Halloween II: A Rob Zombie Film (2009) - Guest Article

Halloween II
2009
Director: Rob Zombie
Starring: Scout Taylor-Compton, Malcolm McDowell, Tyler Mane, Brad Dourif, Danielle Harris, Brea Grant, and oddly in her 2nd movie in this retrospective Margot Kidder
Rated: R

I'm a little confused, are we talking about the "Austin Powers" Mike Myers or is this someone else?
                        ~Weird Al Yankovic


When I asked writer/author Randy Shaffer to do a guest spot for this retrospective, we quickly found out we both share something very uncommon amongst Halloween and horror fans in general.  Both of us have a love for this very weird almost arthouse slasher that is Rob Zombie's second Halloween film.  We agree that is highly misunderstood and very much unfairly slammed. Randy wrote what was intended be an "In Defense Of" piece to go with mine, but I enjoyed it so much and was going to cover the exact same bases myself that I decided to sub his in for mine here.  Know that I agree 100% with his assessment of Halloween II.  The first time I saw this film I felt there was something there with this one, then when I saw the Director's Cut (see THIS version if you watch it) things started to work even better.  I enjoy this film more and more with each subsequent viewing.  I have some other things that I'll brush over when I rank the films.  So here's a first here on Naptown Nerd, someone else doing the actual movie piece.  Its fantastic, enjoy!

The Michael Myers Death Stare (Guest Article)

I'm extremely happy to have Aaron Neuwirth of Out Now With Aaron & Abe fame, Why So Blu? fame, The Code Is Zeek fame and The IchaPod CraneCast fame entertain us on this Saturday before Halloween.  Aaron is one of the best young (to me young, that is) minds of cinema around and someone who's truly helped me big time with a break or two in the criticism field.  Before we move on to his reimagining, let's take one last look at what made Michael tick and work in the original.  I hope you enjoy his first guest appearance here on Naptown Nerd.

Halloween:The Curse Of Michael Myers, Part III (The Producer's Cut)

I see only one bastard in this house.
          ~Kara Strode

The Producer's Cut of Halloween 6 is not a great film by any means, but its an important one.  It does help that its heads and shoulders above what was released theatrically.  The 90s was a weak time for horror, and for some reason all the horror icons being villains wasn't enough.  They all apparently needed to have some sort backstory and retcon to the truth of the original.  Freddy started it, Jason and Leatherface followed suit and Michael Myers couldn't even escape it (a could months later, Pinhead too would join in).  Things as they were weren't good enough.  There was always something "behind the evil" or "this is what it REALLY is".  The evil in all these needed to be explained where no explanation was necessary.  Mythologies were being forced where the makers didn't realize they had spent the previous decade creating one on their own.  But, these are movie monsters and these mythologies did attempt to make them more classical in a sense.  They're attempts at taking the characters into different places and its different, but not in all cases does it work.