Retrospective Film Review

Halloween II (2009) • 15 Years Later — Rob Zombie’s audacious love letter stands strong against vitriolic rejection

Laurie Strode struggles to come to terms with her brother Michael’s deadly return to Haddonfield, Illinois; meanwhile, Michael prepares for another reunion with his sister.

Laurie Strode is a hostile, embittered alcoholic who’s ostracised her loved ones. A callous psychiatrist, driven by delusions of grandeur, manipulates her perceived attachment with Michael Myers, the infamous serial killer who has cheated death, escaped via car crash, and once again brutally murdered random people. He even caves a head in with his boot. This is Halloween (2018), the commercial smash hit revitalising the franchise. This is also Halloween II, the aggressively reviled reboot sequel less than a decade before.

Audiences were enamoured by David Gordon Green’s love letter to Halloween (1978), a cloying term that critic William Bibbiani helpfully defines: “a film whose top priority is to make you feel…