With 'Halloween II', director Rob Zombie had much more creative freedom and more space to create something different now that it's no longer a remake. The end result is a film that is better than the previous one, but if only for the film's structure rather than as a whole. The story picks up with Laurie Strode having been traumatized and mentally unstable since her encounter with her brother Michael Myers. While this is a good direction to go in, as seen by the newest film taking a similar idea for its story Zombie doesn't really go far with it. Laurie is now unlikable like every other character in the film, and as I previously stated with my 'Halloween' review when the whole cast is deplorable and horrible people how are we supposed to be scared or even be surprised by any of the brutality Michael exhibits. And speaking of the film's brutality, it simply just goes too far and would even put the many grindhouse movies Zombie obviously takes influence from to shame. It's needlessly vulgar, trashy, and blood splattered and just gives the film less repeatability because of it.
So what can I say about 'Halloween II' that's not negative so as to not sound like I'm repeating myself here? Well, as expected in a Rob Zombie film the visual style is superb here and is one of the best looking 'Halloween' films to date. It was shot in 16mm which gives it a look that stands out among other horror films of its time and goes with that grindhouse look as well. I also think the performances here are a bit better this time, with Brad Dourif and Malcolm McDowell being the two stand outs as usual. Despite the characters being written as annoying or terrible people, the cast of 'Halloween II' is much better than the remake's, having much less cameo appearances and instead focusing on a core group of people rather than spreading it out too thin.
Tyler Bates returns for 'Halloween II' and he's just not a composer I'm really fond of. I'm sure there's fans out there, but like 2007's 'Halloween' his score here just sounds like your usual horror fare of the decade, but this time they can't even bother to toss in the 'Halloween' theme until the end credits. The music you'll likely want to listen to is the various licensed tunes throughout, though they are still placed in random places and seemingly don't fit with the sequences ('Knights in White Satin' during the film's prologue being a particularly strange choice). I'm honestly surprised that Zombie himself has never contributed a score of his own to his work, but perhaps he's simply too busy with directing duties. I would like to see him compose someday however as I think he could have contributed a much better sound than Bates.
If you're a modern horror fan, then you'll likely want some heavy violence and 'Halloween II' does deliver. Again though, it feels so unnecessarily over the top and brutal that it's almost comedic. Michael beats people savagely, curb stomps them, smashes their heads in over and over again, and stabs a woman almost 30 times. It's nasty and the film revels and focuses on every last detail which will turn off even some hardcore fans of the series but not so much for the graphic nature, but rather because they simply last too long. I actually witnessed people in the audience get bored while watching some of these kills and that's how you know they're just too prolonged and pointlessly grotesque.
'Halloween II' is a small step in the right direction after a so-so remake/prequel but I think the film was simply doomed from the start. People were not looking forward to this one back in 2009 and even today I don't know anyone that shows it much love. I fully understand what Rob Zombie wanted with this film, but it's just not for me personally.
2.5/5
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