Taking Shape

by Dustin McNeill

  As if coping with past trauma wasn’t enough, an already fragile Laurie is dealt a devastating blow with the release of Loomis’ new book. Within its pages, she finally learns the dark secret of her own past, that she is a Myers. This is only made worse by the fact that Sheriff Brackett, her only remaining father figure and protector, knew this all along but withheld it from her. Distraught over this revelation, she begs Annie to level with her: “Tell me you didn’t know, please!” Ultimately, she assumes Annie did know and storms out. For Laurie, the ramifications of this discovery are too much to process. Whereas she previously struggled with survivor’s guilt, she now has the knowledge that her parents and friends are dead because Michael was targeting her specifically. To cope, Laurie turns to her new friends Mya and Harley for a night of booze, drugs, and partying.

  For all its focus on Laurie’s deteriorating mental health, there is an undeniably supernatural component to Halloween II’s story. Laurie and her brother share the same hallucination of young Michael and a ghostly Deborah, despite the fact that Laurie was too young to remember either of them and that, as of this writing, hallucinations aren’t a group sport. Also, think back to the dinner scene at the Brackett household. Laurie is enjoying a pizza while, miles away, Michael chows down on a dog. Laurie suddenly falls violently ill, suggesting an empathetic connection with her brother. Though Zombie would likely deny it, this is extremely reminiscent of the Jamie/Michael relationship in Halloween 5. There is also the nightmare vision wherein Laurie imagines killing Annie just as Michael killed Ronnie in the last film. This unfolds with details she couldn’t have possibly known or even been told. While these touches work within Halloween II’s nightmarish tone, they do feel counter to the more grounded approach of the remake.

  In the wake of Halloween ‘07, Laurie has moved in with Annie Brackett and her sheriff father, who now function as surrogate parental figures. Despite their kindness, both serve as constant reminders of everything Laurie lost the previous year. This leads her to not only resent them, but simultaneously feel guilty for doing so. Annie has also struggled to recover following her brush with Michael Myers. Previously an outgoing free spirit, she’s now more subdued and possibly even suffering from agoraphobia as we never see her leave home. In a sense, Laurie and Annie’s traumas have caused them to switch places.

  Sheriff Brackett continues to be among the more fascinating roles in the Zombie Halloween saga. The lawman clearly feels personally responsible for being unable to save Laurie from her ancestral demons. Recall that it was Brackett himself who stole baby Laurie from the scene of her mother’s suicide hoping to provide a fresh start. This failure is made all the worse due to it having affected his own daughter. Still, Brackett doesn’t run from his failure as he may be the only truly good man in Zombie’s Halloween-verse. Instead, he takes on further responsibility by giving Laurie a home when she needs one – all the while still carrying her dark secret within his heavy heart. With two severely troubled girls under his roof, Brackett is a man in over his head. Even at his best, he is unable to help them or even keep them safe, which may be his greatest fear. He will eventually survive Halloween II, but with terrible scars.

  Returning for a smaller role in Halloween II is Dr. Loomis, whose self-serving egomania is so unchecked that he risks becoming a secondary antagonist in the story. Like the other returning characters, Loomis did not emerge from Halloween ‘07 unscathed. Unlike the others, however, he is the only one to have achieved fame and fortune from the experience. As the doctor himself mentions at one point, he is now “New Loomis.” Zombie’s updated take on Loomis was partly inspired by Vincent Bugliosi, the lawyer who famously prosecuted Charles Manson. Bugliosi later co-wrote a book on the case that went on to sell more than seven million copies and become the best-selling true crime book of all time. Like Loomis, some critics have accused Bugliosi of commercially exploiting the misery of others.

  As if releasing his new book on the anniversary of so many murders wasn’t bad enough, Loomis gives a promotional interview outside the actual Myers house. His publicist objects: “What’s next? Heading over to the cemetery and dancing on the victims’ graves?” By way of this latest book, Loomis callously exposes the secret of Laurie Strode’s lineage with no consideration as to how this might affect her. His publicist continues: “These are people’s lives you’re toying with. There’s going to be serious repercussions.” One such repercussion comes when the grieving father of Lynda Van der Klok confronts Loomis at a book signing. Blaming him for her death, he brandishes a gun and threatens to kill Loomis. While this ought to have been a sobering wake-up call, Loomis brushes it off. “All part of the job, I suppose. Spoon feeding drivel to the masses.” As first written and filmed, Lynda’s father was to throw a cup of blood onto the author. It was during filming that Zombie devised an alternate take involving a gun, which made for a much more dramatic encounter. (The character’s blood cup can still be seen in hand as he approaches the signing table.)

  “I had started writing Dr. Loomis as still the avenging guy.

  I was like, ‘This is ridiculous. He’s some doctor. He’s not going to run around with a Magnum shooting people. This is absurd.’ […] Then I decided, ‘Oh, we’ll just make him like Dr. Phil.”

  - Rob Zombie, Post Mortem with Mick Garris

  It’s not until Loomis sees his embarrassing appearance on a celebrity talk show that he finally realizes just how far he’s fallen. He’s betrayed everyone, including himself. It’s here he realizes his only chance at redemption is a longshot. Seeing news reports of the police standoff, he rushes to the scene hoping to save Laurie’s life, even if it means laying down his own in the process. An emotionally-destroyed Brackett assaults and nearly shoots him. Loomis pleads: “I can draw [Michael] out. Please, I need to do this. I owe you this.” It’s in these final moments that we get the old Loomis back, the one that truly wanted to help people once upon a time.

  The blood-soaked ending of Halloween ‘07 left many wondering how Michael Myers could possibly return for a sequel having been shot point-blank in the face. Zombie explains on the film’s commentary that he didn’t feel obligated to provide an explanation for the character’s return. If viewers needed one, they could simply assume that Laurie was a bad shot and that the bullet only grazed Michael. The writer/director was concerned, however, that Halloween II’s Michael was initially without a voice and therefore too much like the Michael of the earlier films. This was a non-issue in Halloween ‘07 as Daeg Faerch had plenty of dialogue prior to Michael’s elective mutism. Zombie’s solution involved adding in the ghostly apparitions of Michael’s mother and younger self. It’s through these two that Michael’s own thoughts can be projected out. So when Deborah rags on Loomis (“He’s still out there. Rich and famous. All because of our pain. Hope he’s having fun.”), these are actually Michael’s feelings being expressed.

  Some viewers have struggled to decipher which parts of Halloween II’s opening are real or only dreamt. For the film’s director, there is no mystery. Everything up until Laurie wakes in the hospital actually happened. Everything after that is but a nightmare. There are subtle hints both during and after these scenes that indicate such. For starters, we see Nights in White Satin by the Moody Blues playing on television when Laurie wakes up in the hospital bed. This song is inexplicably still playing on television twelve minutes later when she takes refuge in the guard shack. Also, the night watchmen who tries to comfort Laurie also shares a name with her guardian teddy bear – Buddy. Zombie has maintained that his film’s hospital scenes were simply an organic place for the story to go after the last film’s ending and not a tribute to the 1981 Halloween II.

  With this new story, Zombie lays down some serious commentary on horror movie fandom and serial killer worship. Take the scene where Loomis encounters a screwball fan – Chett “The Bringer of Death” – at his book signing. “I wanted to let you know that Michael is so much deeper than those other guys - Dahmer and that bitch Bundy - b
ecause he eats at the core of the victim’s soul, you know?” Zombie uses the disheveled-looking Chett as a criticism on those in horror fandom who would idolize monsters that destroy lives. His proudly displayed “What Would Michael Do?” t-shirt is the epitome of bad taste, but as Loomis later says, “Bad taste is the petrol that drives the American dream.” Does this mean that, in the grander scheme, we are Chett and Rob Zombie is Loomis for selling us the sizzle of bad taste? Maybe.

  Zombie also uses the sequel to buck a major trend in the slasher genre – meaningless violence without consequence. The kills in Halloween II are not inventive or fun to watch – they’re brutal in the worst sense of the word. The camera lingers on Michael’s furious slashing until we the audience are distinctly uncomfortable. This adds a powerful weight to the story that seems missing from most slashers. The emotional toll of Michael’s rampage is nowhere more real than when Sheriff Brackett discovers his daughter’s mutilated corpse. Zombie forces us to watch as a father’s worst fear comes to pass. He explained his take on such scenes to Scream Magazine: “There is this phrase I hate, where people discuss how the “kills” are in a movie. If someone gets killed in a movie, you talk about it like it’s an entertaining moment to watch. I wanted it to be like, ‘You mean the scene where someone gets murdered?’ Not killed. It isn’t a video game. I wanted to make the scenes where someone gets murdered to be horrible to watch.”

  For many viewers, the most confounding part of Halloween II involved the white horse so frequently seen as part of Michael’s ghostly hallucinations. The white horse was an extremely late addition to the story that did not appear in the original shooting script. As Zombie tells it, he was driving to set one day and saw a magnificent white horse galloping by the road. Feeling this would make for a strong visual, he incorporated it into the story. The white horse is first introduced as a toy given to Michael by his mother while incarcerated at Smith’s Grove. Per the filmmaker, Michael’s subsequent visions of the animal are only meant to represent a fond childhood memory, which he pairs with an idolized version of his mother.

  Some fans have attempted to connect this film’s white horse theme to Halloween ‘07. You may recall Daeg Faerch’s Michael destroying such a figure with a baseball bat during that film’s end credits sequence. According to Zombie, that moment is unrelated to this film. “The white horse does have significant meaning, but it could have been anything,” Zombie told Scream Magazine. “She could have given him a fire engine. People misunderstand the white horse. It was just meant to signify his childhood memory. It could have been any object, but I thought that was particularly cinematic.”

  This explanation seems a bit oversimplified given the cryptic quotation used to start the film. Citing a fictional psychology book, the opening title card explains that white horses are linked to “instinct, purity, and the drive of the physical body to release powerful and emotional forces, like rage with ensuing chaos and destruction.” That mouthful sounds nothing like the director’s claim of a mere childhood memory. Father of analytical-psychology Carl Jung, in his book Modern Man in Search of Soul, offers a more befitting interpretation of the horse’s role in dream-like imagery: “The horse is an archetype that is widely current in mythology and folklore. As an animal, it represents the non-human psyche, the sub-human, animal side, and therefore the unconscious. […] As a beast of burden, it is closely related to the mother-archetype.” That does seem a bit more on point with the opening quotation. (Bonus points if you remember Rick Rosenthal’s Dr. Mixter lecturing on Jungian theory in Halloween: Resurrection.)

  The late addition of the white horse motif meant that Halloween II would now begin in the past at Smith’s Grove before picking up from Halloween 07’s ending in the present. Having not planned ahead for this new opening scene, the crew was forced to improvise. Rather than return to the Veteran’s Hospital in California for a single establishing shot, Zombie recycles an unused exterior from Halloween ‘07. The hospital interior in Halloween II was, in fact, a pool shack adjacent to the Brackett house location. Other ideas conceived during filming included the decision to strip away half of Michael’s mask and the scene in which Laurie imagines herself killing Annie just as young Michael had killed Ronnie years before.

  Halloween II would undergo brief reshoots in July 2009 not in Covington, Georgia but in New Milford, Connecticut. This included a new scene wherein two rednecks assault Michael for trespassing on their land. The slasher takes a beating, but soon kills them both and their female companion. Zombie also reshot the deaths of Lou Martini and Misty Dawn at the Rabbit in Red lounge. Most significantly, he shot a new ending to the film that changed the fate of Laurie Strode, a decision he would later come to regret. Halloween II’s theatrical version would include this reshot conclusion with the original ending appearing in the director’s cut.

  THE DIRECTOR’S CUT

  As with Halloween ‘07, Rob Zombie was allowed to go back and edit an unrated director’s cut of Halloween II for home video. Running fourteen minutes longer than its theatrical counterpart, Zombie tweeted that this is the “real” version of Halloween II. The most immediate change is that the story now takes place two years after the last film, not one year as in the theatrical cut. This was per the writer/director’s original intention, though ultimately changed during post-production. The biggest difference in this version concerns Laurie Strode’s condition. Theatrically, she’s still somewhat functional before her descent into madness. The director’s cut, however, starts off with a more damaged and emotionally unstable Laurie.

  One notable change during hospital nightmare involved Laurie discovering a giant pit of bodies as though Michael had killed absolutely everyone in the facility. While creepy, this moment is so over the top that it serves to tip off the viewer that what they’re witnessing may not be real. The body pit gag was an extremely late and unscripted addition to the film. It was only after scouting the hospital location that Zombie saw the empty pit and decided to utilize it.

  The next difference involves Laurie and Annie’s breakfast chat on the morning of October 29. Theatrically, this brief moment is uneventful. Laurie mentions her nightmare to Annie, who reminds her to take life “one day at a time, babe.” Laurie smiles and the scene ends. The director’s cut includes the full version of the scene as originally filmed. Laurie’s smile gives way to anger: “One fuckin’ day at a time. If I hear that fucking phrase more time!” She then launches into a tirade about her therapist, which Annie isn’t particularly receptive to. “What am I supposed to say? Boo-fucking-hoo for you!” The growing cracks in their friendship are evident from this first interaction.

  For his unrated cut, Zombie expands on Laurie’s therapy scenes with Margot Kidder’s Dr. Collier. Theatrically, we hear Laurie discuss missing her dead parents. In the director’s cut, she instead confesses her resentment for Annie, whom she considers a living reminder of that terrible night two years ago. The scene is further extended with a bit where Laurie notices a giant Rorschach painting behind her therapist, who explains: “The theory is that this ambiguous stimuli here will bring your subconscious thoughts into the light. Illuminate them. So what do you see?” Laurie tells that she sees a white horse in the image and wonders if that means she’s crazy. “It tells me you’re a girl who likes white horses.”

  Our reintroduction to Dr. Loomis is also extended. Zombie restores an extra moment in the hotel lobby where Loomis berates his publicist for her fashion choices. (This is but one of several instances where Loomis is nastier in the director’s cut.) The subsequent press conference is also longer with Loomis attempting a bad joke about Michael Myers that falls sorely flat. He then invokes Sigmund Freud in an observation about his former patient: “It is the fate of all of us to direct our first sexual impulses towards our mother and our first murderous hatred against our fathers. Now, in Michael’s case, I became the surrogate father. The last father in a long series of fathers.” The scene then aligns with the theatrical cut where Loomis insists that
Michael Myers is “d-e-a-d.”

  Theatrically, Dr. Collier appears briefly and only once. The director’s cut expands her role with an additional scene later on showing a hysterical Laurie begging for more medication. By this point, she is spiraling downward. When Dr. Collier refuses to simply write another prescription, Laurie’s attacks turn personal. “Fuck you and fuck this! You’re more fucked up than I am, you crazy bitch!” Even still, Dr. Collier shoulders through Laurie’s insults to no avail. It’s through restored moments such as this one that we see Laurie bottoming out. Halloween II’s producers were initially hesitant to feature such a broken character as the new film’s lead, though Zombie fought hard to keep this characterization intact as much as possible.

  Laurie and Annie follow up their breakfast spat with an even worse fight on the night of October 30th. Their clash begins when Annie comments on Laurie getting drunk alone in her room. Going on the defensive, Laurie complains that she doesn’t “need any of your shit!” Annie snaps back: “I put up with your shit twenty-four-seven! You know what? You act like you’re the only who whose life got fucking trashed! I am so not buying the new Laurie act.” This inclusion of these two fights in the director’s cut depicts a friendship falling to pieces. By comparison, the theatrical cut suggests a more stable Laurie and more solid Laurie/Annie friendship.

  The director’s cut next restores a scene that breaks the rules of the franchise. Just prior to Loomis’ book signing, we see Michael stalking through the countryside in broad daylight without his mask on. (Not even the only time this happens in the film, mind you.) Walking alongside his younger self and mother, the Myers trio comes across a billboard advertising The Devil Walks Among Us. It’s here we get Michael’s thoughts on Loomis’ as expressed through his mother: “He’s still out there. Rich and famous. All because of our pain. I hope he’s having fun.”