Ah, the Disappointment

I admit it I was hella hyped for Halloween II. Seriously, part one was on point (see my gushing here). Sadly, as much as I wanted to like the sequel, it was pretty hard.



On the bright side, it was brutal. It’s absolutely delightful to see someone get their head stomped in, (and this is why so many people think I need therapy) I think the horror genre needs more head stomping. There was no lag, no story build up they just got right to the killin’. Also, Scout Taylor-Compton, she is 100% awesomeness. Granted no one is going to give her an Oscar for a horror flick but that performance was mind-blowing. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen someone commit to a character like that.

With great disappointment I have to admit it, the bad outweighed the good. The first thing, the boy pointed this out, was the grunting from Michael. Now, to me, it made each kill seem that much more brutal but the boy’s issue rang true: the silent Michael was creepier. His silent dismembering and butchering gave a supernatural feel to the carnage. The loss of this took the flick in more of a torture porn direction.

My second gripe was the loss of Daeg Faerch. Honestly, I feel sorry for Chase Vanek. Faerch was AMAZING in Halloween. His portrayal of young Michael got under your skin. That scene with the bully left you shaken. You could see the evil in his eyes. Vanek’s performance fell flat. The kid just looked too damn happy and cute. (Which if you see Faerch in person he’s not creepy at all. He’s an adorable, sweet looking little boy who throws up the peace sign in pics. This only makes me admire the talent displayed in his Halloween performance even more.)

The biggest let down was the direction Zombie took with the addition of the ghostly scenes from Michael/Laurie’s minds. I saw where he was going, I was at the train station, I had my ticket, but I just didn’t get there. It was an interesting supernatural turn and I think it was meant to illustrate the damage being done to poor Laurie’s mind. But it, like Vanek’s performance, just fell flat. There was something missing that rendered it unbelievable. I think it was lacking just a touch of grit that the rest of the movie had in abundance.

The Laurie dream sequences illustrated Zombie’s knack for pointing out how scary confusion is (like in House of 1000 Corpses, which was painfully horrible) and while it is a million times better than House, he’s still not there yet. Again, there’s a degree of grit lacking that makes it seem too fake (again better suited for torture porn).

In the end I didn’t walk out of the theater angry (and when I sit through a completely ridiculous movie, believe me, I walk out pissed). I wanted to like it but after marinating on it overnight all it really merits from me was “ahh” complete with non-committed should shrug.

And despite all of this I have not lost faith in Rob Zombie. *THIS* looks like a hell of a good time.