Wednesday 14 October 2009

Halloween II (Remake) - Horror Film Review


I decided to watch this at the very last second. I was actually booking my ticket for a Bruce Willis film when I decided to instead watch this. Of course this led to me getting I.D'd as my mind went blank and I started stuttering as I tried to change the title of one film to another. My reasoning was that I love horrors, so a choice between an action and a horror on the big screen should always have horror in first place.

I've never seen the first Halloween remake. The original Halloweens hold a dear place in my hear, I love them all, and have them both on DVD and Video and also have Michael Myers and Dr Loomis figures. I heard the Halloween remake focused too much on Myers past before he became a killer. However I do like the style of Rob Zombies films (I.E: the excellent Devils Rejects) and was intrigued how he would handle the remake.


The film starts off I guess showing the aftermath of the first film. Laurie Strode has shot Myers dead, a lot of her friends are dead and Dr Loomis (played by the amazing Malcolm McDowell) has been quite injured. The emergency services show up and cart everyone off to Hospital. Myers is assumed dead, and his body is taken off to a secure location by an Ambulance. On the way the Ambulance crashes, Myers escapes the wreckage and walks off into the night.

A year later Laurie is still suffering horrific nightmares about Myers. Dr Loomis is milking his fame at being the Dr who treated mass murderer Myers (his body was not recovered, but everyone assumes he is dead) and is soon to release a book on the subject. Myers himself has been living in the country for the year, sporting a hobo look (massive beard, dirty clothes). The ghost/hallucination of his dead mother summons him back to Haddonfield; Chaos ensures.


I admit I did quite enjoy this film, there are many neat changes on the original. Firstly Laurie Strode is actually good looking, a change from the horse faced Jaime Lee Curtis. She is portrayed as someone on the edge of mental collapse struggling to cope with the horrific night of a year back. Finding out Myers is her brother pushes her over the edge.

Dr Loomis is portrayed as a complete arse. He is shown as having no concern for the victims of Myers, just wanting to be famous and milking Myers legacy for as much as he can. This is a neat twist on Loomis of the original films who was shown as a man obsessed with defeating Myers, wracked with guilt at the monster he had been unable to contain.


Myers himself appears as a much more dangerous figure. He towers over everyone, being about 7 feet tall, and is immensely powerful. His mask is more warped and grotesque than the original William Shatner mask. His motivations for all the killing are weird though. He constantly is followed by ghosts of his mum (usually with a white horse), and his younger self. It seems he is able to project these Hallucinations onto others at times, or perhaps they really are ghosts. He grunts a lot as well, when the original Myers just breathed heavily.

The film is very Rob Zombie. Lots of sleazy characters, lots of brutal violence, lots of dirty blood, and lots of repulsive beauty (the scene with the bath room murder aftermath looks amazing, though at the same time grotesque with all its blood).


A good remake, and the end credits have the classic Halloween theme tune. Obviously not a patch on the immortal original. I recognised parts of all the first 6 Halloweens in this one.

SCORE:

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Been wondering about watching this film, but think I'll probably wait until the DVD and buy the whole Halloween box-set instead. I can wait.
However I thought this was a particularly good review, teases just enough of the film to get me interested without giving too much away.
I too loved Devils Rejects, and thought the first Halloween remake was a decent enough version (enjoyed the Myres back story in that one, with his redneck family). I think he's doing a remake of The Blob next, yes? I'll look forward to that remake too, I reckon.

RZ said...

I think I will defo check out Halloween 1 remake after seeing this, i was just determined to hate it having such a love of the originals