Halloween II (2009)

At times Halloween II dances on the line between alarming and disgusting, and it doesn’t all hold together — I couldn’t figure out what the goblin banquet was doing in this movie. But if it was meant to freak me out, it worked.

Halloween II provides ample spotlights for Zombie’s visual gifts, but—apart from some striking Oedipal fantasy sequences featuring Sheri Moon Zombie as the spirit of Myers’ mother—we saw most of this last time around, and a lot of promising material leads to dead ends.

Treading well-worn ground to diminishingly creepy returns is a bone-deep problem for Zombie’s latest, especially with regard to his characters.

Zombie is still committed to showing how violence perverts all touched by it, yet his carnivalesque approach undercuts his empathy. He panders to the cheap seats whenever he’s not being scary.

What you won't feel is genuine horror, because unlike John Carpenter -- whose original 1978 film is a sly game of nerve-racking peekaboo -- Zombie isn't out to engage fans of the genre with a slaughterhouse bonbon like "Halloween II."

Halloween II is full of in jokes and references but nearly devoid of wit.

Halloween II is an affront to Halloween and horror fans. It's the kind of cataclysmic misstep from which a franchise cannot recover. It has transformed Michael Myers from an iconic movie monster into a laughingstock.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

To get it out of the way: I enjoyed this film and what it was trying to do!Maybe it's because of numerous rewatches over the last ten years, or because the new HALLOWEEN trilogy **** ass, but: Zombie's second entry really grew on me. I'm more curious than ever about his never realized third entry in the franchise. + the kills are great, over the top, brutal, relentless+ the mask is good+ devoting all the film's time to characters who may have survived part one but are completely destroyed and may never be truly happy again+ trying to get into the psyche and "reasoning" of Michael is an interesting idea+ this is one of the darkest HALLOWEEN entries and one of the darkest slasher films period - Zombie's style still ****, this film is ugly - the problem with dealing with damaged characters is: you'll have to watch those damaged characters being **** to everyone which envolves a LOT of screaming - typical Zombie dialogue is still cringeworthy and unintentionally funny I deeply respect Zombie for having and following his vision (we never get the HALLOWEEN theme, so that should be enough of an indication), the new films have neither.

I liked Rob Zombie's first Halloween. I was looking forward to having a lot of fun watching this sequel; only to be set up for disappointment. The movie lacked suspense. The movie started good. First 20 minutes were good and pace was also good but after that film diviated from it's path. Every character was just a cookie cut-out waiting to be killed. There were many of the actors in which you didn't even get a good look at their faces before they were killed. The movie was disjointed and extremely loud and gory. Also, Sam Loomis's character which was better in first part was worst in this part. I also didn't like the fact that the movie veered so much into her nightmares that most times you didn't know if it was real or just a nightmare; or was Michael Myers and he could be anywhere. Overall, this movie was so violent and gory & so dreadful and boring at the same time.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Terrible Halloween II is a very messy sequel to a mediocre film that was unnecessary.