You know all the action movies where people's friends die or innocent lives are taken and by the end of the movie no one cares as long as the villain is punished? You know all the slasher sequels where people are moving on from the adversity they faced in the previous film with no real evidence of trauma? Rob Zombie's Halloween II says damn all that. This is the only slasher movie I can think of that deals with how people respond to the aftermath of a slasher movie as if it were real and authentic. Apart from that there are certain breaks from reality in this film that allows for different interpretations of the narrative, plot, and characters that make this film really interesting past the surface level. While some of Rob Zombie's tone deaf dialogue undermine it at times, I'm really glad he left the ending ambiguous. Had it been more definitive I think some of the authenticity would have been undone. I also like the ending scenes of the theatrical cut more than the director's cut and wish I could splice them together more. All in all this is the closest thing to a masterpiece on Zombie's resume.
Synopsis: A year after narrowly escaping death at the hands of Michael Myers (Tyler Mane), Laurie Strode is at the breaking point, pushed to the edge by Dr. Loomis' (Malcolm McDowell) revelation that she's Michael's sister. Little does she know, the unstoppable killer is back in Haddonfield and, driven by visions of their dead mother (Sheri Moon Zombie), he is determined to bring about a bloody family reunion.
The film starts with the explanation of what a white horse can represent. A younger Michael (Chase Wright Vanek) meets his mother (Sheri Moon Zombie) in the sanitarium and she gives him a small white horse toy which she says to think of her anytime he looks at it. Meanwhile, Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) is wandering the streets of Haddonfield after shooting Michael at the end of the last film. Sheriff Brackett (Brad Dourif) finds her. Two coroners (Richard Brake and Dayton Callie) wrap up Michael's body for transportation. This is intercut with some really gruesome surgical trauma operations on Laurie. Peeling off the fingernails is the moment that always makes me cringe. After the coroners have some joking conversations about necrophilia, which starts my issue with some of Rob Zombie's tone deaf dialogue, they hit a cow and Michael comes alive and escapes. That also starts how great the kills are in this movie. Michael uses a shard of glass from the crash to saw off Richard Brake's head. Dayton Callie's character died in the crash.
Laurie awakens in the hospital. She eventually gets up and finds Annie alive in one of the rooms. Soon people start getting killed by Michael in the hospital. Laurie tries to escape and certain bodies start popping up out of nowhere. She eventually gets outside and is cornered by Michael.
Spoiler Section
A lot of people seem to dislike the fact that the whole hospital scene is a dream sequence. Upon rewatch though I actually like it because the whole thing seems like a dream. The way Laurie runs into dead bodies on the stairs, full of Wayne Toth's great practical effects by the way. The pile of dead bodies in the basement, and even just randomly running into Buddy the security guard (Richard Riehle) in the rain. I love the sound and ambience the rain creates as well. I love how vicious Michael is when he stabs the nurse played by Octavia Spencer. Michael getting to her feels like the end of a quick nightmare but it also shows how Michael still haunts her and there is no escape from what he did to her both literally and in her mind.
Laurie wakes up and is shown to be living with Annie and Sheriff Brackett. Throughout the movie Annie and Laurie's conversations turn into full blown arguments and Laurie seems to be unable to move on from the PTSD two years after the even in the first film. However, anytime she needs something throughout the film such as when she throws up Annie comes to her aid and Sheriff Brackett is shown to be less able to help her through it. We shouldn't forget that Laurie's adopted parents were killed in the first movie as well. Meanwhile Doctor Samuel Loomis is profiting both off his time as Michael's doctor and the victims of the first movie. He is doing a book tour and seems to be consumed with his celebrity. The four principle characters impacted by the events of the first film are responding in different ways. Laurie is abusing prescription drugs and can't seem to control her emotions in any way. Annie's friendship with Laurie is fragile because Laurie only sees her as a reminder. Loomis is only exploiting his experience.
Meanwhile Michael is living off of someone's farmland. He kills the people who find him stealing their crops. This has a vicious kill where he throws Mark Boone Junior's character onto some antlers mounted to his truck. Around this time is the only scene with some levity where Annie, Laurie, and Brackett are eating dinner and he starts going on this rant and impression of Lee Marvin. This transitions back and forth with Michael killing and eating dog. Around this time is where Laurie is shown to have some sort of psychic link with Michael as she gets sick from seemingly feeling him eat the dog. She later has these nightmare sequences where she kills Annie.
This is where some of these ambiguous moments start to take shape. I start wondering if Laurie killed Annie and what happens later is in her head. There are moments when she goes to see a psychological doctor of some kind, ironically played by Margot Kidder where she says those sessions are what keeps her out of a hospital. I start wondering if in fact Laurie has killed people and Michael is only in her head. Michael keeps seeing the white horse everywhere he goes and his mother tells him to bring the family back together. It's almost as if Michael and Laurie's mind are synchronizing to know that the only way for their family to be together is for them to die and for Michael to kill anyone else close to them. Yes Michael kills some random people throughout this movie but he also kills Annie, Loomis, and his mother's boss at the strip club who also exploits her having worked there. At some point I just wonder what is real.
I really enjoy the party sequences which are the most halloween like sequences in the movie. The color filters are great. The atmosphere is great. The sequence where Harley goes off for a sexcapade with some funny writing feels the most like a slasher movie. It reminds of a similar sequence in Prom Night. I would be remiss if I didn't get to Annie's death scene. The slow motion editing and the look on Annie's face when she sees Michael, that with her and Tyler Mane's height and stature difference, and the cutting to just her screaming and objects crashing is well done. That kill and the aftermath may just be the most harrowing kill scene in any slasher movie. The sequence where Laurie and Mya come back and find a bloodied Annie and you know Michael is in the house somewhere is one of Zombie's best suspense sequences he has ever shot. Brad Dourif's reaction when he finds her dead is equally harrowing and authentic. Rob Zombie's quick cutting, shaky cam, medium-shot-to-close-up, documentary style filmmaking only adds to the authenticity. The kills at the strip club, specifically the curb stomp on Jeff Daniel Phillips' character is equally brutal. Jeff Daniel Phillips playing two different characters in them movie only adds to the ambiguity and the unreliable narration.
Some of the stuff with Loomis is interesting as well. I enjoyed how his agent said he was actually brilliant in the talk show scene because people like it when serious people allow themselves to be made fun of, even though he doesn't get that at all. That book signing scene when Linda's dad accosts him is great because people seem to forget Linda in these movies. I think this movie does a great job covering every avenue of people impacted by the tragedy and how Loomis doesn't seem to understand how he is exploiting it and not taking any responsibility for how he failed Michael which lead to his actions. Loomis almost seems to be thinking I spent 15 years with him, I want to be rewarded for it, but he doesn't deserve anything other than the fact he survived.
As I said before the ending to this movie is ambiguous. I'm not sure if Laurie is dead or in some hospital at the end. Everything that happens post when she kills Annie in that nightmare could have been in her head. Everything Michael does could also be real or it could be in her imagination. It's hard to say but I'm glad Rob Zombie didn't spell it out. At the same time I love how most of the dialogue scenes are shot in that style that evokes a documentary which this movie feels like. It feels like a documentary about how people would move on from such adverse events. I don't necessarily love that style during the kills, but the brutality makes up for it. The performances by Scout Taylor-Compton, Brad Dourif, Danielle Harris, and Tyler Mane are all great. I like it shows that time, relationships, and the way people live is impacted by a series of killings in a slasher movie. I hope someday I have the ability to edit together the ending to the theatrical cut and the director's cut as I like different things in both versions. Some of the black and white visuals, specifically that whole pumpkin faced people at the table is weird and really cool.
Rating: 9/10
Trivia: During the party Laurie is dressed as Magenta from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Magenta was played by Patricia Quinn who also appeared in Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem.
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