Rob Zombie's Halloween II (2009) [Paramount edit]

 I had to YouTube certain cuts to the film, mainly Howard (Phillips) getting his face smashed in and the owner of the strip club, Rabbit in Red, Big Lou (Daniel Roebuck), and his stripper lover, Misty (Sylvia Jefferies) being obliterated by Michael Myers. The side of Lou's face crushed and his arm stomped until a bone burst from the flesh is grisly enough but Misty has her face slammed into a mirror over and over until she's unrecognizable. So this Halloween II (2009) wasn't about to win the hearts of millions. The white horse and Sheri Moon (with the addition of another kid cast as Michael when he was a child) hallucinations, I can see why their presence is such an irritation. I just recorded this film off of Paramount Network. While certain death sequences are trimmed, most of Laurie's surgery after Brad Dourif's Sheriff Brackett finds her is shown much to my surprise. From what I can tell, this isn't the Unrated Director's Cut because the film is presented within two hours by Paramount. I don't own this film and really never sought it out for my library; quite frankly, I rarely watch it annually during this time of year. I love Dourif in the film and Harris surviving the first film was almost certainly a death sentence returning in the sequel. Dourif has a conversation with Harris and Taylor-Compton about pizza and eating meat and Lee Marvin in "Cat Ballou" that is a pleasant moment at the dinner table...a rarity considering most of the time Laurie Strode is a basket case constantly breaking down. I love how Annie is just done with her...Annie tries but Laurie's acting out has definitely pushed her to the brink. I get that Laurie has every reason to be this way, but so does Annie and thanks to a dirtbag Dr. Loomis (McDowell, doing sellout capitalist exploiting a tragedy quite effectively), the revelation that serial killer Michael Myers had Laurie as a sister (Angel) is the big shove that is like the light of the fuse leading to the explosion. 

How Loomis is portrayed--a monster on a book tour making coin and publicity off of what his patient did a year prior (and as a child)--was a serious of bone of contention with Halloween fans. Besides Brake and Callie as the sleazy coroners at the beginning, and Big Lou and Howard of the strip club in the middle of the film, Zombie thankfully cuts down on so many of his sketchier trashy archetypal characters. But Laurie, her bedroom seemingly modeled after his own as a kid, is presented as a mess. She has visions of Michael, Mama in white dress, the white horse, and Little Mikey, along with seizures and convulsions. She can't sleep. She gets sick a lot. She cries. She yells. She provokes anxiety and barely ever seems held together with anything more than glue and pop-sickle sticks mentally. I have to be honest: when I saw this at the theater, it was just rough-going because of Laurie. I could see why Annie was done with her...but Annie still seemed to sympathize. But that one young woman who understood Laurie's trauma was taken by the very one responsible: Michael.

I think Zombie once again provides some striking shots and Michael as a force that seems only halted by Dr. Loomis, supposedly getting a conscience randomly after a film of being a fucking asshole, is very much effective. When Michael talks, with just "Die!" to Loomis, the collective groan of that "sin" can still be felt. I can't say I'll seek this out anymore, or at least anytime soon. But I don't hate it. If anything, Douris as the grieving and angered father just trying to keep from killing Loomis is quite impactful. You feel his pain. Dourif's Brackett trying to reach Laurie and protect her from that damned book revealing her as Michael's sister and failing to do so is just wrenching. He tries, he does. But no matter how hard he tries to protect his own, Loomis and Michael are the monkey wrench.