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Halloween II
By Kurt Jensen
Source: Catholic News Service
Sheri Moon Zombie and Chase Vanek star in a scene from the movie "Halloween II." |
About halfway through "Halloween
II" (Dimension), two girls are discussing an upcoming Halloween party with
a "Rocky Horror Picture Show" theme, and one remarks, "It's so
lame, it's cool again."
Not this movie. It's completely lame, and
it's so not cool again to see masked, booted and surprisingly durable cutlery
whiz Michael Myers (Tyler Mane) shuffle through his desultory homicidal paces
out of his twisted need for a reunion with his grungy sister, Laurie (Scout
Taylor-Compton). Laurie suffers from bad dreams—much of the violence occurs in
those before she wakes up howling—but she's too dimwitted and foulmouthed to be
a sympathetic character.
Writer-director Rob Zombie, who took over
the old "Halloween" franchise of the 1980s, doesn't give Michael
anything original to do besides smash walls with a hatchet and slice up
victims, while casting his wife, Sheri Moon Zombie, as Michael's ghostly,
cliche-spouting mother Deborah.
No one goes to a horror film to
appreciate nuanced acting, but Zombie settles for stale, predictable setups and
a conclusion you can see coming long before the film's 101 minutes lurch to a
halt.
The film contains strong violent content,
including multiple stabbings, a strangling and a fatal stomping, fleeting upper
female nudity, pervasive rough and crass language and occasional sexual banter.
The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O—morally
offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R—restricted; under
17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
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Jensen is a guest reviewer for the Office
for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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