Post by Dale on Nov 14, 2010 11:55:59 GMT -5
Halloween II: The Ultimate Cut
Right from the start, I must admit to not being much of a horror or Halloween fan. Horror films have never really appealed to me so from the start this has to do a hell of a lot more than the average movie to gain my attention and keep it. As such this review is likely gonna be a little more negative in places than it deserves, but that’s no reflection on the writing and really just my personal preference.
Now that the disclaimers are out of the way, let’s jump straight in. I felt like the opening was a little pedestrian. It didn’t really build any tension, lay any ground work or anything. It was just straight into the killing, I’m assuming where the first left off. Which is fine from a story perspective but in terms of setting the tone, it kind of failed. I wasn’t scared or worried for the characters, I was indifferent. And Michael didn’t scare me or intimidate me, in fact he seemed rather wooden. The descriptive work was rather blocky and whatnot which didn’t help as it made it feel like it dragged.
I think it’s tricky to make essentially a hack and slash type scenario interesting over an extended period of time. I mean once you’ve stabbed one person, it’s hard to make it interesting each and every time. The hospital stuff pre-title sequence was fine and teased Myers making an appearance and did a better job of building up the tension before finally he appeared. Unfortunately it kind of outstayed its welcome as the killings become rather boring and I just kind of wanted to get deeper into the story rather than see a re-hash of the same thing we saw in the opening few scenes.
The portions with Laurie trying to come to terms with what happened were fine, I’d like to have seen a little more of the therapy sessions and Laurie really addressing the issues but they seemed almost glossed over even though the scenes were fairly lengthy. Instead we got party scenes which is obviously trying to show how Laurie is changing as a person but were a little to on the nose for my tastes. We get it, she’s losing her grip on things, she’s not the same person she was before the murders. Who would be? You don’t have to spell it out for us with slutty outfits and heavy drinking. I’d have much preferred to see the struggle between Beckett and Laurie; Laurie who wants to be left alone and Beckett trying to replace his dead daughter with this surrogate. Instead we kind of got a glimpse of it, then skipped right back to them being close with one another.
The dialogue was fairly average all the way through. There were lots of repeating the same thing and things that didn’t make sense. One thing that jumps out at me is the exchange between the Sheriff’s after they find Michael in the Graveyard. One line Michael is as dead as a fish out of eater, the next he has a pulse and is just barely alive. Also it didn’t really try anything new. If you’ve seen a handful of horror movies, you’ve probably heard dialogue like this or some variation of it. When some one’s not screaming for help, you’ve got people telling others not to worry cause it’ll never happen to them before they get carved up like a turkey.
Overall, “Halloween II: The Ultimate Cut” is obviously a labour of love for Krew. He’s clearly worked on it, tried to add as much depth as he can. But yet, it somehow feels like he only scratched the surface. Or perhaps there’s just no further to go. Maybe he’s looking to add more depth and meaning to something that doesn’t necessarily have it. I don’t know. What I do know, is this is a fairly solid slasher film with some fairly hit or miss drama moments. I don’t think the therapy with Laurie and Michelle really worked and the relationship between her and Beckett never really felt as deep as it could have been. Amelia’s Loomis role I wasn’t too big a fan of and the payoff she provided came at a very awkward time and kind of took me out of the moment. I think you’re either gonna love this or you’re gonna hate it. If you’re a fan of the genre or the series, this will probably stand up fairly well, but to someone that isn’t, you’re going to feel like you sat through a lot for very little reward unfortunately.
** out of ****
Right from the start, I must admit to not being much of a horror or Halloween fan. Horror films have never really appealed to me so from the start this has to do a hell of a lot more than the average movie to gain my attention and keep it. As such this review is likely gonna be a little more negative in places than it deserves, but that’s no reflection on the writing and really just my personal preference.
Now that the disclaimers are out of the way, let’s jump straight in. I felt like the opening was a little pedestrian. It didn’t really build any tension, lay any ground work or anything. It was just straight into the killing, I’m assuming where the first left off. Which is fine from a story perspective but in terms of setting the tone, it kind of failed. I wasn’t scared or worried for the characters, I was indifferent. And Michael didn’t scare me or intimidate me, in fact he seemed rather wooden. The descriptive work was rather blocky and whatnot which didn’t help as it made it feel like it dragged.
I think it’s tricky to make essentially a hack and slash type scenario interesting over an extended period of time. I mean once you’ve stabbed one person, it’s hard to make it interesting each and every time. The hospital stuff pre-title sequence was fine and teased Myers making an appearance and did a better job of building up the tension before finally he appeared. Unfortunately it kind of outstayed its welcome as the killings become rather boring and I just kind of wanted to get deeper into the story rather than see a re-hash of the same thing we saw in the opening few scenes.
The portions with Laurie trying to come to terms with what happened were fine, I’d like to have seen a little more of the therapy sessions and Laurie really addressing the issues but they seemed almost glossed over even though the scenes were fairly lengthy. Instead we got party scenes which is obviously trying to show how Laurie is changing as a person but were a little to on the nose for my tastes. We get it, she’s losing her grip on things, she’s not the same person she was before the murders. Who would be? You don’t have to spell it out for us with slutty outfits and heavy drinking. I’d have much preferred to see the struggle between Beckett and Laurie; Laurie who wants to be left alone and Beckett trying to replace his dead daughter with this surrogate. Instead we kind of got a glimpse of it, then skipped right back to them being close with one another.
The dialogue was fairly average all the way through. There were lots of repeating the same thing and things that didn’t make sense. One thing that jumps out at me is the exchange between the Sheriff’s after they find Michael in the Graveyard. One line Michael is as dead as a fish out of eater, the next he has a pulse and is just barely alive. Also it didn’t really try anything new. If you’ve seen a handful of horror movies, you’ve probably heard dialogue like this or some variation of it. When some one’s not screaming for help, you’ve got people telling others not to worry cause it’ll never happen to them before they get carved up like a turkey.
Overall, “Halloween II: The Ultimate Cut” is obviously a labour of love for Krew. He’s clearly worked on it, tried to add as much depth as he can. But yet, it somehow feels like he only scratched the surface. Or perhaps there’s just no further to go. Maybe he’s looking to add more depth and meaning to something that doesn’t necessarily have it. I don’t know. What I do know, is this is a fairly solid slasher film with some fairly hit or miss drama moments. I don’t think the therapy with Laurie and Michelle really worked and the relationship between her and Beckett never really felt as deep as it could have been. Amelia’s Loomis role I wasn’t too big a fan of and the payoff she provided came at a very awkward time and kind of took me out of the moment. I think you’re either gonna love this or you’re gonna hate it. If you’re a fan of the genre or the series, this will probably stand up fairly well, but to someone that isn’t, you’re going to feel like you sat through a lot for very little reward unfortunately.
** out of ****
