Haloween 2
HALLOWEEN II
by Scott Seals
After Halloween: Resurrection was released, I had given up on the Halloween franchise. What used to be a carefully shot, expertly timed thrill had been reduced to a laughable parody worthy of a Golden Raspberry Award. Upon hearing of Rob Zombie’s plans to remake the franchise in his image, I was startled. At the time, I hadn’t seen House of 1,000 Corpses or The Devil’s Rejects, so the only exposure I had to Mr. Zombie was his music. I found it difficult to translate the imagery and atmosphere of his music into film, let alone a character I was as familiar with as Michael Myers. I was understandably skeptical until I saw the teaser. The tone of the trailer was familiar, accurate, but most importantly, good! I began to think that if anyone could revitalize Haddonfield, it was this Robert Zombie fellow.
And then, I saw the movie.
Rob Zombie’s Halloween is easily one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. The focus on young Michael was distracting, as was the casting. It also sucked away everything creepy about the character…it gave him a (bad) reason to return as a hulking psycho killer. I couldn’t help feeling as if this whole film was Rob Zombie’s shameless attempt at some sort of catharsis, inserting himself into the movie as young Michael just to vent his own childhood rage. It felt cheap and flavorless. To be quite honest, I could go on for hours about how terrible this movie was. Lucky for you, however, this is not a review of Halloween.
The trailer for Halloween II debuted on the Internet. Instead of approaching the feature and advertising surrounding it with cautious optimism as I had the first, I dismissed it entirely. I was convinced it would be utter trash. However, as a horror fan, I was essentially obligated to give it a shot. What I saw proved my suspicions incorrect and I’ve never been so happy to be so wrong.
Halloween II begins in a hospital, the setting for the original Halloween II produced by John Carpenter. After some startling imagery (and stunning use of the Moody Blues’ “Nights In White Satin”), our protagonist Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) wakes up, proving the first few minutes to be a dream. This clever fake-out serves as both a successor and an homage to the style and tone of the original sequel, while seemingly pointing out that this is NOT a remake of the previous film entitled Halloween II. From here on out, it’s clear that the story of Michael Myers (Tyler Mane and Chase Wright Vanek) is moving in a brand new direction clear of rehashed and reused material.
The film goes on to establish how Michael’s night of terror has affected the survivors. Returning characters are scarred, both physically and mentally. Dr. Samuel Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) is no longer the vigilante psychiatrist fearlessly chasing after Michael to save Laurie’s life, we’ve known for years. Instead, he has capitalized on his involvement in the tragedy at Haddonfield by writing a book exploiting the privacy of those involved. In this book, Loomis has published a little-known secret about the Myers case: the fact that Laurie Strode is the younger sister of Michael Myers.
Inevitably, nearly a year after the events of the previous Halloween night, Laurie Strode reads the book and finds out who she really is. This triggers her own Michael-esque descent into madness, quietly offering to the viewer that perhaps this madness is a family trait.
The only aspect of this film that rubs me the wrong way is the involvement of Michael’s mother as a hallucination. It allowed for a very clever depiction of Michael as a confused child lumbering around in an adult’s body, but the desperate need to please “Mommy” was far too reminiscent of Jason Vorhees. It was almost tacky, however it was justified in the film’s final scene.
In short, this movie worked. The difference between this movie and Zombie’s original Halloween is nearly as drastic as the difference between his first two movies. Nothing was rushed, everything seemed meticulously planned. It was very tight, very cohesive, very sound…expertly edited! The cinematography was beautiful, the dialog far less campy, the acting very natural, and the emotion very real. I can’t say enough good about this movie and it just goes to show that any franchise can be saved if enough care is put into it.
Here’s hoping the same goes for Freddy!
2 Responses to “Haloween 2”
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Ok, I haven’t seen H2 yet, so I’m not going to comment much here, I am excited to see it soon though. This review makes me hopeful, because you weren’t a fan of the 1st movie, but I actually liked it alot. Zombies vision of the origin of Michael included some interesting things, that the original film failed to show, what led him to be who he was, and his growing up in an institution, zombie really rounded out the origin, and made Michael, “human.” great review though, makes me eager to see it, if it manages to outshine zombies first installment into the series… And welcome to darqpress.com Scott, looking forward to the next article I’ve heard you’re working on.
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