Halloween II (2009)

Well that was an experience.



I may not like it as much as the first one but I didn't really hate it. We pick up one year after Michael got shot in the computer at point blank range, and Laurie is irrevocably damaged from the experience still having nightmares and trauma from that night when guess who's coming over Halloween night? It deals a lot more with just the fallout of the first film than killing is Michael's business and business is good, and takes almost a more cerebral/psychic drive with both Laurie and Michael and their familial connection. I mean duuuude, if you thought I was upset with how much shit Laurie had to go through in the first film I was about ready to riot here. There is no cathartic victorious ending, if anything it firmly sets in just the horror and the heartbreak which occurs when something terrible happens like a killing. The deaths are absurdly grisly, I learned the hard way don't watch this movie while dining, but all the more that goes to show how super well done the effects artists at work are here. And somehow it got more angry, it makes the first movie look like Michael was just kind of annoyed when he's knifing people I mean Jezuz Cuhryst man! But I feel the emotions and the drama haven't been lost, though we don't spend a lot of screen time on Danielle and Brad my heavens above the acting and cute family dynamic they have is amazing. Like I firmly believe, if I have to set up a petition for this then so be it, but there has got to be like an Academy Award show based around the horror industry. Brad Dourif is such a commited actor and I love him to pieces, Danielle Harris still brings it and I was severely upset emotionally seeing her not survive this time, Scout is my heart shattering into tiny fragments throughout this movie I think she's wonderful conveying all this emotional and psychological baggage, friggin' Malcolm McDowell just being this heartless capitalizing son of a bitch is far from Sam Loomis but the guy nails it! I know people have grievances with the psychological connection and hallucinations Michael and Laurie have but guys this is so not a new thing in the Halloween series, people rolled with it at Halloween 5 you can look past it here. It gets artsy, and I'm not really sure what the implication is of it all, but it's more in the background. I guess I can't say I hate it, and knowing this production being even more of a pain in the ass for Rob Zombie and even fiercer meddling from the studio I don't blame the guy for doing what he did. They were gonna make a theatrical mockery out of his shit man, and he wasn't gonna stand for it. So he made it weirder, more out there, pushed it to the outskirts of the playing field this series has been on for at that point 31 years. I can't fault him, it wasn't a bad movie, it turned a lot of people off and didn't perform well, but I can live with it existing. I give it 2.5 stars, 6/10, maybe it won't get some re-evaluation like the first movie but I still think it has it's own merits. Does it truly end tomorrow? Does Halloween ever really end? If they stick to their guns and just f***ing do it no matter what, it'll have my respect at least. We'll see.