Movie review - Hallowe'en II - Electric Zombified Boogaloo!
Title - Halloween II (2009)
Director - Rob Zombie
Country - United States
Michael Myers is back in a sequel that few thought would actually happen least of all Rob Zombie who swore he wouldn't return as the first one was just too grueling to make. But the first movie made a decent amount of cash and with the promise that Zombie would have full creative control he soon found himself under a tight deadline but eager to do the part of the movie that he felt he neglected in the first Halloween outing namely putting the spotlight on his sister Laurie Strode (Angel Myers) played by Scout Taylor-Compton.
The bulk of this film concentrates on the character of Laurie Strode who a full year after the attack of Michael Myers is completely unaware that she is really Angel Myers the sister of Michael. Laurie is having great difficulty recovering from the attack and loss of her family and is constantly plagued by nightmares in which she is stalked by Michael whilst everyone around her dies horribly at his hands. And when I mean horribly I mean repeatedly injured well beyond the point of death. All of Michael's killing involves him stabbing, slamming, crushing and/or breaking people repeatedly over and over and over almost as if he feels the need to overly punish his victims even well beyond their point of demise. It's supposed to convey a more realistic and vicious approach to violence by and overpowering madman but these scenes are filmed in a rather distant or confusing manner so the impact of shock is reduced to the point that I felt very detached and unaffected by the whole murdering process.
Laurie's constant suffering is supposed to be the main source of sympathy for the viewer but unfortunately her character's attitude and actions vacillate wildly during the course of the movie and so she ends up becoming not much of an anchor for the film to revolve around. As a result, the only sympathetic character that the movie is attempting to build up throughout the film ends up being just an irritating little girl that appears ripe for slaughter in a typical horror film.As Michael looms closer and closer to Laurie her dreams intensify and eventually she develops dreams in which she is the killer wearing her brother's old clown mask while she slits the throats of her loved ones. Although she has become a vegetarian, the effects of eating her veggie pizza sickens her when at the same time Michael is shown busily eating the heart of a freshly killed dog. It's obvious the connection between her and Michael is becoming stronger but just how strong will it become? I bet you can guess.
The other character which we spend a lot of time with is Dr. Samuel Loomis played once again by Malcolm McDowell. His character has changed quite a bit as he has become a best selling author by writing about his "star" patient Michael Myers. Although much in demand due to the infamous nature of Michael, many -- especially family members of his victims -- are greatly sickened that Loomis appears to be cashing in on the tragedy and attempting to make as much money as possible on it. Although Loomis enjoys the fame and money, he demonstrates a great hatred for his audience and seems confused and angered by their inability to ask him anything interesting.
Loomis is obviously the symbol for modern man both need for and repulsion of violence in the media and in their daily lives. As much as people hurl hatred and anger upon killers and scoundrels, three times as many people can't get enough to feed their fascination for these same people. Loomis also appears representative of Zombie's own trafficking in the entertainment of killing as well as his great disdain for the viewing audience and the fans that gather around him at appearances. Several times Loomis is forced to put up with embarrassing and uncomfortable situations in order for him to peddle his wares to the public and I have to imagine that a lot of Zombie's own nihilistic hatred of these masses is shining through. Unfortunately these scenes only serve to strengthen the viewer's hatred of his character and the, at times, comical nature of his scenes greatly destroy the flow of the movie.
Then there's Michael. In the first movie Zombie decided to step away from Carpenter's mysticism surrounding the character and decided instead to concentrate on Michael as a damaged person. Not an unstoppable evil creature bent on killing all who come in his way, but a damaged individual who is lashing out due to his childhood trauma and the trauma he received in the mental hospital. How then did he survive a shot to the face? The scene in which Michael is shown waking up and escaping from the ambulance is shown to be a bad dream of Laurie's. So when did he escape? Where is he exactly and why did it take him a year to start wandering to town?
I'm going to have write between the lines and put in my own excuses that he escaped much like what happened in Laurie's dream (she "saw" it because they're connected see?) and then he wandered around the area in which he escaped somewhat aimlessly until anniversary of that fateful Halloween night once again arose and the ghost of his mother beckoned him to "unite the family". One of the hillbilly groups that he kills talked in such a manner that they appeared to know him and thus I would have to guess he was wandering somewhat dormant until he started seeing his mother and the symbolic white horse. Did I mention the white horse?
So Sheri Moon Zombie returns as Michael's ghostly mother (with his internal child in tow of course) and pops in now and again beckoning Michael to find his sister and unite the family once more so they can all be together as one big happy family. This generally keeps Michael motivated to keep moving on down the road killing the horrible people that he encounters along the way. This is all well and good common movie symbolism but towards the last act of the movie she begins to pop in so often...
that after a while...
you just start to get annoyed when you see her...
and then when she still won't stop showing up you just start to giggle after a while at her clumsy attempts to be the movie's big symbolic device that moves the film forward. She generally doesn't do much other than long for family unity, but in one instance she implores Michael to "have a little fun" with his victims much to his approval. Yesiree! You certainly won't miss or regret anybody's death in this film as pretty much everyone who is killed is just the most awful person you could ever meet. This oppressive nihilism of Zombie's really hampers the film as the over the top disgustingness of the majority of his victims just detaches one even further from the proceedings and pretty much destroys any tension that could possibly exist.
Eschewing the shiny 35mm look of the first film H2 is shot in grimy dirty 16mm and is quite obviously every bit a Zombie film quite a bit more than the first. The '70s grind-house aesthetic is in full force here with blurry close-ups and off-centered shots being quite common. This is actually the best attraction to the film as I feel that Zombie does have a good eye for this s+yle of filming and I somehow keep hoping that he will find a good vehicle to showcase it. Unfortunately this film is not it as it is remarkably uneven and the flow of the film is hampered by quite a number of elements.
I actually went into the film with positive thoughts. Zombie's first Halloween, although faulty, I thought had potential and I liked the fact that he approached it from a fresh angle as opposed to just makeing a retread. Zombie doesn't actually like slasher films and so I thought demystifying Michael and giving him a different persona might be interesting. But unfortunately the killings actually get in the way of Michael's justification to exist. In slasher films the killing is the thing. The body count is what drives the killer and the viewer. If you take the focus off of the killing and put in on the characters then you best develop those characters so the viewer has some kind of emotional investment in them. But Zombie just appears to hate all of his characters equally and so you just kind of watch the whole affair without any real interest or a care in the world.
Stay away.
Stay far away.
