YMMV / Halloween II (2009)

• Awesome Music:
  • The film has the added benefit of "Nights in White Satin".
  • The film’s original score by Tyler Bates, which creates wholly unique music cues to convey the gothic and sadistic mood of the movie.
  • Nan Vernon's cover of Love Hurts over the closing credits. It's absolutely beautiful and better than the original song.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Several of Michael and Laurie's fantasy sequences border on this, especially the one with the pumpkin-headed aristocrats.
• Catharsis Factor: For having Took a Level in Jerkass and emotionally hurting the victims' relatives by shamelessly profiting off their deaths, seeing Loomis get butchered by Michael in either version of the film can be satisfying to watch.
• Contested Sequel: Definitely one of the more polarizing entries in the franchise. Some fans enjoyed the film for changing the core plot in favor of a more character driven story and attempts at realistically tackling the aftermath of the first film. Detractors of the 2007 version also consider this film to be a Surprisingly Improved Sequel for the same reasons. Others, however, detractors and some fans alike, felt that the film deviated too much from the series' staples and instead came off as overly pretentious, as well as doing very little to curb the nihilistic tone and excessive violence that were criticisms of the 2007 film.
• Fridge Brilliance: Why is Laurie acting so unlikable and rude to Annie despite the two being friends and her father taking Laurie in after her adoptive parents died? Because she’s going through withdrawal. Her therapist is giving her less medication because she knows Laurie has become an addict and instead of working to fix it, Laurie is going to fight against everybody who even remotely tried to help her. Thanks to the abundance of meds she took and in part to the previous attack by Michael, Laurie is slowing going insane.
• Funny Moments:
  • The entire Weird Al scene. Some consider it one of the more positive outlooks of the film. Specifically, Loomis cheerfully addressing him as "Mr. Weird!"
  • And it contains a Hilarious in Hindsight moment as well. Al on a talk show with a host named "Newman"? Where might we have seen that before?
• He Really Can Act:
  • Brad Dourif, best known for his Large Ham performance as Chucky in the Child's Play series, delivers one of his most devastating and tear jerking performances of his career as he’s cradling the body of his dead daughter, complete with his only spoken words after hearing where Michael’s location is.
    Brackett: I think maybe you should drive.
  • Also doubles as he really can direct, too, for Zombie. Between the use of Danielle Harris’ home movies when she was a child edited as Brackett cradles Annie as she dies, the use of sound editing and the angles used to shoot the scene, Zombie shows that he can direct highly emotional sequences.
• Improved by the Re-Cut: The unrated Director's Cut, released on Blu-ray and DVD, is generally considered far superior to the theatrical cut. This is attributed to containing more focus on character development, extended suspense scenes, and a totally different, more conclusive ending. Zombie found it to be much closer to his original vision, and the theatrical cut hasn't even been released on Blu-ray in the US, only getting a Canadian double feature release with the theatrical cut of Zombie's first Halloween.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Michael being described as a hobo due to his appearance which invokes said image.
  • This picture's been appearing here and there on the internet. Yes, Michael Myers is flipping the bird.
• Narm:
  • The lengthy shot of one of the paramedics, after crashing his ambulance, simply saying "fuck" over and over again. It feels like it was directed by a kid who'd just discovered cursing.
  • "COW!"
• Narm Charm: If one looks at the sequel as a parody then one is in for a fun movie experience.
• Nausea Fuel: Michael eating a dog he has gutted, intercut with scenes of the Bracketts and Laurie eating dinner.
• One-Scene Wonder: "Weird Al" Yankovic (yes, that Weird Al), makes an appearance in the movie during Loomis’s failed interview on television.
• Questionable Casting:
  • Margot Kidder as Laurie’s therapist. Most likely intentional on Zombie’s part.
  • As awesome as "Weird Al" Yankovic is, and as funny as his scene is...why exactly is he in a Halloween movie?
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: While reception to Michael's dirtier outfit and his cracked, weathered mask in the first film was received well by viewers, as his look fit Zombie's Darker and Edgier interpretation of the Halloween movies, most fans hated his even more grungy appearance in this film. Some people thought the hobo coats made Michael look ridiculous, and they disliked how the mask had decayed further to the point that it was green and brown instead of the classic white color and was exposing half of his face with his beard sticking out of the neckline. There are even a few scenes where he doesn't wear his mask at all.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The film's divisive reception heavily stems from its relentlessly bleak tone, even compared to the already Darker and Edgier previous film. Similar to the first film, the sheer number of unsympathetic characters and unsettling violence can make the whole experience a chore. The sequel not only cranks up those aspects but also makes Loomis, one of the more likable characters, take a level in jerkass while depicting Laurie as a Broken Bird who only spirals further into decline as the film goes on and, in the director's cut, winds up dead at the end of it all.
• Vindicated by History: While it’s still not as highly ranked among most fan circles, it has slowly grown a cult following from those who appreciate it for its strong kills, well shot cinematography, incredible character development, and for taking the risk of being an artsy slasher and trying to do something new for the franchise as opposed to a tired rehash of the original Halloween II, with some of the film's fans even claiming it was a better film than most of the sequels in the mainline series and even Rob Zombie’s previous Halloween film. The Director’s Cut, much like Halloween 6’s Producer’s Cut, also helps in that it fixes many of the lingering plot holes and unanswered questions, plus adds more character development that the otherwise messy Theatrical Cut trimmed out.

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