Halloween 2 has a lot more going on than you’d think. The first outing was a really fun, grim slasher with Rob Zombies signature “white trash hell-billy deluxe” outlook on everything. You either loved it, or you HATED it for throwing away all the classy suspense of the original in favor of straight up gore and filth. With the director’s cut of part 2, Zombie definitively ends his vision of the Halloween mythos. Also, not straddled with an origin story, tells a completely original story of life after trauma, and how people cope.
The film starts out literally the second after the first one ended. Laurie strode is walking down main street blood soaked and broken, having just shot Michael Myers in the head. Myers, thought dead, breaks out of the police van he’s being transported in and chases Laurie to the hospital to finish her off. Of course she escapes his clutches and he disappears into the night. Cut to two years later where the movie starts proper and Laurie is living with her besty Annie Bracket, a survivor of the first film, and her sheriff father.
Right off the bat things are different in the director’s cut. Not only is it 20 minutes longer, but dialogue has changed, and some scenes in the original have even been cut out. In the theatrical movie, it’s not clearly explained if the Meyers escape and hospital chase were a dream or not. Here it is specifically pointed out that it all really happened. Also of note is the general atmosphere. The director’s cut emphasizes the hostility between all the survivors, and revels in the fact that none of them are coping with the events of the last film very well.
Unlike last time, this is truly an ensemble pick. Annie, the best friend of Laurie and once "party animal" is now a doting motherly figure to not only to Laurie but also to her father, who is living with the lie that Laurie is really Michael Meyer’s sister. She cooks and cleans and is afraid to death of leaving the house. They even mention she hasn’t left it in two years. Laurie herself is suicidal, drug addicted, and angry, unlike last time when she acted as teh virginal brave one of the bunch. Now she has a wall sized poster of Charles Manson hanging over her bed!!!!! She keeps having nightmares of Michael, and this creepy woman in white stalking her. When she finds out her biological secret, she realizes maybe she is destined to become a murderer as the rest of her family had. Things get even weirder when she starts blacking out in broad daylight while she’s awake and having full blown conversations with her long lost mommy.
Dr. Loomis hasn’t dealt with the tragedy well either. He’s become a national sensation with a gaudy tell all book, and has no remorse when using the victims to his own gain. In one added scene at a book signing has him confronted with a very normal looking man, Until the man reveals himself to be the father of one of the dead girls from the first film and pulls a gun on him (a nice touch is the photo of the actual actress from the previous outing). Loomis is unfased, and uncaring of this poor mans grief. In a way, just like Laurie, He has lost his soul aswell.
Throughout all of this is a theme of a white horse signifying an unstoppable force, or fate. This aspect was briefly mentioned a few times in the theatrical cut, but now is expanded upon in lengthy therapy discussions between Laurie and her therapist (Margot Kidder, the original LOUIS LANE!!!!!!!).
All this leads to an ending that is much more…..final. I can see why the studio would want room left open for a sequel, and the theatrical ending isn't all that bad to begin with.However this new ending not only closes the book on this specific chapter, but is also a more logical ending. Also of note are all the little details thrown in. For example, in the first film there is a Montage of Michael trick or treating alone, while his mother strips all set to the classic rock song “love hurts.” Here, a main characters death, and ending of the film, has an “enya” style cover of that song playing, bookending the family dynamic perfectly. Also over the end credits are police crime photos of every one of Michaels victims, in order, from the first film, giving these last two entries a “stand alone” feel from the rest in the franchise.
* Also of note is the gore. I didn’t think it was possible, but there is quite a bit more added. Not even that, a main characters death is not only drawn out longer here, with her naked and blood covered body whimpering back to life for a final gut wrench apology to Laurie, but as the father screams over the victim, zombie plays home video footage spliced in, almost as subliminal glimpses, of the victim happy, playing with a puppy, and opening Christmas presents. This could quite possibly be the first time in slasher movie history where you actually CARE about the person duying.
In conclusion the Directors cut is not only gorier and harder, as expected, but it VASTLY improves upon not only the characters and their motivations, but the themes and over arching ideas that were started in the previous film. I highely recommend it if you can stomach it, and there is a reason why it was on my "top ten" list this year.
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