Movies - TV
Halloween II Was a Spiritual Successor to One of Rob Zombie's Earliest Films
By ANYA STANLEY
The second film in Rob Zombie’s remake series and the tenth in the franchise overall, “Halloween II,” focuses on the damaged psyches of Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) and antagonist Michael Myers (Tyler Mane). While a sequel to “Halloween,” director Rob Zombie told Female.com that the film operated as the creative kin to his earlier film, “The Devil’s Rejects.”
Zombie, critical of his “Halloween” remake for being “too clean,” decided to amp up the movie's gore and terror, as he did in “House of 1000 Corpses” and its sequel “The Devil’s Rejects.” He said, “This film, 'Halloween II,' is very much like the logical follow-up to 'Devil's Rejects.' I went back, I went for a different approach, just from the film stock to the lighting. It's much darker, grainer [sic], grittier, dirtier film.”
For both sequels, Zombie decided to shoot mainly during the day and explore the psyche and motive behind the killers more vividly. Of course, the director has worked beyond those series as well, including “The Lords of Salem,” and he is now adapting one of his earliest horror inspirations, “The Munsters,” which is due in theaters in October 2022.