Editorial Reviews

The soundtrack to Rob Zombie's remake of the Halloween sequel follows the formula set forth on Halloween's soundtrack almost exactly. Tyler Bates composed the score once again, dialogue snippets are interspersed with classic rock, and Nan Vernon, whose creepy "Mister Sandman" closed the first movie's soundtrack, returns with an ethereal cover of Nazareth's "Love Hurts." The formula still works well, with excerpts like "Halloween Is Coming" giving songs such as 10cc's "The Things We Do for Love" a morbidly witty twist. There are a few tweaks, however: Captain Clegg & the Night Creatures take the album on a psychobilly detour with "Transylvania Terror Train" and "Honky Tonk Halloween," and John 5 contributes a surprisingly restrained, brief piano take on "Laurie's Theme." Halloween 2 also leans more toward punk and metal than its predecessor did, mixing Scream's "Amerarockers" and Void's "Time to Die" with Foghat and the Moody Blues, and Motörhead's "The Chase Is Better Than the Catch" is a particularly inspired choice. "Nurse Killa," the lone nod to Bates' score, is possibly even more stylized than his music for Halloween, all screeching strings, drones, and percussion that sounds like heartbeats and metal sheets hit with a heavy blunt object. It's not particularly original, but for the soundtrack to the remake of a sequel, Halloween 2 still has plenty of gas in the tank. Heather Phares, All Music Guide

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