Halloween II (2009)

Halloween II is a 2009 American horror film written, directed, and produced by Rob Zombie. The film is a sequel to Zombie's 2007 remake of Halloween (1978), and the tenth film in the film series. Picking up where Halloween ended, and then jumping ahead one year, Halloween II follows Laurie Strode as she deals with the aftermath of the previous year's events, Dr. Loomis who is trying to capitalize on those events by publishing a new book that chronicles everything that happened, and Michael Myers as he continues his search for Laurie so that he can reunite with his sister. The film sees the return of lead cast members Malcolm McDowell, Scout Taylor-Compton, and Tyler Mane, who portrayed Dr. Loomis, Laurie Strode, and Michael Myers in the 2007 film, respectively.

A sequel to the 2007 film was first announced at the 2008 30 Years of Terror Convention; at the time, Zombie passed on doing a sequel to his remake, feeling as though he had no energy left to make another Halloween film. Two years later, after unsuccessful attempts to draft a script for a sequel, the Weinstein brothers, Malek Akkad, and Rob Zombie, who had a renewed interest in the film, secured a deal for the director to return. For Halloween II, Zombie decided he wanted to focus more on the connection between Laurie and Michael, and the idea that they both share similar psychological problems. Zombie also wanted the sequel to be more realistic and violent than its 2007 predecessor. This time around, Zombie had trouble finding a place to include John Carpenter's original Halloween theme music; although the score was used throughout Zombie's 2007 film, the theme was only included with the final shot of the sequel.

Halloween II was officially released on August 28, 2009 in North America and was met with a negative reception from critics.

Plot
''In a short flashback, Deborah Myers visits a young Michael Myers at Smith's Grove Sanitarium where she gives Michael the gift of a white horse statuette. Michael explains that the horse reminds him of a dream he had of Deborah's ghost, all dressed in white and leading a horse down the sanitarium halls toward Michael, telling him she was going to bring him home. Moving ahead fifteen years, Laurie Strode is found wandering around in a state of shock and covered in blood after having shot Michael until Lee Brackett finds and takes her to the emergency room. Meanwhile, the paramedics pick up Annie Brackett and Dr. Loomis, who are still alive after their attacks by Michael, and take them to the hospital. Presumed dead, Michael's lifeless body is loaded into a separate ambulance; when the driver wrecks the transport Michael awakens and escapes the ambulance, walking toward a vision of Deborah dressed in white and leading a white horse.''

Michael appears at the hospital, and begins murdering everyone he comes across on his way to Laurie. Trapped in a security outpost at the gate, Laurie watches as Michael tears through the walls with an axe, but just as he tries to kill her Laurie wakes up from the dream. It is actually one year later and Laurie is now living with the Brackets. Michael's body has been missing since last Halloween—still presumed dead—and Laurie has been having recurring nightmares about the event. While Laurie deals with her trauma through therapy, Loomis has chosen to turn the event into an opportunity to write another book. Meanwhile, Michael has been seeing visions of Deborah's ghost and a younger version of himself, who instructs him that with Halloween approaching it is time to bring Laurie home; so he sets off for Haddonfield.

As Michael travels to Haddonfield, Laurie begins having hallucinations that mirror Michael's, which involve a ghostly image of Deborah and a young Michael in a clown costume. In addition, her hallucinations also begin to include her acting out Michael's murders, like envisioning herself taping Annie to a chair and slitting her throat while dressed in a clown outfit—similar to how a young Michael murdered Ronnie White. While Laurie struggles with her dreams, Loomis has been going on tour to promote his new book, only to be greeted with outrage from the public who blame him for Michael's actions and exploiting the deaths of Michael's victims. When his book is finally released, Laurie discovers the truth: that she is really Angel Myers, Michael's long lost sister. With the truth out, Laurie decides to go partying with her friends Mya and Harley to escape how she is feeling. Michael appears at the party and kills Harley, then makes his way over to the Brackett house and stabs Annie repeatedly.

When Laurie arrives, she finds Annie bloodied and dying. Michael kills Mya and then comes after Laurie, who manages to escape the house. While Laurie manages to flag down a passing motorist, Sheriff Brackett arrives home and finds his daughter dead. Before Laurie can escape, Michael kills the driver and flips the car over with Laurie in it. Michael takes the unconscious Laurie to an abandoned shed he has been camped out in. Laurie awakens to a vision of Deborah, and a young Michael, ordering her to say "I love you, mommy". The police discover Michael's location and surround the shed. Loomis arrives and goes into the shed to try to reason Michael into letting Laurie go. Inside, he has to inform Laurie, who believes that the younger Michael is holding her down, that no one is restraining her. Just then, Deborah instructs the older Michael that it is time to go home; Michael grabs Loomis and slashes his face and stabbing him in the chest, killing him. Stepping in front of a window while holding Loomis's corpse, Michael is shot twice by Sheriff Brackett and falls onto the spikes of some farming equipment, impaling him.

Apparently released of the visions, Laurie walks over and tells Michael she loves him, then she stabs him repeatedly in the chest and finally in the face, presumably killing him. The shed door opens and Laurie walks out, wearing Michael's mask. As she pulls the mask off, Laurie transitions to isolation in a psychiatric ward, grinning as a vision of Deborah dressed in white stands with a white horse at the end of her room.

Cast

 * Malcolm McDowell as Samuel Loomis
 * Tyler Mane as Michael Myers
 * Sheri Moon Zombie as Deborah Myers
 * Brad Dourif as Sheriff Leigh Brackett
 * Danielle Harris as Annie Brackett
 * Scout Taylor-Compton as Laurie Strode/Angel Myers
 * Mark Boone Junior as Floyd
 * Chris Hardwick as David Newman
 * "Weird Al" Yankovic as himself
 * Octavia Spencer - Nurse Daniels
 * Margot Kidder - Barbara Collier
 * Brea Grant - Mya Rockwell
 * Angela Trimbur - Harley David

Development
In 2008, at the 30 Years of Terror Convention, Halloween producer Malek Akkad confirmed that a sequel to Rob Zombie's 2007 film was in the works. French filmmakers Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Muary were in negotiations to direct the sequel in November 2008, but on December 15, 2008 Variety reported that Rob Zombie had officially signed on to write and direct the Halloween sequel. In an interview, Zombie expressed how the exhaustion of creating the first Halloween made him not want to come back for a sequel, but after a year of cooling down he was more open to the idea. The writer/director explained that with the sequel he was no longer bound by a sense of needing to retain any "John Carpenter-ness", as he could do "whatever [he] wants to do". Producer Malek Akkad said the original intention, when they believed Zombie was not returning, was to create a "normal sequel". Akkad and his Trancus producing company hired various writers to come up drafts for a new film, but none worked. Akkad and the Weinstein brothers then turned to Bustillo and Muary, whose film Inside had recently been bought for distribution by the Weinstein Company. According to Akkad, the producers really wanted Rob to return, as Akkad felt that there was something "lost in the translation" when the French filmmakers took over the project. After his work on the 2007 remake, Zombie had earned the trust of Akkad, who informed him to ignore any rules they had set for him on the previous film. Akkad suggested that he wanted Zombie to move the franchise away from some of its established rules.

Casting
On February 2, 2009, Zombie confirmed through his official website that Tyler Mane would be returning as Michael Myers, as well as Malcolm McDowell in the role of Dr. Loomis, and Scout Taylor-Compton and Danielle Harris returning as Laurie Strode and Annie Brackett, respectively. Halloween II also saw the return of Sheri Moon Zombie as Deborah Myers, Michael's mother, and Brad Dourif as Sheriff Brackett, Annie's father. Daeg Faerch, who portrayed a young Michael Myers in the 2007 remake, was set to reprise his role for Halloween II. By the time production was getting started for the sequel Faerch had grown too big for the part. According to Zombie, the director had to recast the role, much to his own dismay, because Faerch's physical maturity did not fit what was in the script. Although Faerch is not in the sequel, the first trailer for Halloween II contained images of Faerch, but Zombie pointed out that those images were test shots done and were not intended to be in either the trailer or the film.

The two main characters, Michael and Laurie, go through their own changes in the sequel. Taylor-Compton described her characters as having "these bipolar moments", where her emotions are spontaneously changing from points of happiness to agitation. The actress stated that Zombie wanted to see Laurie Strode travel into "these really dark places". Taylor-Compton clarified that when the film starts Laurie is still not aware that Michael is her older brother, and as the film progresses more and more pieces of information are given to her and she does not know how to deal with them. The actress explained that the darkness brewing inside Laurie is manifested externally, generally through her physical appearance and the clothes she chooses to wear—Zombie characterized the look as "grungy".

As the film goes on, in Zombie's Words: "And as Laurie is Michael’s sister, I’m playing like he’s clearly insane and so is she, but her insanity doesn’t manifest itself in the same way. In the first movie, Michael Myers was clearly insane by age 10, so I figured, ‘Well, maybe hers comes at age 19.’ So that’s pretty much what it is: She’s slipping into insanity throughout the whole movie." — Zombie describing Laurie's psychological state.

Zombie clarified that after the events of Halloween, all of the characters have changed, but the sequel focuses on the emerging "insanity" from within Laurie. As the writer/director described it, Laurie and Michael are not that different psychologically, Laurie's "insanity" just manifests itself later and to a different degree than Michael's. Zombie further described Laurie as a "wreck", who continually sinks lower as the film moves forward. Even Sheriff Brackett goes through his own changes. Brackett, who receives more screen time in this film, allows Laurie to move in with him and his daughter after the events of the first film. Zombie explained, "He's old, he's worn out, he's just this beat-down guy with these two girls he can't deal with." Zombie characterized Loomis in the sequel as more of a "sellout", who exploits the memories of those who were killed by Michael in the 2007 film. Zombie explained that he tried to channel Vincent Bugliosi into Loomis's character for the sequel; noting that he wanted Loomis to seem more "ridiculous" this time. As for Michael Myers, the character is given almost an entirely new look for the film, which is being used, according to Taylor-Compton, as a means to illustrate a new emotion for the character as he spends much of his time trying to hide himself. Zombie pointed out that of all of the characters that return in the sequel, Michael is the only one that does not change: "All the other characters are very different. Laurie; Loomis; they're having all kinds of problems in their life, but Michael just moves along. Michael is no different; he's exactly the same as he was ten years old and he killed everybody He has concept of the world around him, so he can never be affected by it."

Filming
Production began on February 23, 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia. Zombie acknowledged that filming in Georgia provided certain tax breaks for the company, but the real reason he chose that location was because the other locations he was planning to use were still experiencing snowy weather. For him, Georgia's landscapes and locations provided the look that he wanted for his film. Zombie described the sequel as being very realistic and very violent. The writer/director has said that he is trying to create almost the exact opposite of what people will expect. Known for filming multiple sequences during production of his films, Zombie filmed an alternate ending to Halloween II. In the alternate ending, Loomis and Michael crash through the shed the police have surrounded, and out into the open air. As Loomis grasps at Michael's mask, and pleads for him to stop, Michael stabs Loomis in the stomach as he tells Loomis to "Die!".

Music
For the sequel, Zombie only used John Carpenter's original theme music in the final scene of the film, though the director admits that he and music composer Tyler Bates did try to find other places to include it. According to Zombie, Carpenter's music did not fit with what was happening in the film; whenever he or Bates would insert it into a scene it "just wouldn't feel right" to the director. Zombie also utilized pop culture songs throughout the film, with "Nights in White Satin" appearing the most prominently. According to Zombie, he chose songs that he liked, and that would enhance a given scene within the film. An official soundtrack for the film was released on August 25, 2009. In addition, an album featuring the music of psychobilly band Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures is set to be released in conjunction with Halloween II on August 28, 2009. Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures is a fictional band that appears in Halloween II. Nan Vernon, who recorded a new version of the song "Mr. Sandman" for the end credits of 2007 remake, also performs "Love Hurts" for end credits of Halloween II.

Release
Metro-Goldwyn-Mater Pictures and Dimension Films released Halloween II in North America on August 28, 2009 to 3,025 theaters. Following that, the film was released in the United Kingdom on October 9, 2009. Dimension Films re-released Halloween II in North America on October 30, 2009 to coincide with the Halloween holiday, across 1,083 theaters. The film is scheduled to be released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 12, 2010; a theatrical cut and an unrated version of the film will be released

Box office
On its opening day, the film grossed an estimated $7,640,000, which is less than the $10,896,610 Zombie's 2007 remake pulled in during the same weekend of August. By the end of its opening weekend, Halloween II had grossed $16,349,565. The film's opening weekend earned more than the entire box office performances of Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers ($11,642,254), Halloween III: Season of the Witch ($14,400,000), and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers ($15,116,634), in unadjusted dollars. The film dropped 64.9% in its second weekend, only grossing $5,745,206 and slipping from third to sixth place. Grossing just $2,114,486 in its third weekend, Halloween II dropped out of the box office top ten to fourteenth place. The re-release of the film was intended to take advantage of the Halloween holiday, but the film only brought in approximately $475,000. As of November 3, 2009, Halloween II has grossed a total of $33,398,563 in North American, and an additional $4,272,828 overseas for a worldwide total of $37,665,801. Compared to the other Halloween films, the 2009 sequel sits in fourth place, just behind the original Halloween.

Critical reception
Based on 66 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Halloween II has an overall 21% approval rating from critics, with an average score of 3.8 out of 10. Among Rotten Tomatoes' Top Critics, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 18%. By comparison, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 46, based on 15 reviews.