Although Rob Zombie’s first crack at the Halloween franchise ended up proving divisive, I must confess that I enjoyed 2007’s remake of the John Carpenter classic. But when it came to 2009’s followup, Halloween II, well, I had a difficult time swallowing that one. In short, I’m right there with those of you who’d been put off by its defiance of series conventions.
For the most part, it was how Michael Myers had been written and portrayed that left a bad taste in my mouth, but I’m well aware of how some didn’t take too kindly to the direction in which Laurie Strode traveled, though I can understand the creative decisions due to the character enduring great trauma in the previous flick – goofy shared hallucinations notwithstanding.
Of course, Scout Taylor-Compton, who temporarily inherited the mantle of Laurie from Jamie Lee Curtis for both of Zombie’s efforts, likely had a will of iron to take on such an iconic role in a beloved series, but there were still spots that were hard for her to endure.
When speaking with Daily Dead, the young actress reminisced on the unbelievably bloody bathroom scene:
“That scene gets me so much. It’s the only scene that I’ve ever done in my career, of any of my horror movies, that I wasn’t able to handle. I had to walk off set after my close-ups because I just couldn’t stop crying.
“It just felt so real to me, because Danielle is like a sister, so just seeing her like that was absolutely heart-wrenching. That was definitely my favorite scene that I have ever done, and it was the hardest.”
In truth, it was probably difficult for a lot of moviegoers to process that one because of Danielle Harris being a longtime veteran of the franchise. Granted, she was playing a character altogether different from the one we met in Halloween 4 & 5, but seeing her horribly brutalized was no less shocking.
When it comes to the future of the saga, be sure to check out Blumhouse Productions’ contribution to the Halloween legacy when that arrives in theaters on October 19.