Halloween II (2009)

Director: Rob Zombie

Cast: Malcolm McDowell, Tyler Mane, Sheri Moon Zombie, Brad Dourif

Have I Seen it Before: Yes. After my initial reactions to Halloween (2007), I’m not entirely sure why I would subject myself to it, and I even remember having a good laugh at the fact that the first time I tried to watch it on disc, my PS3 refused to recognize the disc.

Almost as if it were trying to protect me.

Did I Like It: I think one of the big problems I had with Zombie’s original film was that for all of the hype of his “unique vision,” the film couldn’t help but just be a tinny, discordant retread of the really original Halloween (1978).

Can’t really say that about this one, now, can we?

If we really must deal with a Michael Myers (Mane) stripped of any of the artifice of previous films (indeed, he lurches through large portions of the film unmasked, an he even talks) then maybe, just maybe this is the best possible version of that interpretation? I’m tempted to say it is. I’m confident that this is a much better film than Zombie’s first attempt. I’m even pleased to say that Zombie’s largely kept his worst impulses under control, aside from a few moments.

The visual flourishes show a greater deal of imagination on Zombie’s part, and the violence is once again unflinching.

That might be the one problem I continue to have with Zombie’s attempts. The violence is unsettling, which is certainly a choice. It keeps us from being desensitized in our passive observation, but despite all of this, I can’t help but think Zombie still view Myers as the hero of the piece. He’s ready to tear apart every other character (sometimes literally) and make them angry, hateful version of their predecessors. Is there no hope—if even for catharsis—in a Rob Zombie movie? Is that the whole point?

Halloween (2007)

Director: Rob Zombie

Cast: Malcolm McDowell, Sheri Moon Zombie, Tyler Mane, Scout Taylor-Compton

Have I Seen it Before: Ugh. Yes. Let’s start with a note before I even begin this screening. There are few films which have annoyed me more over the years. But this time, I’m going to try and take the film in under its own terms and see if I can’t come to some kind of peace with the film. Let’s see how it works.

Did I Like It: I want to start the review proper with the things that are good, or at least I can get behind in the film.

After a litany of director-for-hires making under protest films they really didn’t want to, Rob Zombie is a director offering a vision of the material.

Malcolm McDowell is legitimately terrific casting for the new Sam Loomis. He has close enough to Donald Pleasance’s energy, with just a pinch more sinister cynicism and a bit less campy magic to make him a new presence.

Zombie’s depiction of violence is visceral. It’s impossible to be desensitized by this film, if for no other reason than its primary goal from moment to moment is not to entertain, but to provide discomfort.

I’m trying to find other things, and I will admit that I probably didn’t viscerally hate the movie on this screening, but I still don’t like it. Ultimately, I’m not a fan of Zombie’s aesthetic, and it is here in spades. He recasts Myers (Daeg Faerch as a child, Tyler Mane as an adult) not as the boy down the street who inexplicably became the visage of evil. Here, the kid meaner than the meanest bully becomes and even meaner person as time progresses. Myers is so over-explained, and in such a pedestrian way that I honestly can’t tell—despite all of the nauseating violence on display—whether or not Zombie wants us to root for the shape.

And that startling new vision? It’s more often than not watered down, usually collapsing under either a need to have four or five different climaxes, or just aping the scenes from the Carpenter original.

I’m not a purist, or at least I try not to be, but I find making Myers just another psychopath with a checklist of every little element in the DSM.

And that’s what Zombie is, ultimately. Cheap.

After all that, I need a break before I even dream of taking in Halloween II (2009)…