Matthew Sanchelli's Movie Review of Halloween II (2009)

Not What You Would Expect
Matthew Sanchelli - wrote on 08/29/09

So, I went to see this movie last night. It took me until this morning to allow everything to sink in and really reflect on everything that had transpired in the movie.

This is not your typical Halloween movie. This is not a remake of Halloween II (81). Pretty much the only thing that makes this a Halloween movie is that is has the characters that John Carpenter and Debra Hill created.

Rob took the original Halloween and "re-imagined" (or whatever you want to call it) back in 2007. Now, he's made his own movie out of Halloween 2 (or H2); from what he started with 2 years ago.

I will say now that I am a huge fan of the original Halloween and the work of John Carpenter. I also absolutely love the Halloween series and respect it in it's own nature.

H2 is not your typical Halloween flick and it's elements do not reflect anything you've seen in the previous 8 Halloween movies (not counting Rob's 2007). If you go into this movie expecting the same structure and the same Michael Myers you will be sorely disappointed.

This is not said in a bad context. I deeply respect Rob with what he did and where he went with this movie.

For all intents and purposes...Michael Myers in H2 equals Michael Myers pissed off. Laurie Strode is messed up. That's the angle this movie takes.

Imagine, if you will, you just survived a massacre where some big, hulking psycho-killer in a mask just chased you around town and killed all of the people close to you (or in Annie's case...almost killed). It would seriously F*** you up.

This is what Rob chose to show us. Picking up where his 2007 movie left off with Laurie walking down the street after having shot Michael in the face. After a GREAT 20 minute or so opening we fast forward to just about a year later.

This is where things get dramatically...and I mean DRAMATICALLY...different.

I was reading an interview with Rob the other day and he made a comment that at some point during shooting the movie seemed like it should have been titled something like 'The Messed Up Life and Times of Laurie Strode'. This movie is about Laurie. Plain and simple...and Michael is her "demon".

Sure this movie has the Zombie horror trademark of being explicitly gory and violent, but it was a crazy "emotional" roller coaster as well. You could almost call it Rob Zombie's artistic college piece that you see a lot of stuffy film majors, at high priced colleges make that end with a title card of 'Fin'.....but with edge.

This movie is a realistic horror movie. Maybe the blood and gore is over-the-top...and maybe it's not. Honestly, I've never experienced a massacre first hand so I would have no freaking way of knowing. But seriously...if some dude is pissed off and wants to kill...that's what he's going to do. Plain and simple...and there's nothing to argue about.

There's no stupid running and falling and screaming and doing stupid things in the movie. You don't sit in this movie and yell with your friends "Don't go out there alone!" Or "why the hell are you going upstairs?" The characters act as I would believe someone in a situation like that would act.

It's difficult to give examples of the many things that are slowly building in my mind as positives to go and see this movie, because I do not want to give any spoilers but I am more than willing to justify any of my thoughts and feelings regarding this movie deserving the 4 stars I gave it.