This movie sucks.

Here is a film utterly devoid of meaning or purpose.

In his fourth feature, director Rob Zombie proves he has nothing but contempt for the genre he claims to be re-imagining.

In truth, “Halloween II” is simply the last sputtering of the “gorenography” genre popularized by Eli Roth (of “Hostel” fame) among others.

The past five years of horror have presented every conceivable form of death and dismemberment in popular film and Zombie clumsily shifts from one gutting to the next, with his flat characters simply providing a canvas for his puerile defilements.

Perhaps even more worthy of criticism than his technique are Zombie’s ethics. Under the guise of retooling John Carpenter’s original horror franchise, the director assumes audiences will lend his incompetence a certain respect.

However, Zombie’s approach lacks the subtlety or unnerving craft of the original, with suspense supplanted by a stultifying blend of emergency room footage, crude sound editing and appalling writing.

In running roughshod over the audience’s sensibilities, the film closes with an embarrassing plea for empathy that would be better suited for Zombie’s directorial future.