Movie Review Halloween 2 (Remake)

Halloween 2 (2009) 

Directed by Rob Zombie 

Written by Rob Zombie 

Starring Scout Taylor Compton, Malcolm McDowell, Sheri Moon Zombie, Brad Dourif, Danielle Harris

Release Date August 28th, 2009

Published August 27th, 2009 

Rob Zombie just doesn't know when to quit. Thinking that he is pushing the envelope, Zombie adds one more swing of the knife, one more snap of the bone, one more stomp of a boot to a skull. He can't leave well enough alone and what should be an exercise in horror and fear becomes a twisted, sadistic and just plain sad insight into Zombie's own twisted psyche. This guy wasn't hugged enough as a kid.

Halloween 2 picks up the story of young Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor Compton) who just survived being attacked by crazed killer Michael Myers. With her parents gone Laurie is staying with the sheriff (Brad Dourif) and his daughter. It is exactly one year later and Halloween is once again upon us.

We learn quickly that the body of Michael Myers was never recovered, though another survivor of Myers's attack Dr. Loomis (Malcom McDowell) assures those buying his new book that Michael is dead. He's not. As Halloween looms Michael Myers is seen walking the plains.

Like an evil Caine from Kung Fu, Myers has apparently been wandering the countryside for the past year waiting for Halloween to arrive. Why would a psycho killer wait a year? There is some gobbledygook about Michael's late mother and a deeply set psychosis but really, the only reason Michael has waited is because the movie is called Halloween.

That's about all the depth that writer-director Rob Zombie is capable of. Zombie is a hack who thinks gore is the end all be all of horror. Forget suspense. Forget characters you care about and invest in, the most important thing for Rob Zombie is getting just the right amount of entrails and just the right sound of a knife hitting skin and bone.

There is zero story, a nothing plot, the film is a series of gory set pieces in which a victim is chosen and that victim is dispatched in the loudest and most blood spattered, innards spilling fashion Zombie can dream up. For some, the lower brain oriented, this will be enough. For those with a brain, it will not.

Halloween 2 is as or maybe more brain dead than the 2007 film. Both are supremely inferior to John Carpenter's original which wastes no time with the vague notions of pop psychology that Rob Zombie uses to break up the monotony of blood and guts. Carpenter's killer was a force of nature and his unknown qualities were part of what made him fearsome.

Rob Zombie can't understand this and thinks that the demonstration of human evisceration was what made Halloween a cultural touchstone. He is, of course, wrong and his complete misunderstanding of his chosen genre is part of his overall hackery. Lame dream sequences, overwrought sound effects, overkill gore and awful acting, directing and editing make Halloween 2 one terrifically bad movie.

Movie Review Halloween (Remake)

Halloween (2007) 

Directed by Rob Zombie 

Written by Rob Zombie

Starring Scout Taylor Compton, Sheri Moon Zombie, Tyler Maine, Danielle Harris, Malcolm McDowell

Release Date August 31st, 2007

Published September 1st, 2007

A question for fans of the Rob Zombie version of John Carpenter's horror classic Halloween (if there are any). What did you enjoy about this movie? This is honest curiosity. I watched Halloween aghast not necessarily because of the ample, overwrought gore. No, rather because Halloween manages to be sloppier and less professional than either of Zombie's previous two bad movies.

More to the point of my curiosity however is the question of what you really did enjoy. The film isn't frightening, it's too ineptly put together to be frightening. It's certainly not humorous, the violence and attitude that Zombie brings to the film is far too self serious for humor. Is it that you find this misogynist,  fantasy titillating? If that's the case boys, get out of mom's basement and get yourself a girlfriend or maybe some counseling.

Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor Compton) has no idea where she came from. The life she has known since being very small is one of loving parents and a beautiful home. She has no idea that she has a brother and that her brother changed her life forever by killing their parents. It turned out for the best for young Laurie, unfortunately her brother Michael did not turn out so well.

Committed to an institution for the criminally insane at the age of 10, Michael at first refused to acknowledge what he did, despite the caring entreaties of Doctor Samuel Loomis (Malcolm McDowell. After 15 years and a couple more murders while incarcerated, Michael refuses to speak to anyone and Dr. Loomis is gone, having turned Michael's murderous life story into a bestseller.

It's Halloween; 15 years to the day Michael murdered all but his little sister. He is to be moved to another, more secure institution, when he decides he's had enough. Killing everyone in his path, Michael escapes and begins the trek home. Only Dr. Loomis is able to determine Michael's whereabouts and even his motivations. Michael is going home to see his little sister.

In John Carpenter's original Halloween no reason is given for why as child Michael Myers killed his older sister. Like more than a few horror fans, Rob Zombie was not satisfied not knowing why Michael became evil. Thus Zombie invents a family and an injurious back story that includes a vile, abusive step father (William Forsythe), a stripper mom (Sherry Moon-Zombie), and a resentful older sister (Hannah Hall).

Michael also has trouble at school where he is constantly made fun of by classmates. 10 year old Daeg Fanch is quite convincingly disturbed for a 10 year old and I credit Rob Zombie for finding the kid and giving him one creepy looking clown mask. That is where my praise of Mr. Zombie will end. The new backstory doesn't explain Myers' supernatural strength and ability to survive multiple bullet wounds and impalings.

What John Carpenter knew and what Rob Zombie ignores, is that not having a full backstory for Michael Myers allowed Carpenter to make him into whatever he wanted, including giving Myers the air of the supernatural. The backstory provides something of a psychological background but Zombie's reaching for realism sinks the film from a logical standpoint. Michael Myers can't survive all of those bullets, impaling's, and falls from great heights if you are aiming for 'realism'.

Of the many failings of Rob Zombie's Halloween is the lack of any kind of suspense. Zombie's approach to Michael Myers' taking of victims has as much suspense as a hammer hitting a nail. Put Myers in a room and whoever else is in the room with him is guaranteed death. That is, except for the lead actress who, at the very least, has to last to the ending. Whether she survives or not, I won't spoil it.

Maybe Zombie was too busy ogling his young female cast to consider that their deaths should have some significance or drama. Zombie's main concern throughout Michael Myers' second act killing spree is making certain that each of the young girls is topless before they are fileted like fish. That these actresses are playing under age characters, high schoolers, seems not to have bothered or put off Zombie in any way.

And yet, there is a classic horror movie clichéd conservatism to Zombie's approach. I have always been fascinated with the moralistic streak that horror films have and Rob Zombie's Halloween is no exception. As in many classic horror films the young victims, male and female, are decimated by the killer after having had pre-marital sex. Michael Myers, like his brethren Freddy and Jason, is the hand of a punishing god, killing for the sins of man.

Zombie lacks the intellect or insight to explore this horror movie moralism and abandons any notion of it after he has sliced and diced his nude teenagers.

Rob Zombie's Halloween pales in comparison to the compact, suspenseful horror of John Carpenter. A master of the genre, Carpenter knew that realism and grossout are not the real tools of the horror trade but rather that suspense and tension are what keep audiences on the edge of their seats. Yes, Carpenter spilled a great deal of blood and he knew how to use death for shock value but his skills far exceed those of Rob Zombie and that is why Carpenter is a legend and Rob Zombie is a low life hack.

Movie Review The Company

The Company (2003) 

Directed by Robert Altman 

Written by Barbara Turner 

Starring Neve Campbell, Malcolm McDowell, James Franco 

Release Date December 26th, 2003 

Published January 12th, 2004 

The appeal of Robert Altman has always been somewhat esoteric. Not since MASH in 1970 has Altman had a film that could be called a commercial success, yet he continues to work steadily turning out quality work every other year or so. The delightful Gosford Park was Oscar nominated which is one of the reasons why studios and financiers are always willing to take a chance on him. Altman's work always has a prestigious feel as if just because he directed it the film has a shot at an Oscar. Altman's latest work, the ballet drama The Company has that same air of prestige to it but lacks the narrative coherence and sharpness of wit that made Gosford Park an Oscar nominee.

Neve Campbell stars in The Company as Loretta Ryan, Ry to her friends and family. Ry is a rising star at the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago where the manic artistic director Alberto Antonelli or Mr. A as he's called (Malcolm McDowell) runs a somewhat out of control ship. Managing everyday on the edge of financial chaos, and more importantly the ego chaos of his stars, Mr. A must train his dancers and hold financiers at bay all the while flitting in and out rooms to avoid serious confrontations.

Ry has just broken up with one of the dancers in the chorus and is beginning a tentative romance with a chef at a local restaurant, Josh (James Franco). In one of the film's most fascinating scenes, set in a bar around a game of pool, Altman lays out Ry and Josh's courtship without words. The two communicate only with their eyes until the next scene when Ryan and Josh wake up next to each other in Ry's apartment. It's not entirely wordless, it's just that Altman has little interest in what the characters have to say to each other, he just wants it all implied and accepted so that he can get back to the ballet.

Aside from Ry, Josh and Mr. A, the cast is made up of the dancers from the real Joffrey Ballet in Chicago. Not actors by training, Altman smartly gives them little dialogue and defines them thinly as stereotypes and archetypes. There is the aging star who can no longer keep up with the younger dancers. There is the teenager with the superstar attitude, talent and stage father and then there are just members of the chorus who struggle to get by and fill in the background.

Altman's camera simply floats through this film without ever really settling on a story that interests him. This may be why there are so many extra plot strands that are begun and tossed aside. A sign that Altman was searching for a story to carry the plot but just never found one, thus he explores as many as he can and then cuts away to a practice or a performance to get away from the plots that just don't appeal to him. This makes the film feel rudderless, like a documentary without a voiceover narration to fill in the blanks of the plot.

The Company is a difficult film to explain. It has a conventional sound to it but Altman is not interested in any of the conventional elements of the script. He's not interested in the romance plot between Campbell and Franco. He is not interested in Mr. A's struggles to raise money and manage his ego backstage. Really he's not interested in anything that isn't happening on the stage.

I cannot speak for Mr. Altman but I got the feeling that he received a rather conventional drama script with romance and the backstage drama of a ballet troupe and decided to do the film despite not being interested in the script. Altman simply sets up his camera and lets it fall on whatever grabs his eye, meanwhile in the corners of the screen behind overlapping, extraneous dialogue there is a conventional Hollywood film going on with a three act script and average dialogue. Altman sets up his camera on a rolling tripod and then walks away to await the next performance on the stage.

Not being a fan of ballet I am in no position to judge whether the performances in the film are any good. We can assume that since these are real dancers for a real and well respected ballet company that they must be pretty good. I can say that Neve Campbell looked pretty good. Campbell conceived the idea for the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Barbara Turner. Campbell does her own dancing in the film and seems to hold her own opposite the pros. Campbell is particularly good in an outdoor performance early in the film. As rain, lightning and thunder kick up she and her partner continue their performance all the way to the end despite the weather.

In the end Robert Altman comes off as a dilettante whose fan interest in ballet overcame his ability to tell a compelling story. That said, I feel there is something deeper in The Company. Indeed Altman seems to really love ballet to the point of ignoring everything else but there is a unique element of experiment here that is interesting. A risky attempt to make a film with as little plot as possible, a minimalist anti-narrative that is antithetical to anything Hollywood would be willing to make. In that sense I find Altman's approach appealing though not the final product of that approach.