MOVIE OF THE DAY: HALLOWEEN II (2009)

Bizarre movie. Great writeup. Zombie's Michael punch-stabbing people to death in those first fifteen minutes as Knights In White Satin plays was kind of unforgettable.

This is a movie that has a lot to say about survivor's guilt, the cult of celebrity, and the effects of violence in the media. It has several stand out performances and a provocatively unique take on Michael Myers that manages to balance the troubled youth of the remake and the pure evil of the original. 

Unfortunately none of this manages to coalesce into a narrative whole, but it's a valiant attempt. I'd watch this over H5-H:R any day of the week. 

Yeah, this movie is pretty awesome. MUCH better than Zombie's initial remake, and I'm pretty sure that has to do with them letting him do whatever he wanted, and instead of having to shoehorn the entire narrative of the first Halloween into the last half of his film like he did with the remake, he just goes ahead and made one of the most original entries in the entire franchise. No Curse Of Thorn or reality show webcam stuff. No searching for his niece. Just Michael Myers rampaging while he once again looks for his sister, but it's arguable that she's only a small part of the film, and it's mostly about him and his visions while he kills various horror actors.

Plus where else are you going to see perfect casting like Duane Whitaker and Mark Boone Junior as brothers? Or Richard Brake as a sleazy morgue attendant in an ambulance?

It is not a great movie by any stretch, but I love how batshit gonzo it is.  That said, I prefer the musical selection at the end of the theatrical cut where we were given that great electric guitar version of Laurie's Theme................as opposed to using Love Hurts yet again, like the director's cut does.

Interestingly enough, if Lussier & Farmer do end up doing that Halloween movie for next year...............they actually fully intend it to be a sequel to this.  They'll just be ramping up the body count and bringing some more Carpenter-esque strokes to the character of Myers.  Basically, he'll be The Shape again.  I hope they can keep the gig, 'cause I'd love to see what they could do with it.

This is a movie that I  sort of hated on first viewing, but have really come to appreciate since (at least with the superior director's cut).  You can totally tell that Zombie wanted to make a really dark film about what it's like to survive something like this, while Dimension wanted more shit with Michael killing people in the first 90 minutes.

Farmer and Lussier's script is pretty much the antithesis of Halloween II, which makes sense when you consider it was written a few weeks after this film was shredded by everybody in existence.

Quote:

Originally Posted by S.D. Bob Plissken 

It is not a great movie by any stretch, but I love how batshit gonzo it is.  That said, I prefer the musical selection at the end of the theatrical cut where we were given that great electric guitar version of Laurie's Theme................as opposed to using Love Hurts yet again, like the director's cut does.

 

Interestingly enough, if Lussier & Farmer do end up doing that Halloween movie for next year...............they actually fully intend it to be a sequel to this.  They'll just be ramping up the body count and bringing some more Carpenter-esque strokes to the character of Myers.  Basically, he'll be The Shape again.  I hope they can keep the gig, 'cause I'd love to see what they could do with it.

I still haven't seen the director's cut, but from what I know, I should just stick with the theatrical cut that I already own. I remember it being pretty hard to get a hold of last year. I got my copy at a rental place that I frequented that had a few, after I saw it via the Redbox.

Love Hurts is an overplayed shitty song. At least he sort of made up for it with "Nights In White Satin". That being played at the beginning of part II was awesome.

I think I make it clear in the article what a mess I think the film is. But at least there is SOMETHING going on here on an artistic level, which you really cannot say for Halloween's 4-6, and 8. H20 has a great concept but is lame on an artistic level, and the remake is egregiously wrong-headed. This one stands on it's own, for better or for worse. It's at least interesting.

I know a lot of people took issue in the way Zombie handled Michael in this movie with the giant hobo aesthetic, but I personally think it was a great direction to go, to make him look completely unappealing. Let's be honest here people, realistically that's probably what the dude would look like anyways, I highly doubt he'd be concerned with shaving and keeping he mask and clothes in pristine condition.

Quite honestly though, I found this incarnation of Myers far scarier than any of the ones in the original series, including Carpenter's film. Not necessarily due to his imposing size, but more so because Tyler Mane has a genuinely frightening physicality to his performance, and I found the animalistic grunting to be really fucking disturbing. That shot of him brandishing an axe while power walking in the rain during the hospital scene is pure nightmare fuel.

That hospital sequence is fantastic and one of the best sequences of the entire franchise.  Say what you will about all that follows it, but I find it hard to believe that anyone could deny that.  Zombie nailed the opening to this film.  As for the rest?  It's a mess, but an interesting one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Splitfocus 

Let's be honest here people, realistically that's probably what the dude would look like anyways, I highly doubt he'd be concerned with shaving and keeping he mask and clothes in pristine condition.

The one thing that I can say for the sequel is that it is realistic in the how it shows the Final Girl from the previous film and just how messed-up experiencing such horrors would actually leave the human psyche.

Usually in these sequels, the heroines seem to be functioning with a little frown but not much more worse for wear.

If you saw your friends slaughtered in front of you, and were stalked by the killer as well...I mean, to just get out of bed each day afterwards would be a feat unto itself.

Unfortunately, seeing Laurie so damaged, drugged, and hateful in the sequel, as realistic as it is, is also rather off-putting and shrill over the entire film.

Sometimes, the cleaned-up fantasy of our slasher heroines staying super-strong is oddly preferred.