Seen on: August 29, 2009
The players: Director: Rob Zombie, Writer: Rob Zombie, Cast: Tyler Mane, Brad Dourif, Chris Hardwick, Scout Taylor-Compton, Malcolm McDowell
Facts of interest: "Halloween II" is apparently Zombie's last flick in the series.
The plot: Michael Myers is coming home to do what he does best: kill people in the most brutal ways possible.
Our thoughts: Let me start off by saying that you can count me among those unsatisfied with Rob Zombie ‘s 2007 remake of “Halloween.” No, it was not a total disaster in my book, but the film simply failed to impress and intrigue me. Now Zombie strikes back with a follow-up, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s a tad worse than his previous effort.
“Halloween II” is really more of a completely new sequel rather than a remake, and Zombie does whatever he wants with Michael Myers. As long as it’s something creative I don’t care how far he goes with offering viewers his own vision, but in this case, I simply couldn’t get the least bit excited about this horror show.
What I really missed in this film is suspense. While Zombie is perfectly capable of generating intense sequences via his eccentric direction and a lot of blood and gore, he really failed to create a suspenseful flick this time. “Halloween II” is certainly atmospheric and all, but Myers really doesn’t come across as a scary dude or anything.
Okay then, maybe Zombie doesn’t want him to come across as a scary dude, but that’s exactly what could’ve made this sequel a bit better and certainly more intriguing. In terms of story, “Halloween II” also failed to impress me, as the film’s often dragging plot offers only a whole lot more of the same during its 101-minute running time.
Basically, what you’ll end up seeing here is Myers walking and doing some killing, walking and doing some killing, and just because it’s so much fun, doing some more walking and more killing. Yes, I get that this is supposed to be a horror film and all about killing, but things can get very boring very easily.
Zombie also decided to introduce an entire series of dream sequences, nightmares and ghostly appearances, but those just didn’t work for me, especially because most of them look too goofy and just don’t fit the overall atmosphere of the flick. Some of these scenes are even laughable to some degree, as are some of the killings you get to experience.
Indeed, “Halloween II” is extremely gory and ultra-violent, but as it turned out, some people in the theater just started laughing occasionally as Myers started to tear his victims apart. That said, other brutal moments in the film did make me twitch at times, and some of those are actually quite disgusting. Fans should definitely be pleased.
Freaky quote: "I killed him... I killed him..." – Scout Taylor-Compton
The final word: This is pretty much all I have to say about “Halloween II,” a film that just completely failed to capture my attention. The cast does an overall decent job working with Zombie’s material, but I didn’t come across any noteworthy performances, really. In the end, I just wish Michael Myers didn’t come back
Article by Franck Tabouring