as Laurie. Instead of getting Laurie, he kills two kids about to have sex and then just leaves. What’s the point in that? Also, because Michael has been resorted to just a complete force of destruction, all the character development that was attempted in the first film feels pointless. Michael is just a hulking mass in the film with nothing to add to the story but a body count. After Zombie tried so hard to make him more of a mortal character in the first film, I felt slightly betrayed by this (even if it did make Michael a little scarier this time around).

Speaking of scares, that’s another place where Zombie fails completely. There were one or two decent set-ups in the first film (The Strode house sequence, the Bob ghost fake out and the awesome bathroom scene) but not one in this one. When people are killed in this movie, there is no build or chase leading up to it. Michael usually doesn’t pop out from the shadows before taking his victims. No, usually he just walks up in plain sight and proceeds to kill them brutally for the next five minutes. Yes, Zombie achieves some great realism here but he sucks out all the “horror” from the horror film. After all, that is what Halloween II is, right?

There also times when Zombie seems to be self-destructive with his filmmaking. There is one particular effective sequence that has some tense moments and a general atmosphere of excitement and creepiness. This sequence pays off in being an overlong dream sequence. Because this sequence was so engaging, this pay off feels like a slap in the face. There are many times when Zombie does this throughout the film. Every time he seems to be succeeding, he does something to shoot himself in the foot. It’s quite frustrating to experience.

The worst part of the film is definitely Zombie’s dialogue. Every other word seems to be the F-word and it gets old fast. The dialogue was my biggest problem with the first film and it definitely did not improve in this newest film. It really drags the film down, especially in the coffee shop scene with the three “lead” girls.

In the end, Halloween II is not a good movie. In fact, it’s a mess. Still, I found a lot of it really interesting. I was glad to see that Zombie was exercising more of his vision this time than being constrained by the confines of John Carpenter’s world. His vision does, however, prove to be the film’s downfall in the end. While it is exciting to see all of the original things he can come up with in this overdone series, he does get too frantic with all of it. The film lacks focus and becomes kind of a drag about half way through. It’s also not a particularly enjoyable film experience. By the end of the movie, I felt like I needed to take a shower. That’s how brutal and grimy it can get. Still, I plan on watching the movie again, hopefully with Zombie’s commentary. It’s a film full of some ambitious moves and interesting concepts. Unfortunately, it’s just not as good as most of the concepts are.

5/10