WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
Let me begin by saying that I find Rob Zombie's Halloween remake from 2007 a fascinating trainwreck of a film. I could go on and on for pages about that one and what I think went wrong with it. In short, I think Zombie never decided if he was doing a remake or a "remix" of the original film. What I mean is, replacing what took a couple minutes in the first film, Michael's first murders, with half of the film's total running time changed a lot about the film as a whole. One of the things that made the original Michael so scary is that you don't know why he does what he does; he's not humanized in any way (and wearing a mask for the whole movie helps dehumanize him). If you devote half your film to his childhood, establishing the crappy home life he has and showing how he's pushed over the edge, he's necessarily a sympathetic character from that point on. Then when you want the audience to be afraid of him and what he's going to do later in the film, you're kind of in trouble. Slasher films do sometimes rely on the audience cheering on the killer for at least a while, but not in this invested-in-the-character/sympathetic way -- more just for the entertainment value. And when your kills are directed to be as brutal as Zombie's are, you can't really cheer him on, either. What you end up with is a muddied film where you really don't know how to feel toward the different characters. I think Zombie's original ending, which you can watch on the DVD, makes it much clearer how you are supposed to feel toward Michael in the end. I think that the 2007 remake would have been a much more solid film if Zombie had kept his original ending and more fully embraced his film as a reimagining rather than a remake.
With Halloween II, his sequel to his remake, he ventures into telling his own story, not trapped by trying to remake another film. And sometimes, it's very good. The opening 10-15 minutes are quite well done, and he shows he's still the master of making moments last WAY longer than we expect to increase tension. There are some moments later in the film that are pretty predictable, but other scenes that are well done. And I really dug his focus on how all the victims are dealing with the aftermath of Michael's killing spree in the first film. It's not "prettified" like I think a lot of films tend to do. Laurie and Annie are covered with scars now, and Zombie lights and shoots Annie especially to play up this aspect. Some people have criticized Zombie turning Dr. Loomis into a raging asshole, but I think the point is that his brush with death made him that way, and trying to capitalize on it is his way of dealing with it. I don't think Zombie quite developed that thread the way he should have to make it clear, but I feel like I got what he was doing with Loomis. Laurie, Annie, and Sherrif Bracket were much more interesting characters, but what he did with Loomis felt appropriate. There are a lot of stock characters you don't mind being killed, but you REALLY don't want anything to happen to those three, and that's a testament to Zombie's writing and direction. I also think that the brutality of the murders is something to praise Zombie for. You usually get a sanitized kills in movies like this that make it easy to feel like murder is cool. When I watch this one and Zombie's remake of the original film, the murders feel more real and ugly to me than any other movie I can think of, and while they are not fun to watch, they are a good reminder of murder as a real and brutal thing. Maybe this is a bit hyperbolic, but I feel like Zombie is doing for horror here what Spielberg did for the war film with his portrayal of Normandy in Saving Private Ryan. He's refusing to sanitize it, and I appreciate that.
However, like I said, there's a good bit wrong with this movie, too. The biggest thing I think is wrong is that Zombie felt compelled to write a part for his wife in it, despite the fact that her character (Michael's mother) died in the first film. What results is a largely nonsense layer of the film with Michael's mother's ghost and a white horse and a child version of Michael accompanying him through the movie and telling him what to do. That whole mommy complex thing is from an entirely different slasher series, and it wasn't even all that useful there. He ends up making a claim about some sort of psychic connection between Laurie and Michael, and the ghosts play a role in that, but they could have been struck from the film entirely and what would have resulted would have been a much more sensical and tighter film. You don't need that psychic connection stuff to explain the ending; it would have worked just fine without it. And Michael walking alone would have been much more chilling than Michael walking with a younger version of himself and the ghost of his mother.
That whole ghost layer was my main complaint about the film. Getting rid of that would have solved most of the problems, but there are two other things I would have changed. First, I can see why Zombie would keep Laurie's nightmares as realistic as possible, particularly the first one, so the audience can be sucked into the appearance if it being the movie's reality. However, once it's been established that the scenes you are seeing can be nightmares, I would have loved for Zombie to play with the potential of the dreamscape and really push some limits. He keeps it pretty safe and realistic, and though I can see why, I still think that's a shame. My other complaint is the way young Michael is played. I don't think that the kid from the first film was particularly outstanding, but there was a certain awkwardness to him and how he expressed himself that really fit the character, I thought. I know they had to recast because that kid's probably like 16 now, but this one was just too well-spoken and normal to really be the young Michael Meyers. And since he appeared in many scenes, it had more opportunity to not fit.
Overall, it's not a fantastic film, but Zombie has some really brilliant moments. If he were less willing to make major story changes just to include his wife in his films, I think we'd be calling this his breakthrough film. Instead, I lump it in with his others -- flawed, but with some good moments -- and continue to hope for a film where Rob Zombie finally gets to show everyone how talented I know he his.
