Halloween II

Because you demanded it! I could rant on with unfettered snark again about the atavistic loathing of Rob Zombie's Halloween series (Rotten Tomatoes has the second one at 21%), but that's a bit tired, no? As I mentioned before, I enjoyed the first one, but haven't yet had a chance to dive into the sequel, which most people have branded as excrement. Like old Mike Myers himself, it just won't go away. It's what we're saddled with, so eat it, like it, and get ready for a third helping.

For those of you new to horror, Halloween II tells of the tale of an emo hobo named Michael who has a serious mad-on for his family, particularly his sister, Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton). He returns to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois, and gets all stabby.

Having not seen the film itself, I dodged this ending. I want to remain untainted by anything that will sully my experience of a textured and rich horror film. The DVD/Blu Ray hits the market on January 12, so I'll probably take a gander at it then.

Check out the new ending after the jump! Would it have helped the film at all if this had been what they went with?

Between the release of Where the Wild Things Are last weekend and the (alleged) re-release of Rob Zombie's Halloween 2 next weekend, I suppose that it's only appropriate that we came across this bit from G4's Attack of the Show this weekend, wondering what it might look like if the rocker-turned-auteur re-imagined the sh*t out of Maurice Sendak's classic childhood book instead of Spike Jonze. Watch and see....

Someone needs to give the Weinstein company a run down of the method behind making and releasing movies as they seem to have forgotten the process. According to their business model, they believe they can release a bad movie (Rob Zombies Halloween II), announce a 3D sequel to it a week after it's tepid performance at the box office (this time in 3D and without Rob Zombie), sign a director to make the film in November (My Bloody Valentine 3D helmer Patrick Lussier), and then after all those commitments are done, think about taking a look at the script. Now there are a few obvious flaws with that production pattern, but the specific cause of the temporary undoing of Halloween 3D lays with the script, which, according to Deadline Hollywood, is not in a refined enough state to meet the November production deadline.

So what's the Weinstein's plan of action? Put the intriguing Halloween 3D on the back burner and put the critically hated and commercially limp Halloween II into theaters a second time. Because, ya' know, apparently no one told them it was word-of-mouth (and general disinterest) that killed it at the box office. Now, a cynic like me will say that the American movie-going public has a very short memory, but even I think it's not that short. Come October people will look up showtimes on a Friday night and ask a buddy, "Didn't that terrible Halloween II movie come out two months ago?"

Granted the re-release is confined to select markets, but it still seems laughably redundant at this point. I can understand if you don't want to rush Halloween 3D, but don't just put out, literally, the same crap in the mean time.