Tags:
Film: Halloween II
Year: 2009
Director: Rob Zombie
Writer: Rob Zombie
Starring: Scout Taylor-Compton, Tyler Mane and Malcolm McDowell
Review:
This film begins informing us of what a White Horse is dream terms. This is a link to instinct, purity and the drive of the physical body to release powerful and emotional forces like rage with ensuing chaos and destruction. This is something that will be revisited throughout the film. We then see Sheri Moon Zombie going to visit her son, Michael Myers who as a boy is played by Chase Wright Vanek in this film. He wants to come home, but Zombie tells him that she can do that right now. She does give him a white horse as a gift.
We then shift 15 years into the future to the end of what happens in the first film. Scout Taylor-Compton is walking down the street, a gun in hand and covered in blood. She is walking aimlessly. The father of her best friend and sheriff, played by Brad Dourif, arrives. She is taken to the hospital.
Michael Myers is played by Tyler Mane as an adult. We see at the house that Malcolm McDowell is in bad shape, but he has survived. It takes six guys to get Mane into the coroner’s van. It will be driven back by Dayton Callie and Richard Brake. Brake tells some pretty messed up ideas to Callie, who proceeds to tell some bad jokes. He isn’t paying attention when he hits a cow, stopping them dead in their tracks. This kills Callie, but Brake wakes up. Mane also does as well. He escapes and kills him.
Taylor-Compton then wakes up in the hospital. She gets out of bed and walks down the hall. She finds the room for her best friend, played by Danielle Harris. She is told by a nurse that she needs to go back to her bed. She goes to nurse’s station and Octavia Spencer is there. She is then attacked by Mane. Taylor-Compton tries to flee. She gets chased to a guard shed and the man who works there tries to help. He doesn’t believe that there is anyone after her, but he soon finds out. He is killed. Mane starts to break in.
She then wakes up. We realize that this has all been a dream. We are now two years in the future. Mane’s body is still missing and there is belief that he is not dead. Taylor-Compton now lives with Dourif and Harris. She has been traumatized by that night. Harris and she have grown apart after it. Taylor-Compton is in therapy, but she doesn’t believe it is helping. She also doesn’t believe that she is strong enough. She wants to be medicated or she will self-medicate herself. Taylor-Compton works for an old hippie played by Howard Hasseman along with Brea Grant. Taylor-Compton is friends with Grant and her friend Angela Trimbur. They go out together a lot.
We then learn that Mane isn’t dead. He is leaving in a shed in a field. The man that owns the land, played by Mark Boone Junior, goes out with Duane Whitaker as well as Betsy Rue to punish him and make him leave. The problem is they underestimate Mane. He kills all of them. Zombie and Vanek visit Mane and tell him that it is time to get his sister to join them. Mane then visits the strip club that his mother used to work as well.
McDowell takes advantage of what happened to write another book. There is quite a bit of outrage about it. There is also a bombshell that most people from Haddonfield do not know about this situation. Dourif reads the book and discovers this. He tries to call his daughter to get into touch with Taylor-Compton, but she isn’t home. Taylor-Compton sees the book and buys a copy. From her car she reads it and then learns the truth of who she is.
Taylor-Compton goes on a spiral, leaving her home to stay with Grant. There is a Halloween party and Grant thinks they should skip it. Taylor-Compton wants to go to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol. Dourif is worried and sends a deputy to his place where Harris gives him grief. Mane is on the prowl as well. He first visits Dourif’s house.
Who will survive this new onslaught by Mane? Taylor-Compton starts to see Zombie and Vanek, even though she was only a baby. Will she join them or be able to keep her sanity? Will she survive the night?
I have to say that this isn’t a bad slasher film. Mane is great as Myers. He does actually get a speaking line in this film, but his physical size makes him scary. There are more cameos of people who were famous in past horror films, which I personally liked. The overall story isn’t bad and the death scenes are good. There is quite a bit of blood. I also liked some of the surreal aspects dealing with Zombie and her telling Mane what to do. They have a creepy feel to them.
Now I do have some issues with this film though. The first one being as a sequel, it added something new that wasn’t a part of the original. It even had to change the back-story for it. This doesn’t ruin the film, but brings an issue for me. The ending I also had an issue with. McDowell states that Mane is a perfect blend of nature and nurture that turned him into the monster that he is. The transformation of Taylor-Compton seems to state that nature makes you a psycho, regardless of upbringing. I also was annoyed with Taylor-Compton in this one. I understand she could have post-traumatic stress to what happened to her, but she was a little bit too annoying for my liking in doing it.
With that said, this film isn’t horrible and it is far from good though. The acting is okay, aside from Taylor-Compton. The slasher aspect of the film is good, but I liked parts of the hallucinations and other parts I didn’t. If you liked the prequel, then I would recommend giving this one a viewing. If you like Rob Zombie’s films, then I would also suggest giving this one a viewing as well.
My Rating: 5 out of 10