Halloween II
Short description
Halloween II continues the story begun in Rob Zombie's 2007 remake of Halloween. Laurie Strode, having survived the massacre carried out by Michael Myers, tries to rebuild her life in Haddonfield while living with her friend Annie Brackett and Annie's father, Sheriff Lee Brackett. Haunted by what happened, Laurie is drawn into increasingly disturbing visions as another Halloween approaches. Michael, presumed dead but never accounted for, makes his way back to town, and Dr. Samuel Loomis, who survived the earlier killings, has written a book about the case. The film follows Laurie's disintegration and Michael's return, with the two on a collision course.
Rob Zombie wrote, directed and produced the film, his second Halloween entry and the fifth feature he directed, following House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects, Halloween and his segment of Grindhouse. Scout Taylor-Compton and Malcolm McDowell reprise their roles as Laurie and Loomis, with Tyler Mane again playing Michael, alongside Sheri Moon Zombie, Brad Dourif and Danielle Harris. It runs 105 minutes.
Made for about 10 million dollars, the film took roughly 39 million dollars worldwide, a solid return on its budget. Audience response was tepid: it holds a 4.8 rating on IMDb from around 64,000 votes and a 5.3 on TMDB from about 1,575 votes. A critics' rating of 4.6 from 86 reviews places professional reception close to the audience scores, with neither group rating it highly.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was originally scheduled to be released on Halloween 2009, but the release was suddenly and without warning moved up two months – to August. The post-production schedule fell apart, which in turn reduced the editing schedule by several weeks.
- "Weird Al" Yankovic agreed to appear on screen only on the condition that he choose his own costume.
- At the end of the film, director Rob Zombie "killed" almost all the characters, including Michael Myers and Laurie (although Laurie dies only in the director's cut of the film), to ensure that no one would make any further sequels. Nevertheless, the film company "Dimension Films" began to insist on a third film in the franchise, which Zombie categorically refused, and left the project altogether. The film did not live up to its financial expectations and was poorly received by critics and fans, which raised doubts about the feasibility of filming a sequel. Several years later, "Dimension Films" and "The Weinstein Company" finally relinquished the rights to "Universal Pictures" and "Blumhouse", resulting in the 2018 slasher film "Halloween" by David Gordon Green.
- Filming was difficult because director Rob Zombie constantly argued with executive producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein. One particularly egregious incident occurred on the very first day of filming, when the shooting schedule was reduced by two weeks, causing Zombie to furiously rip several pages of text out of the script that he would now be unable to film.
- Above Lori's bed hangs a photograph of the notorious murderer Charles Manson.
- Deg Ferch played young Michael Myers again, but he had to be replaced and the scenes with him reshot, as the actor had noticeably aged and no longer looked like a child.
- Director Rob Zombie offered a cameo role in the film to John Carpenter, but he declined.
- At the very beginning of filming, Rob Zombie shot some footage and sent the reels for development, but at the airport, security mistakenly x-rayed them, of course exposing them, so everything had to be reshot from scratch.
- The first film in the franchise was shot in California, but it was decided to shoot this film in Georgia, where the weather turned out to be gloomy and damp, making filming extremely uncomfortable. The shooting schedule and locations had to be constantly changed due to sudden rains. For example, the scene where Laurie emerges from the hospital into the parking lot in the rain was not in the script – nor was the rain itself.
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