Rob Zombie earns the distinction of being the first director in the Halloween series to follow-up his own film. Zombie’s spirited reboot kicked things off on a high note with his thoughtful (not exactly a word many would associate with horror) combination of a prequel/remake, and this time it looks like the director sought to make an art-house horror film with its insistence on dream-like imagery of knights (and the use of “Knights in White Satin” as a musical motif) and women in white.
During the course of watching this installment, I found myself thinking about Matthew Barney’s Cremaster series, with its haunting dreamscapes and adherence to an almost performance-art aesthetic. Zombie never forgets that he’s wandering in familiar Michael Myers territory, but he sure seems intent on pushing past the expected tropes that have emerged as a result of the original source material and the countless clones that have cut a swath across screens for more than 25 years.
Halloween II lets Michael recede into the background, placing more of the emphasis on the story of little sister Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) and her struggle to survive the horrific damage her brother inflicted on her and the community. A smart path, certainly as much as the first reboot, but Halloween II simply isn’t as elementally scary or as psychologically twisted as it needs to be. Grade: C-plus
Opens Aug. 28. Check out theaters and show times, see the film's trailer and get theater details here.
