LITERAL REMAINS

If you decide you want to watch the oh so fan divided Halloween II on DVD, the best bet is to check out this unrated director’s cut of Rob Zombie’s high reaching, well meaning, slasher pic.  The theatrical version left me disgruntled, and puzzled, and although the director’s cut doesn’t clear up all the baffling aspects, it does represent a slasher film that tries to delve a little deeper than the norm for the genre, but can’t escape its clutches.

One thing I learned, H2  takes place two years after the events of the original.  Somehow, and I’d have to look back at my original review, I thought it was one year later.  Go figure.  That makes it even more head scratching that it takes Michael Myers two damn years to make his way back to Haddonfield.  Sure, he does have to heal from a close range head shot, and he is on foot after escaping from the meat wagon, but come on, two years?  Myers spends the two years living off the land, very vagrant and vagabond, and seems to like dining on dog.  He also enjoys the occasional chance to kill hillbillies…and eat their dogs.  He also seems to spend this time becoming angrier and angrier.  Could be from all the roughing it, or from the visits from the vision of his dead mom and her white horse.

Laurie hasn’t fared much better.  She isn’t feasting on dog, just veggie pizza, and she has become part of the Brackett family, the sheriff and his daughter Annie, who also survived Michael’s killfest from the first film.  Both girls bear physical scars from that horrible night he came home, but it’s Laurie who seems to suffer the most psychologically.  Even her therapist can’t keep the dreams at bay.  It’s a real hoot that her therapist is played by Margot Kidder.

Michael does, inevitably, make his way back home to wreak havoc and go all killer crazy.  Whatever you expect to happen, well, it does.  But Zombie handles it better than you might think, and this version of events, though not much different from the theatrical incarnation, does feel a little more complete.  That was my beef with the theatrical cut of the first film, it didn’t feel like a complete movie.  Though part one is a much better film, this unrated sequel holds up better than expected.

I will be the first to admit I don’t know all the differences between the theatrical cut and this director’s cut.  I just know from having seen this  DVD, I liked it better than when I saw it in the theater.  Especially the ending.  The director’s cut seems a little more thought out.  Or maybe I’m just growing soft.  What still irks me about this movie, though, is that Brad Douriff is still so greatly underutilized.  He gives a great performance here, thoughtful and moving.  And Sheri Moon Zombie still overstays her welcome.

3.5 out of 5
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