The past couple of months we have been bringing news on Rob Zombie’s upcoming horror sequel remake –this might be the first sequel remake I’ve heard ofHalloween 2. The title has flip-flopped between H2 and Halloween 2 over the course of filming. IMDB still lists the movie as H2 but by watching the trailer, it would appear the Zombie and Dimension Films have settled on Halloween 2.

Dimension Films and The Weinstein Company have started a new YouTube channel dedicated to their upcoming horror films, but right now there are only three clips from Halloween 2 posted there. One is the trailer, one is a behind the scenes clip, both of which you can watch below, and the third is a “special message” from Zombie.

The “special message” is utter horse poop and shows the reason why Zombie should be neither in front nor behind a camera. The trailer leaves me with mixed feelings. Sure it’s cut together decently enough but it doesn’t have any scenes which stand out and grab your attention. What it does do is give us everything but a photograph of Michael Myers’ face.

Personally, I don’t want to see Michael’s face. Hiding his face to the audience is what made him a mystery and watching him kill with literally no emotion made it even scarier. By letting us see Michael's face, Zombie takes that edge away. What’s next, Jason Voorhees without a mask? Removing the mask is not original nor is it fresh; it’s just plain stupid horror story-telling.

Watch the trailer and see what you think:

The behind the scenes clip seems very self-indulgent to me. It’s a minute and a half long and Zombie’s voice or face is present for almost thirty seconds of the clip and he’s mostly giving his opinion the entire time.

Come to think of it, Zombie is a very self-indulgent person anyway. It showed in his music, the title of both bands, White Zombie and Rob Zombie, so it stands to reason that he would bring that same attitude to his movie making.

Watch the clip and listen for this line were he says:

“You know the first movie you’re trying to deal in a John Carpenter world, and those are characters he wrote and not me. So they’re not characters I would have come up with or the way I would have handled it.”

Really Rob? So you and John Carpenter do not have the same story writing skills? That would be the BIGGEST understatement I've heard in a while. To tell the truth, if Zombie didn’t have the brand name Halloween to help push this nonsense, his movie would be an utter flop. To see an example his writing (I use that term very loosely) go rent House of 1000 Corpses - compare that with any of Carpenter’s movies and then tell me who is better.

Also, don't tell us that everything in this movie is "fresh" and we won't say "been there, done that" when the start of your trailer is a lone woman covered in blood walking down the street. (Begin sarcasm) Oh yeah, the scene where the girl is in the bathroom and closes the medicine cabinet to see Michael standing there, that's completely "fresh." As is the scene of the girl being grabbed from behind with a knife to her throat. Simply amazing direction and screen writing there! I don't know why directors haven't put that into more horror films. You are truly cutting edge! (end sarcasm)

He did get slightly better on the second film, The Devils Rejects, but ultimately all of his films rely on the same type of horror to scare people – people getting viciously hurt and killed. Zombie and his also strange wife Sheri Moon Zombie are basically getting paid to bring their sadistic thoughts and tendencies to life. Now that is scary!

The only two positives with this film so far I can think of are Malcolm McDowell (Clockwork Orange) and "Weird" Al Yankovic (UHF) are in the movie. That's right, IMDB reports Yankovic playing a bit part. Weird Al is to music, what Bruce Campbell is to movies so if he really plays a part in the movie, I'll watch it just to find him.

Am I being overly critical of Rob Zombie and his latest cinematic effort or do you think he deserves more credit than I am giving him? Are you actually looking forward to Halloween 2?

Halloween 2 (the re-quel) comes to theaters on August 28, 2009.

Source: Coming Soon