But wait, isn't this the same man that gave us The Devil's Rejects, a far better film than the predecessor it was directly connected to? Yeah, but this time around it looks as if Rob went back to his music video directing days and forgot about character development, story, plot, and entertaining the audience. How could a film that is so violent, gritty, and uncomfortable to watch wind up being so boring? For a horror fan that seems almost impossible to imagine.
Focusing more on Laurie Strode, now a complete devotee to buying bullshit at Spencer's Gifts stores, but only after she has money left over from shopping at Hot Topic, the Myers family curse is in full effect. Even after being shot in the face by Laurie at point blank range, the big guy wearing the Willilam Shatner mask is apparently still alive, thinks his mother is walking around telling him what to do (see Jason in Friday The 13th) and still wants to reunite with his little sister. Awe, how cute. Too bad we have no idea where the hell he is, while he is roaming around all disheveled and homeless, in the farm fields of Haddonfield. We also have no idea where he has been all this time, why he eats raw dog meat, or how he knows Halloween is coming up. I guess he has a watch with a calendar on it?
Mama Myers dies in the first film, and at first you see her here in flashbacks, which is absolutely okay in my book. Where Zombie goes wrong is the need to insert his wife into everything he does, thus writing some half-baked bullshit about Michael Myers being ordered around by his mother, through these lame ass visions with her in white with a white horse and the kid-clown version of Michael.
The biggest disappointment I have with H2 is that unlike much of the hardcore Halloween fanboys out there, I really enjoyed the first one. I liked having some more background on Michael and seeing his interactions with Loomis. I liked how messed up he was as a kid and how he was treated. There were flaws, yes, but overall I really enjoyed the first film. This one, however, with the arrogant Loomis becoming a sex-starved egomaniac, caring not for anything except his bank account, totally sucked out any redeeming quality from any of the characters. I love bleak movies filled with terrible and evil people, but when you have no-one to get behind, no one to root for and dislike all the characters, you don't care what happens next.
Okay, this is going on longer than I had originally planned, but when there is just so much to say I can't filter it all out. Anyhow, for those who still care about this film's DVD release, if you actually liked the film, then you will love the DVD. There are tons of deleted scenes, and while none of them are really anything good to me, you just might enjoy the extra footage and seeing how some characters got from one place to another. There are also a ton of "music videos," mostly using footage from the movie, for the fictional "Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures" band. With commentary from Rob Zombie, a blooper reel, audition footage and some more deleted and extended scenes from Uncle Seymour Coffin's stand-up comedy, they managed to pack this DVD up quite nicely. If only the actual movie was better. It isn't even enjoyable on an ironic level. Wow, this was another movie I enjoyed less than Far Cry. Uwe Boll making movies better than Rob Zombie? A cold day in hell, indeed.
Movie: D+
Special Features: A-
Overall: C+
Release Date: January 12th, 2009 (Rob Zombie's Birthday... and mine too)