Rob Zombie's Halloween II

Rob Zombie's 2007 remake of the classic horror 1978 Halloween, just one of John Carpenter's hugely successful films, saw a change in attitude and direction. Taking a new perspective, Zombie took us through the eyes and mentality of young Michael Myers in a bid to understand just what that troubled child was going through to make him commit such atrocities. The film was a genuinely surprising effort, with enough changes to make it worthwhile as well as a refreshing approach which resulted in more dynamic camerawork and an extra dimension to the mute serial killer in Michael.

However, with 2009 came the Halloween II remake. The original, loved by critics and fans alike, followed Michael as he once again escaped a mental asylum, seemingly happy to slaughter anyone who tried to get in his way (and in horror movie fashion, anyone who was deemed immoral).

The problems with Zombie's sequel is not just that it's badly acted, badly scripted or that it defies logic throughout, more the addition of the white horse symbol, a seemingly random psychological symbol which is meant to demonstrate young Michael's psyche and manipulate his sense of being, thus drawing from him a combination of anger and brute force. The white horse is accopanied by a woman, and said sequences - often conveyed in a fantastical manner - seem to demonstrate links between Michael as a child and his older self, suggesting he hasn't matured and that he is still as irrational as his younger self.

The biggest problem I had with the film was that the holy grail of no-go areas was breached. The idea of hiding Michael's face is successfully avoided throughout the original Halloween franchise, yet in the final scenes of this weak remake, he is revealed as a hagged, trampy looking slob. In a sense, this is a direct analogy of how Zombie has treated this sequel. Given free-roam within a cult franchise and he destroys the once-faithful image. Quite where he went wrong between the first film and this disgrace, I have no idea.

4/10