Product Details

• Actors: Scout Taylor-Compton, Tyler Mane, Malcolm McDowell, Sheri Moon Zombie, Chase Wright Vanek
• Directors: Rob Zombie
• Writers: Rob Zombie
• Producers: Andrew G. La Marca, Andy Gould, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Jennifer Booth
• Format: AC-3, Blu-ray, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: January 12, 2010
• Run Time: 105 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (280 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002V3HT2G
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,323 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Halloween II (Unrated Director's Cut) [Blu-ray]" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Rocker turned writer-director Rob Zombie returns to the horror field with this visually ambitious and aggressively brutal follow-up to his 2007 reinvention of John Carpenter’s seminal slasher Halloween. The 1981 sequel to the Carpenter film is completely ignored here (and for good reason) in favor of an extension of the central focus of Zombie’s Halloween, and all of his films, for that matter: the corruption at the heart of the nuclear family. Here, Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor Compton) is attempting to heal the psychic wounds from her previous encounter with brother Michael Myers (Tyler Mane) by bonding with Sheriff Brackett (Brad Dourif, a pleasure to watch as always) and his daughter Anne (Danielle Harris, herself a vet from the original run of Halloween sequels). Her previous surrogate father, Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) has forsaken his connection to Laurie by exploiting his connection to Michael with a tell-all book; meanwhile, Michael himself roams the lonely outskirts of Haddonfield, driven by visions of his mother (Sheri Moon Zombie) and a single-minded urge to bond with his sister at any cost.

Aesthetically, H2 is striking, thanks largely to the ashen color scheme by cinematographer Brandon Trost (Crank 2: High Voltage), which underscores the doom-laded spiral track each of the main characters seem to travel in the film. And Zombie is to be commended for venturing outside of his comfort zone--the grimy, pop-culture ironic, white trash environment his characters frequently inhabit--with the scenes between Michael and his mother. But again, his ambitions don’t meet with his abilities--Moon looks impressive, but her apocalyptic mutterings ring more silly than spectral, especially when she’s forced to play opposite an enormous pale horse (insert heavy-handed Biblical imagery here). Most fans will find these moments more tedious than inspired, and a distraction from the murders, which retain Zombie’s preference for mayhem. He succeeds in this department, but if the end result is a menu of ugly killings, the point of revamping the Halloween franchise is somewhat moot, since the threadbare follow-ups to the Carpenter original already achieved that goal. Zombie’s knack for offbeat casting remains his most inspired talent: Haddonfield is filled with cult icons like Caroline Williams (Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2), Margot Kidder, and Daniel Roebuck, who jostle for space with rough-hewn character players like Duane Whitaker, Mark Boone Junior, and Dayton Callie (Deadwood) and left-field cameos by Howard Hesseman and “Weird Al” Yankovic. --Paul Gaita

Product Description

Rob Zombie's H2 (Halloween) picks up at the exact moment that 2007's box-office smash, Halloween stopped and follows the aftermath of Michael Myers's (Tyler Mane) murderous rampage through the eyes of heroine Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor Compton).

Evil has a new destiny. Michael Myers is back in this terrifying sequel to Rob Zombie’s visionary re-imagining of Halloween which grossed almost $80 million worldwide. It is that time of year again, and Michael Myers has returned home to sleepy Haddonfield, Illinois to take care of some unfinished family business. Unleashing a trail of terror that only horror master Zombie can, Myers will stop at nothing to bring closure to the secrets of his twisted past. But the town's got an unlikely new hero, if they can only stay alive long enough to stop the unstoppable.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Laurie's crazy and someone even hits a cow July 26, 2010

By N. P. Stathoulopoulos

Format:DVD

The Amazonites have spoken and this movie got killed, lambasted by some as 'the worst Halloween movie', though there's no way it can approach the horror of the botched Curse or the Busta-Rhymes-was-the-best-part Resurrection.

I'm still not sure why this was given an August '09 release rather than...October/Halloween. Presumably, they didn't want to run up against the latest Saw offering, and perhaps they sensed the buzz of Paranormal Activity. Instead, they ran it against The Final Destination 3D, which still fared better.

Folks seem to love or hate the Rob Zombie Halloween excursions. Say this about Zombie...he is a horror movie fan and he tries something more personal this time around. Yes, we all know and (presumably) love the original Halloween II, where Michael Myers stalks Laurie in the eerily empty corridors of Haddonfield Memorial Hospital. And yes, we all know that it was revealed that Laurie was, in fact, Michael's sister, a plot twist conceived by John Carpenter when he ran out of ideas. So what should we expect when someone remakes 're-boots' or jump-starts a series and then remakes the sequel, too?

Yes, there are similar elements and plot points from earlier Halloween films, including the original Part II (the hospital, the sister angle, which we knew from the first Zombie installment, etc). But this is not a remake of the original Part II. Rob Zombie is going his own way with the blessing of the Akkad clan, and I think he does some interesting things story and plot-wise. There are clearly some expressionistic nods to Italian horror directors (Bava, Argento), and there's a strong nod to the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder and general insanity after you've been chased by a knife-wielding lunatic. The early scenes---again, picking up right after the events of the original---are well done, if unsettling. There's the frenetic activity of the paramedics and authorities, the hospital atmosphere, the loving close-ups of emergency surgery and various injuries, and the spooky recurrence of The Moody Blues on TV. There's a very nightmarish feel to everything and the looks and sounds are appropriately unsettling. There's a focus on the trauma---the screaming! the terror! The film is much more concerned with the idea that this Laurie Strode is losing her marbles, and is hardly the wholesome and pure Laurie of the previous series. Zombie prefers some of the more disturbing elements of the material over the 'scary ones'...which in his world are nearly one and the same. There is always the risk of wallowing in the downbeat versus showing that the filmmakers actually had any fun making this. I think they did, but Halloween II definitely toes the line.

Like most horror flicks, this is not the sum of its parts, but I always give points for atmosphere and demented touches. Actually, the weakest part of the film is the stalking and slasher action itself. It is predictable, methodical, absolutely brutal, and dare I say...sometimes boring. Michael stabs...and stabs...and stabs...and then stabs again...and again...and again. We get it. Am curious what they cut, because it's a hard R rating here. No, Mr. Zombie does not ease up on the slasher gore, and we get at least one close-up of a knife in the head.

The better elements are the psychological angles (exploring...well, insanity), and the Loomis plotline. This is not the same Loomis, tireless in his effort to stop evil on two feet, but rather a burnt out, cynical, media-obsessed sellout who may or may not have an ounce of altruism left in his shell. Again, Malcolm MacDowell is excellent if underused this time. There's also a bit of plot-timeline fudging toward the end during the 'final showdown'.

The movie is demented, and extremely violent and brutal...perhaps too much in that it distracts from the fresh or different elements that Zombie tries to infuse. I still liked this better than most of the rent-a-hack horror output that comes along. Give credit to a horror fan making horror films and trying something else. Of course, you can't win in this genre. You will be condemned if you make the same old movie (which people want to see) or you'll be condemned if you try something out of left field (because people want something fresh). If you want the old Part II, go watch it, it's a different film. But lordy, this is a heck of a lot better than the latter stages of the original Halloween series.

The DVD looks and sounds great. I believe Zombie shot this on 16mm and converted it, so the images look grainier and darker...it's a very stark and appropriate look for this film. The extras include a plethora of deleted scenes, most not essential but some interesting bits, plus the inevitable alternate ending. Note that the ending here differs slightly from from what you saw in the theater (if you were such a fanatic), since this is the 'director's cut'.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Could have and should have been better October 28, 2011

By Aaron Birtig

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

After watching the remake, I was looking forward to the sequel. It has elements from the original sequel, but goes off in various directions. I was not thrilled with the casting of young Michael in the first film and even less with the updated version. The depth taken to reveal more of young Michael was unnecessary and distracting. As were the spirit sequences with Michael's mother; which to me seemed forced to give Mrs. Zombie more screen time. In addition, the older Michael just didn't seem like Michael. It's definitely more gory and dirty than the first; overall long and disappointing.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Rob Zombie's rambling fan-fic continues... October 31, 2011

By Aaron M.

Format:DVD

First we are treated to a 20 minute psych-out as Zombie creates a homage to Rick Rosenthal's original sequel, leading us to think this may be another rehash, but no it's all a dream. Boo.

However, you think things might be ok, since Zombie appears to be wanting to go his own way this time and create something original. Unfortunately he has almost nothing original to add.

Zombie tries to go artsy with these visitations from Myers dead mother. (glowing white like some sort of angel and being followed about by a white horse) I'm assuming this is just Myers mental state and not a real ghost...since I have no idea why Myers mother would come back and direct her son to kill people...unless Zombie just couldn't help channeling Jason Voorhees once again into this thing. In fact, the more I think about it, the more it seems that Zombie really should have done a Friday the 13th reboot. He seems to love those mother-son/abusive childhood elements.

Otherwise he throws in a lot a elements that are cobbed from the various bad sequels: The psychic link between Myers/Laurie (mirroring the psychic link between Myers/Jamie from Halloween V), The bizarre "vacation" Myers takes between Halloween holidays (from Halloween IV & V. What is he doing all that time?! Apparently he`s eating dogs all year and no one seems to notice)

The one thing Zombie does add that is his own is his treatment of the Dr Loomis character: he destroys it. This more than anything reinforces my belief in Zombie's obsessive love for the Myers character. Zombie is now not just happy with making the original film's villain the hero, but turning Dr Loomis into the films villain! Here, Loomis is just another exploitive, selfish element of the society that Myers rages against. It's no wonder Myers went bad, he didn't even have good doctors treating him. The whole character could have been excised, but I'm assuming Zombie got a thrill out of corrupting the hero.

Brad Dourif does a good job as Sheriff Brackett, surprisingly being an authority figure that doesn't seem to represent Evil Society, (breaking from Zombies usual theme) However, rather than representing an oppressive or exploitive authority figure, he actually seems to represent the incompetent authority figure. Of course this all comes crashing down on Brackett's head as his own daughter becomes a victim of Myers, aka Zombie's personification of rage against society. The implication being that if people like Brackett had been able to do their job right, such forces would not be unleashed.

As far as the killings go, Zombie indulges in soulless violence. He seems to think that SFX and quick cutting are enough. Simple brutality is supposed to awe us here. What Zombie does not realize is that that era is over. Audiences are so desensitized now that it's not enough. He does not seem to have an inkling that creating a world we can believe in and characters we can care about are how one creates an emotional response.

The ending is a convoluted mess I don't feel like explaining in detail...suffice to say that Zombie rips off the ending of Halloween IV. He just takes way more time and tries to cover up the simplistic idiocy of it all with gobs of cryptic nonsense.

What are we to make of all this? That Hollywood has given up and decided that fan-fics are the way to go now? How long until some internet goober's Halloween fan-fic porno is considered worthy of a film treatment? Is the film industry really going to stop allowing artists to make films and just allow talent-less panderers hold up a mirror to the audience?