The 4th movie I watched this week was Rob Zombie's Halloween 2 aka H2 the sequel to his 2007 smash hit Halloween. I too saw this one in the theaters by myself and I was equally impressed with this as its predecessor but only in certain facets of the films. Overall I thought it fell short of the original (Zombie version that is) as a whole but there were definitely some scenes that were much darker and forceful than the original. I enjoyed this movie very much. Below is my detailed review.
The cast for this film was basically the same as the original sans the people who got killed obviously with a couple of minor alterations. Deborah Myers (Sheri Moon Zombie), Michael's Mom was in this one as a ghost and young Michael was played by a different character since the original Michael had a growth spurt and could not be used for this one. That was a big let down but luckily there weren't an abundance of scenes with young Michael but yet enough to notice. The original young Michael was by far the best. Like I said before though besides a few new characters like Laurie's co-workers and friends and a few others this movie generally has the same main characters in it and that's a good thing.
Focusing again on the main three features I enjoyed so much from the original (ie: kill scenes, settings, and music) Ill start in reverse this time with the music and move backwards from my order on the original film. I thought the music in this film was actually better than the original. My basis for that is based on three scenes in particular. The opening sequence where Laurie is having surgery is incredibly dark and morbid beyond description. The surgical tools carefully removing her fingernails was detailed ever so grossly as was the entire surgical procedure and what made it even more creepy was the classical music in the background. Another genius but odd choice of music for a dark scene that Zombie is so brilliantly known for.
Another example of this yet not as great as the first was the scene where Sheriff Brackett see's Annie dead in her bathroom as what can only be explained as "Enya" type music blasts in the background. Again, creeeeeepy! Last but not least in any way was the final scene with Laurie sitting in all white room with a slow version of Love Hurts blasting. This was a great scene as she even gave a very convincing Norman Bates impression and all with her smirk she gave. Cool ending and great music!
The setting's for this film were even better than the original in my opinion and there were certain ones I thoroughly enjoyed. First the cornfield setting was great. Just the thought of a giant killer like Michael Myers being out there roaming around is terrifying in itself but actually running into such a monster, whoa! I thought the Halloween party with the crazy host and all the topless women dancing was very Zombieish and very vintage type wild Halloween fun. Fit so well in this movie. The Red Rabbit was a great ode to the original Halloween as well because if you remember Loomis picks some matches up that state Red Rabbit on them in the first movie when searching around the truck on his way to Haddonfield. Last but not least the vacant barn in the empty field yields yet another dark and mysterious setting for this film and a perfect location for the final sequence to take place. Not many more things scarier than an old abandoned barn out in the middle of nowhere on Halloween night.
Lets talk kill scenes for a second. This second film upped the ante big time! More brutal - check. More devastating - check. More gruesome - check. More everything - check, check, check. Yes the kill scenes in this film were much more graphic than the original and it almost seemed as though Michael Myers was much more angry in this film, like really really angry. It felt as though all of his kills were more personal and there was much more passion and hatred behind them even when most of them were strangers and people he did not even know. They were just vicious and fierce and felt much more hardcore than the original film's kill scene. Below is a list of some of the worst of the worst kills that took place in this film.
Ill start with a scene that didn't necessarily start out as a kill scene but ended with it. I'm speaking of the scene where the coroner's van crashed into a cow. Let me first say this. This scene looked extremely realistic from the crash to the aftermath to the reaction by the guy in the passengers seat. It all felt and looked real. Very creepy looking. What was even worse was when Michael Myers walked over and grabbed a shard of glass from the windshield and beheads the guy. Yeah remember what I said, more everything!! It started right at the beginning! The brutality only continues and the sheer force in Myers stabbing as he kills the nurse is quite graphic without being graphic if you get what I'm saying.
The killing in the corn fields weren't quite as bad as others but I loved the atmospheric element in that sequence. I just like the whole corn fields at night theme. Reminds me of Signs or Children of the Corn. One thing I didn't care for and that I thought was irrelevant to the film was the scene with Michael eating a dog. The most brutal kill scene in the entire film took place in the parking lot of the Red Rabbit. If you've seen the movie you know what I'm talking about. Lets just say Michael Myers literally crushed and smashed a guys face into blithering. It was awful in so many ways but for horror fans alike it was a scene like no other. Beheadings, limb removals, and stabbing scenes can be contagious in horror films but not too often have we seen the brutal horrific extent that this scene took. For such a quick short scene it was monumental to the film, in my mind that is. Not only did it remind us that Michael Myers was neither human nor sane it really made you think, "could that really happen"? I wonder that myself?
Besides the kill scene of Annie in her bedroom and the seemingly ludicrous amount of bloodshed left after wards there weren't many other big kill scenes in this film. One thing worth mentioning was that in the directors cut of this film Myers shows his face by taking off his mask and screaming "die" at Loomis before he stabs him. When I think back I actually think we saw more of Michael without his mask than we did with it in this film. I think we were desensitized to it because he had such a large beard throughout the film but when I think back that was kind of odd. Overall I felt this film was good but not quite as good as the original. I would have liked to have seen more mask in this film but the jolt from the kill scenes in this film were really quite visible and I did like that. I would give this one an A-!
No comments:
Post a Comment