Halloween 2 (2009)

Halloween 2
2009
Dir. Rob Zombie

This may be a long one. I feel like I should explain my sordid history with horror movies, and specifically the "Halloween" movies, before I write about one.
The horror genre sucks. There is such an utter lack of quality material, and such a determined, almost fundamentalist defense of crap that my respect for the genre runs low. All of this makes finding a really good horror movie a pleasure though. There's something visceral about being as scared as you get the first time you watch "The Descent" or "The Exorcist".
Having said that, there are three things to note:
First, the original "Halloween" was always one of those bright lights in the face of the crap that surrounded it. It was minimal and it was truly frightening because of it. You aren't distracted by gallons of blood or victims being tortured. No game is being played and we don't get a motivation from Myers. He's just there and he's killing everyone. The sequel, however, was a by-the-numbers slasher flick with no creativity and less entertainment.
The second thing is that I like Rob Zombie. I think "House of 1,000 Corpses" is a reasonable effort at something... odd. "The Devils Rejects" on the other hand, is a standout. In the face of most of the mainstream crap being released, it was a pleasant surprise and needed change of pace. Most importantly, however, I liked his remake of "Halloween" a lot. It had problems but I thought it worked pretty well as a stand-alone movie.
Third, I have no issue with remakes. Is it representative of the larger problem with creativity in Hollywood" Yes, it is, but a remake should be treated like any other movie. It should be judged on it's own and more importantly, your enjoyment of the original shouldn't be tainted by the fact that someone tried again.
And now for Halloween 2 (and this will be short):
This movie is sloppy, really damn sloppy. Nearly everything is wrong with this movie. It's too dark to see what's going on and it's too choppy to figure it out on your own. Myers seems to be wandering around with no clear path for most of the movie, just so he has more people to kill. The "motivation" given to him this time around is contrived bullsh*t and only diminishes the story around it. The decision to turn Loomis into a greedy, rambling ass was misguided at best.
If there is anything good here, its the always reliable Malcolm McDowell and Brad Dourif. Neither gives anything close to a career high performance, but neither phones it in either. They are entertaining to watch, but since Dr. Loomis' storyline is useless and Dourif's "Sheriff Brackett" is only in a handful of scenes, they are hardly a redeeming feature.
In short, don't bother seeing the movie, even if you liked the first.