Halloween 2 (2009) Review

Written by: ssjd3   

Before I begin my rant as to why I absolutely hate this remake, I will just give you a brief insight on myself and my involvement in the Halloween series. I've grown up to Halloween, Michael Myers is my favorite fictional serial killer of all time. I loved the original series before Resurrection. I also thought that the Halloween remake was a good movie as well. It modernized Michael Myers. Now...lets begin. Before I get into the substance of my rating I will list why this movie deserves 3 stars, a star for each element that I found good.

- It shows how the characters evolved over time.
The surviving characters did take a good beating during the remake and this clearly showed in the beginning, more so in physical appearance than anything.

- Haddonfield has become darker than before.
This time around they arent constantly showing them travel around the generic neighborhood with generic housing, but are showing areas that really look shitty. It's refreshing to see a new area of Haddonfield. Many of the characters take on darker appearances since the last film as well.

- It's not an exact remake.
If you are familiar with the original Halloween 2 then you know that it takes place in a hospital. This one does not and only features about less than a quarter of it's time in the hospital. They try new things with this, now whether or not they really executed them well is what really brings the film down by A LOT.

Okay now it's really time for my reasoning of not giving the movie the rest of the stars that it needs. Although I understand that this is a remake and in order for it not to be a complete copy of the original, they have to try things that are different. The bad thing is that it seems like while they were in the process of adding new elements to make it fresh, they removed elements that made Halloween what it was. Michael Myers' history does not need to be explained in order for us to understand what he's doing and exactly why he's doing it. They did enough of that in the first remake and it seems completely unnecessary for them to revisit an old topic that died a long time ago. The story about his upbringing worked in the remake, but this time around it's not going to work. Some things can go along without being explained, all you have to say is "if you dont understand then watch the first remake."

No where did they even give us a clue in the first remake that his Mother would become some awkward evil looking witch that would want him to kill for her, we were just informed that she was a stripper leading a tough life as an average mom. It does make it mysterious, but when it goes unexplained then it's just like wtf where did this come from. It almost reminded me of Friday the 13th in a sense with the mother driving the son to kill for her, but this time it's too late for all of that...we're now on the 2nd remake and it just isn't necessary at all.

The fact that you explain the story of the killer makes him seem so much more human that it takes away the scare factor. To me, a killer that kills without you knowing his objective is much more frightening than a 7 foot grown man killing for his gothic looking "mommy". This version of Michael Myers just was not scary enough, everything about him was different. His walk was different, the way he killed people was different, just everything about him that really made Michael Myers who he was was just different. His so called brutal killings by repeatedly beating or stabbing someone with sound effects really wore off after the 3rd kill. It's like watching someone squash bugs and repeatedly smashing them with their shoe. The first time kill is pretty exciting, but after a few bugs get smashed the shock factor really fades away and youre just like "okay, please stop the bug is dead. move on. maybe next time you can just slap the bug with a fly swatter or lead it into a bug zapper" but the person responds by smashing the following bugs with a bit more effort and more strength. It doesn't matter how hard or how fast you do it, it's still old. Another thing that I didn't like is that he made grunts and small yells. Michael Myers did not talk or make any type of sound effects, even when he was crushed in between a car and a tree (although it wasn't really him) in H20 he didn't make a sound. Thats something that they really took too far with this Michael Myers. He made sounds which was not a Michael Myers type thing to do. His walk was also very stiff and quick, it looked like he had a wedgie and was trying to get rid of it without pulling his underwear out his ass.

The character Dr. Loomis really disappointed me as well, they got the perfect match for him and he was poorly executed. Im not sure if they did their research or what because he really did not serve his purpose until the very end of the movie. He wasn't even a prominent character, he just served in the majority of the movie for comic relief until the ending which could have done without him. His character dramatically changed from the first remake and it could be understandable as to why he changed the way he did, but it makes less sense than what they COULD have done to him to make him a much better character that served a more logical purpose than he did. I dont understand why such a knowledgeable character such as himself would change the way he did, if anything I would think that he would be the most wise about the situation considering his background. He seemed more senseless about the situation than the other characters did.

The last thing that really bugged me out was the fact that there was no type of suspenseful music that really caught my eye. If there was any music then it really didnt catch because I didnt feel any tension between breaks. When you expected him to appear, he did and thats what ruined the tension. I knew which characters would die because of their cliche mannerisms, their placement as a character, as well as the scenes that they were in.

If this was not termed Halloween 2 then I would not have gone to see this movie. Even without the name it would still be horrible by itself. The plot is very redundant, the characters are very static and one sided and the plot doesn't make sense at all. After seeing the movie I still dont get why family is everything. Anyone who is a big fan of the Halloween series would be very disappointed, but even the average watcher would be disappointed. This does not live up to the hype that the first remake built for it. It takes the franchise in a completely different direction that no one will really understand why when they placed everything perfectly for a very good sequel. This new direction really eliminates every element that made Halloween as well as the remake great movies of their time.