Halloween II: BD Review
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Page 1 of 3 Sony / 2009 / 105 Minutes / Rated R / Street Date: January 12, 2010
I'll say this for Rob Zombie's Halloween 2: He has the film's mood down pat. From the creaky opening moments of the film, through development and plot exposition, murders and slayings, the adventures of slutty girls in tight tops toward dire ends, Halloween II has a sense about it, an aura of impending doom and loud, buzz-saw violence that is never compromised and doesn't let up - not even for a minute. In a way, in this post-Saw world, it's a unique fusion of that film's shock-o-rama groadiness and the dusty, almost tetanus-ridden lo-fi terror of old Tobe Hooper movies (Halloween II was even shot on 16mm film): Call it retro super-gore. And Zombie seems a great fit for the reboot of the Halloween franchise (if, indeed, we absolutely must have a reboot at all). Both postmodern in his pretense yet apparently nearly encyclopedically knowledgeable of all things 70s horror, Zombie's take on Michael Myers - and the spiritual slipperiness around that iconic character - is fresh yet nostalgic. Zombie knows how to elaborate upon the mythos of that masked killer for a modern audience while somehow trying to hearken back to John Carpenter's original as often as is prudent.
The revamped Halloween tale here goes a little something like this: After surviving the blood-soaked nightmare of the first Halloween reboot film, Laurie (Scout Taylor-Compton), just can't shake the image of that killer trying to off her. But it turns out that her fever dreams are the least of her worries - turns out ol' Mikey has decided to return to Haddonfield, Illinois thanks to beyond-the-grave calls from his mama (Sheri Moon Zombie), and it is decided that the Myers clan (living or otherwise) must be together, no matter how many corpses need to be produced in the process. Sure, there's a subplot with shock-horror writer Samuel Loomis (Malcolm McDowell), who doesn't feel he's getting the media attention he deserves for covering the first wave of Michael Myers slashing that involves the trash-talking guy 'upping his game' (so to speak), but for the most part, Halloween II is a movie about innocent victims trying to run away from Michael Myers and maybe 10% of them actually making good on it. While Rob Zombie's vision with Halloween II comes across loud and clear, I must say that I was disappointed in the film's lack of simple dynamism. If John Carpenter is a master at one thing, it's about setting up sequences that not only scare the crap out of you, but they sneak up behind your back before they do it: Even upon repeat viewings of the director's masterworks (I think I'd put The Thing at the top), he's still able to send shivers up your back. With Zombie's Halloween II, the film's intent of keeping the entrails flying around at almost all points leave it with very few opportunities for an audience to put their guard down (and therefore be primed for a super-scare). It's interesting to watch Zombie spin his bloody plates in the air here, but though Halloween II has a great feel to it, it ends up not being all that much of a standalone movie. |
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