Halloween II (Dir. Rob Zombie, 2009)
The second film to be called Halloween II (hereafter Halloween R2) takes the gross and tragic events of the last film, and spins them into outright bonkers territory. A lot of the desperation and panic and fear and brutality is still present, but there are so many new hallucinatory elements introduced that Halloween R2 teeters dangerously close to camp.
Laurie (Scout Taylor-Compton) has been seeing a shrink for the last year, and wails in panic when she runs out of antidepressants. She has been living with the injured Annie (Danielle Harris) and her loving cop father (Brad Dourif). There are a lot of discussions about trauma and panic, but not constructive ones. A few early scenes in Halloween R2 resemble scenes from Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia. Laurie is also working in a really cool-looking coffee shop with some new buddies. The gentle and realistic banter is still intact. The central group of friends is planning on going out this Halloween dressed as characters from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. That’s pretty cool.
Michael (Tyler Mane) is, of course, still alive. I’m guessing that Laurie missed when she shot him in the head at the end of the last film. Michael has spent the last year living in the woods outside of Haddonfield, eating raw critters and occasionally murdering truckers. He still wears his mask, but it’s cracked and stained and filthy, and one of his eyes is now exposed. His unkempt beard sticks out from underneath. This is a version of Michael Myers we haven’t seen yet: The dangerous hobo. I suppose a killer like Myers would, in real life, look more like a hobo than a clean-cut, white mask-wearing ghost, but the hobo Michael Myers is vaguely comic.
Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) is back too, only he’s been transformed into a whole new character. Rather than being the crazed protector, he is a opportunistic, money-grubbing a-hole who has been exploiting the book he wrote about the Michael Myers killings. He hates everyone, and cusses on TV. His cartoonish evil will only leave you snickering.
Oh yes, the bonkers part: The film explains to us right up front that white horses (huh?) typically represent incest (wha??). As such, the grown Michael Myers is given several bizarre hallucination scenes where he sees his mother (Sheri Moon Zombie), dressed in a long white gown, standing next to a white horse, conversing with the ten-year-old version of himself (Chase Vanek). The implication is that mom and Michael once slept together… I think. There’s at least some obvious Freudian subtext all of a sudden. Mom gives Michael instructions as to where to find his baby sister. He also has surreal music-video-like dreams wherein he and Laurie seem to be seeing the same thing. Yes, we’re back to that hot hat trick of the slasher genre: The psychic link with the killer.
There is a conversation early in the film about necrophilia, and how much fun it might be. Zombie seems to have three major notes as a director: 1) He can do natural conversations and camaraderie, 2) He can make you feel as if you just watched a beloved pet get run over, 3) He can make you feel the gut-churning dread of a friend describing necrophilia to you, and your slow realization that he’s actually done it.
The final confrontation is baffling, and I can’t really tell you what happened, even after watching it twice. It essentially comes down to the fact that Laurie, so doggedly pursued by Michael, will eventually snap herself, and become a family serial killer in a new family tradition. I think Laurie can also eventually see Michael’s spectral mother, although I could be mis-remembering through the chaos. Dr. Loomis does die, at any rate.
The original Halloween II took place largely in a hospital, and Halloween R2 does have a few early hospital scenes, but they are only about 15 minutes of film. The cameos in Halloween R2 are from Margot Kidder, Howard Hesseman (playing a character named Uncle Meat), Chris Hardwick, and “Weird Al” Yankovic.
Halloween R2 is ultimately a blender of swirling slasher iconography, brutal violence, bonkers music video imagery, and weird magical elements that only Rob Zombie truly understands. Needless to say, I recommend it.
