**** out of *****

Let’s get this straight — Rob Zombie is not killing a film franchise by remaking Halloween II.

A quick look at any movie review site will show fans that the original sequel was received poorly when it came out, in 1981. Most people remember the Halloween name because of the badass lead slayer known as Michael Myers and forget about the poor acting and murder ratio that would be considered boring by today’s standards.

Twenty-eight years later, Zombie has put together a film that is completely different from its predecessor. Zombie’s new Halloween II arguably surpasses his first venture into the controversial horror-movie remake territory, while providing enough decapitating, blood-gushing death for the most sadistic movie viewers out there.

The film takes place in the town of Haddonfield, Ill., one year after the events of Halloween. Now that the holiday is fast approaching, Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton), is having flashbacks of her terrifying near-death experience with her brother Michael Myers (Tyler Mane), in which she shot the cold-blooded killer in the head.

Most people would die after getting a bullet to the brain, but not Myers. His body has been missing since the events of the previous movie. Of course, he ends up coming back to find his sister and “bring her home” by orders of his mother — not without stopping to kill plenty of random rednecks and horny teens along the way. Also back for the ride is longtime psychoanalyst Dr. Samuel Loomis (Malcom McDowell), and there is even an unexpected appearance by Weird Al Yankovic.

Many critics seem to judge horror movies by the same standard as they would an Academy Award-winning flick these days. Viewers watch movies for different reasons, but it’s doubtful anyone is going to be turning to the horror genre to find heartbreaking drama or intense true-to-life murder investigations. Instead, the average horror movie-goer will watch Zombie’s Halloween II for the bloodshed — and there is plenty of it (the movie features a decapitation, plenty of head-stabbings, and even some good ol’ fashioned face-stomping).

Zombie also attempts to make the audience members “think” a little by letting them experience the messed-up minds of Strode and Myers firsthand. This is actually a cool idea — even if it is slightly flawed in its execution because of some poor acting on behalf of Sheri Moon Zombie, who plays Myers’ mother. However, this does allow Zombie some room to work in acid trip-esque sequences of white horses and dead bodies, which brings back images of his White Zombie days.

With Halloween II, Zombie has made a remake that is truly his own while paying homage to the original series. It won’t blow audience’s minds, but it really is a decent modern horror movie.

It appears that Zombie has signed on to remake The Blob instead of writing an original script for his next movie. Hopefully, the musician-turned director will one day return to creating original films (The Devil’s Rejects was a great modern horror film and is still one of his best).

That being said, Halloween II is by no means as terrible as reviewers will make it out to be, and it definitely is more fun than that other big summer sequel suck fest, Transformers 2.