Yesterday, I went to watch Halloween 2 on it’s first screening of the day. I had high hopes for the movie. Because as flawed as it was it was fairly entertaining compared to a lot of the crap that is out there. But with Halloween 2 Rob Zombie completely lost me with the whole white horse and images of young Michael and his dead mother.

Don’t get me wrong the movie wasn’t without it’s good qualities for horror fans. The death scenes were great for the most part.  But this felt a lot like Michael Myers meets Jason Voorhees as far as the direction the character has gone. I love brutal killings as much as the next horror fan. But it just doesn’t seem to fit with Michael Myers. But that’s not the breaking point of this movie for me. I can see how Rob Zombie wanted to change the character and I’m cool with that for the most part.

I also enjoyed the cameo’s by icons such as Howard Hesseman, Margot Kidder, Caroline Williams and ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic  they were a nice touch for fans of the 80’s. 

The breaking point for this movie was the editing, It just seemed sloppy to me compared to Rob’s other movies which while hectic seemed to have a nice flow to them. Yes I’m saying fuck you to Rob on this movie for ruining my favorite franchise but I’m still a fan of his overall. So while I’m willing to give his future works a chance. He’s lost the blind faith that i’ve had in his artistic vision.

I think the two main female leads Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) and Annie Brackett (Danielle Harris) where decent enough characters and the only problem I had with them was the last 10 minutes or so of Scout Taylor-Compton (Laurie Strode) performance. I just didn’t buy it and didn’t like how different it was from the rest of her performance. She did a great job for rest of the movie. So I’m thinking that this was a limitation of Rob Zombies direction for those scenes.

Malcolm McDowell as Dr. Samuel Loomis was completely wasted as a character. His limited scenes were very underwhelming to say the least. Which sucks as he’s a great actor and Dr. Samuel Loomis  is such a huge part of the Halloween mythos.

The ending flat out sucked in my opinion and could cause the series to have to be rebooted once again which is sort of shitty as that will probably mean many years before we get another Halloween. I’m not going to spoil it but the ending made this my least favorite Halloween movie of all time and there have been some stinkers in the series. I hope this isn’t Tyler Manes last performance at Michael Myers. I think he did a great job and makes a great Michael Myers. This series just needs a new director and a reboot. We don’t need an origin story though. We need to get Michael Myers back to being the stalking maniac that he is.  So once again fuck you Rob Zombie and I hope that you don’t fuck up the Blob like you did the Halloween series. It might be time to go back to producing your own material like House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects where your talent truly shines through.

Gory Rating – 3.5/10 – Mr. Gory

Gory Tidbit: If you’re on the fence about going to the theater on this one just stay in and rent 1981’s Halloween 2. Rob missed the mark on this one. If there is another one make sure to read the reviews first before you waste your money and time.

This movie doesn’t try and reinvent the wheel when it comes to horror movies. This is a slasher movie and it does it very well. It’s nice to see a director have some direction for a change. This is all about Chrome Skull and hit unstopping murderous rampage. I like that the director isn’t trying to be cute here. He plays it straight and gives us a gory slasher film that’s sure to be a hit on DVD for years to come. If you’re looking for sex, drugs, and body count this movie has just what you’re looking for.

This is probably the nicest horror surprise so far in 2009. I thought the Trailer looked great but I had no idea they would get such a kick ass horror film out of this. I’m very impressed and I’m sure you will be as well.

I hope that we see some more writing and directing work from Robert Hall as  I think he has potential to make some great horror movies.  I recommend Laid to Rest. It’s fun movie that has some very gory kills. This movie could have been great with a little better acting.  But it’s still a lot better than a lot of other crap that is out there these days. Let me know what you think of this movie in the Laid To Rest Forum. I have to give this movie 5 Skulls for the Presentation and all around story. Remember it’s not perfect but as a whole it’s pretty awesome.