White Horses: Michael Crashes Halloween Again

My personal favorite shot of the film

 This was one of my first reviews on the blog way back in 2009. I wanted to revisit Zombie's Halloween II (2009) this month as it is probably the one film I neglect the most besides the fucking awful insult in 2002 I won't even fucking name because it fucking gets my blood boiling entertaining its existence in my brain. Okay, I got to breathe. Just breathe. As far as the hate towards Zombie, I don't necessarily love either of his Halloween films but I don't dislike them. I sort of like bits and pieces of both films. The sound design makes Tyler Mane's Michael quite the destructive force. I've never heard smashed windows break into pieces with such ferocity that rattle the eardrums. And when Michael breaks apart a security guard shack near the hospital (with Laurie inside, in a nightmare sequence) or the truck of redneck hunters on the outskirts of Haddonfield who dick with him with baseball bats, the noise and damage is magnified. Michael very much is like a tornado rampaging through whatever lies in his wake. A cow assists in Michael leaving a destroyed "body van" (or as two creeps who pick up dead bodies for the sheriff's department call their ride: the meat wagon), allowing him to escape despite the gunshot injury inflicted by Laurie in the previous film. He sort of just recovers seemingly without much trouble. I was sure that would lead to a bleed-out but whatever.

There's plenty to take issue with. Or at least the film's critics take issue with. Michael with long hair, under a hood, looking like what strip club employee, Howard (Jeff Daniel Phillips, who is also under heavy skull face makeup behind a mic at a party as a very bad comedian called Uncle Seymour Coffins) calls a "dirty hippie." The white horse, mama (Sherri Moon), and little Mikey (not Chase Vanek) popping up in the minds of both Big Michael and Angel (the real name of Laurie) over and over as Rob's personal choice to plunge the depths of insanity of the siblings. There's the decision to destroy Annie (a very good Danielle Harris, showing the trauma she herself underwent, except not as vocally persistent, loudly, and anxiously), with Zombie opting for Michael Myers to somehow find her. Through editing, which is "explosive" in quick cuts, Zombie gives us (thankfully) an idea of the carnage. The bathroom is an absolute bloody mess and Annie is damp head to toe in her own blood. Michael doesn't just kill her...he pulverizes her. Zombie cared about Annie but could not allow her to escape the wrath of Michael. She would not be the one that got away. Zombie, too, made damn sure that Mama and Little Mikey were always there when Michael was on his warpath.