DVD Review: H2 (Halloween 2)

Director: Rob Zombie Release Date: 1 February Review by Paul Metcalf I like Rob Zombie’s style. I like what he tries to do with his movies and I think he has a good future as a director. One thing I don’t like though is when he gets it wrong. A lot of people will say he gets it wrong with all his movies of course but I thought. House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects were two good movies and paved the way for him to make bigger Hollywood movies; these being Halloween and now H2. Zombie’s style is evident throughout and that’s a good thing. But that’s about it. The story is a mismatch of non-entertaining violence and a storyline that seems to be sewn together just to get Sheri Moon Zombie back on the screen again. I’m sure it was seen as a good idea that Michael’s psychosis makes him hallucinate that his mother has returned to him, pushing him to reunite with his sister once more, but it feels unnecessary when we could just get straight back into the killing. We are left with surreal, confusing scenes pushing Myers to his goal. As Michael has these visions so does his sister Laurie. Obviously she’s rather messed up by what has happened to her but we are spoon fed the fact that she has some mental connection to Michael, and that these visions affect her too. We are even given the pleasure of seeing Michael eating a dog and having Laurie vomit as she appears to taste his latest meal. Hardly a subtle way to show a connection really. This movie is missing something very important compared to the first and that is character development. This time Zombie wants to get down to surrealism and, to steal a phrase from A Clockwork Orange, ultra violence. The characters are two dimensional, existing either to be killed by Michael or to be just plain annoying. Malcolm McDowell and Brad Dourif are wasted here, their characters appear to lack any true goal. We are also made to believe Dr Loomis is now a fame hungry heartless hack who has used the Myers story for fame, no matter who he hurts in the process. This won’t sit well with fans of the original. Donald Pleasence’s Loomis was a far more likeable character. Horror violence is meant to be entertaining, cartoonish even but in this movie it is pushed to an uncomfortable realism. Watching a man have his face stamped on until it’s a mushy mess is not entertaining at all and brings into question whether we need horror violence to be so realistic. I love gory movies but there was a point in this one where I wondered if it just went too far and too harsh. The scenes just lacked a certain presence leading them to just become violence for the same of violence. I can see what this movie was trying to do, but it in my opinion it has failed. The surrealism was not needed; Sheri Moon Zombie was only done to get her into another of her husband’s movies and the story was a mess. I just hope Zombie’s next movie is not such a trainwreck and that he is given the time he needs to make a better movie. What’s his next movie you ask? Oh yeah a remake of The Blob. Damn. Rating: 4/10