"Artsy-fartsy, pretentious, capital “S” symbolism, zero suspense"...it's Rob Zombie's "Halloween II"

Tyler Mane returns as Michael Myers in Rob Zombie's "Halloween II."

“Halloween II” has shades of the artsy-fartsy — pretentious, capital “S” symbolism and zero characterization or suspense. Yes, we all need a lesson in what seeing a white horse in your dreams means to psychotherapists.

But, dude, rent some Hitchcock. It’s not the wholly expected “sudden” stabbing or the graphic, sound-effects-assisted decapitation or impaling that gets us. It’s the chase, the rising terror at what the victim (and the viewer) fears is coming.

“H2” picks up the story with an extended “later that night” sequence following up on the carnage of “Halloween.” Zombie shows us, graphically, what machetes, axes and butcher knives do to a human body and how — if you have insurance — the medical system might treat those thus traumatized. But is Michael Myers dead? Apparently not, as Laurie (Scout Taylor-Compton) is chased out of her trauma ward bed, across the rainy parking lot to “safety” with the security guard.

“My name is Buddy. It’s going to be fine.”

Of course it isn’t. And of course Laurie wakes up just as Michael is smashing his way in to get her. Again.

A year has passed, and Halloween approaches. The lost “body “ of Michael Myers has been laying low, eating wildlife and dogs and fantasizing flashbacks to when he was a disturbed kid and his dead mom was there to comfort him. She’s still comforting him, with her white horse.

http://www.kansascity.com/710/story/1412551.html