Halloween 2 (2009)

*1/2

Picking up where the first film ends, the victims are being loaded into amulances, bloodied up and sobbing. Michael Meyers' corpse is loaded into a van, driven by two men who like to talk about sodomizing corpses - guess what ends up happening to them. After a chase sequence at the hospital, we fast-forward a year to the main characters' efforts to cope with the trauma from the first film. Laurie is becoming more rebellious and reliant on prescription medication. Dr. Loomis is even more materialistic, trying to promote a book about last year's horror. But of course, as the one-year anniversary of the killings approaches - Halloween day - Michael Meyers returns to finish what he started.

First of all, it took some effort to wait until October to see this movie. I saw it last night, where in all of San Diego, only one theater was still showing it, for two showings a day. I was also distracted by the fact that a couple had taken their two young children to see this film on a school night. Seriously, these kids were like 6 and 8. Who would do that?!? Seeing these parents trying to shush their kids when they were frightened by the loud noises and blood was the real horror! But, I digress.

Rob Zombie continues what he started in the first Halloween re-make by digging deeper into the character of Dr. Loomis and Michael Meyers. It's less successful in this film though, because Loomis' development is less tied to Michael than his own interpretation of horror. And, Meyers' character development (difficult to convey since his character never speaks), is protrayed in a very artsy manner, complete with his mother dressed in white, accompanied by his ten-year-old self, and occasionally, a glowing white horse (don't ask).

Thus, while some of this is interesting, it is not scary, nor really even that shocking. Many of the scenes feel tacked on to stretch the running time (we don't need to spend 8 minutes on Michael's murder of hicks in a random pasture) and efforts to provoke sympathy for the character really put a damper on trying to make him scary. The ending has a nice little twist which provoke the viewer's interest - enough so that I'll probably make an effort to see Halloween 3-d, already announced for next summer.