HALLOWEEN 2 REVIEW

Brutal, violent, merciless, vicious, bloodthirsty, remorseless, ruthless, and savage. These are just a few words to describe Michael Myers actions in this movie. His character progresses in H2 into one mean killing machine. Stabbing people repeatedly, stomping on them, beating them, and tossing them around like rag dolls. And these are the scenes that pretty much make the movie.

Let's start off by saying I thought part one was great, the way a remake should be done. Zombie took a risk by making H2 in his vision, and I don't think that risk paid off. I can't blame him for wanting to do his own story, but this story really wasn't that great. The movie becomes a lot about the psychology of Michael Myers and his sister, Laurie. Laurie is traumatized by the events that took place in part one, and who can blame her. She battles with dreams of Michael coming after her, and then has to deal with finding out she is Michael's sister. We see into Michael's mind that his mom, and his childhood persona are pushing him to find Laurie, and make her part of the family. Eventually, Laurie and Michael's visions are basically really the same in a weird ending (which I won't give away). As the movie goes through this psychological mess, it really wasn't that exciting except for when Michael was killing someone.

Some comments on Michael. First, all of the words I used to start this off are how you feel about him as he is killing someone. In part one, I think Michael's character stuck to the original character with all of the stabbing, and was still violent enough. H2 makes him even more aggressive, like his kills are a way of letting go of a great deal of stress. Don't get me wrong, love the kills, tons of blood, and definitely some pain felt for the victims. No problem with him being more violent. What I didn't like was that you hear him making grunting sounds as he kills. Maybe some people will ignore that, but I think it takes me away from the original Michael in a way I don't like. His silence to me is a part of him, and he didn't do that in part one so why start now. I think Zombie should have passed on destroying his silence just to have him show more aggression. I also didn't like that you saw his face several times in the movie (not clearly every time). I don't mind his mask being torn up, but I didn't feel a need to see him. I think it is better to see what he looked like as a kid, and the Michael with the mask. By the way, a different child actor plays Michael as a boy, and he just wasn't mean enough looking as the child actor in part one. And if you were wondering what Michael eats to keep his large figure, that will be answered.

The dreams and/or visions in the movie become weirder as the movie goes on. One involves some pumpkin headed people sitting at a table. If someone knows what they represent, please let me know. The movie shows the weird you expect from a Zombie film, and I liked in his other films, but not so much in this one. Speaking of weird, there is even a surprise appearance from Weird Al himself. The shots in the movie are great. I like the way he films his movies. The thing I really liked was how he showed Michael as a kid overlapping Michael the adult killer. Very interesting visual look at how Michael continues to battle with what happened to him as a child. Too bad that is about as interesting as it got. I can also say I liked some of the dialogue in certain scenes. Zombie threw in some jokes, and the usual naked ladies. And my favorite Halloween theme music wasn't used until the end. Come on, I love that music playing as he is killing.

Overall, I thought what made part one great was that it was more interesting than weird, while H2 was more weird than interesting. Love Zombie's films, but his weird view of things didn't work here. Besides the killings, the movie kind of drags along. Filling time watching Dr. Loomis trying to sell his book just made a joke of his character. Maybe measuring this to part one isn't fair, but I had high expectations after that one. Also, I didn't get the feel that the audience was happy about the movie while leaving (not good). I was excited to see this movie, and hoped to give this 5 pools of blood, but I can't (maybe only if I based it just on the kills). Disappointing to say, I can only give this one a weak 2 pools of blood.

HorrO