Halloween II (1981)

Sex :
Violence :
Director Rick Rosenthal Reviewer :
Writers John Carpenter, Debra Hill
Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Lance Guest
Genre Slasher
Tagline The Nightmare Isn't Over
15 second cap Mikey continues to cull the herd in Haddonsfield, but he has a plan involving Laurie Strode that Sam Loomis has to deal with
Country

Review

"You don't know what death is!" - Sam Loomis

Laurie Strode has been taken to the Haddonfield Memorial Hospital to get treatment for her wounds suffered in the first round with Mikey. Sam Loomis, as agitated as ever, is hounding the local Police to keep up the search as he believes Michael will continue with his blood thirsty Halloween festivities.

Michael arrives at the Hospital with a few more notches on his belt and proceeds to reduce the staff quicker than a Liberal party reallocation drive. Dr Loomis also arrives on the scene, and a tense showdown happens as Sam and Laurie try to survive the Shape's never ending carnage. We learn there's an agenda Michael has been working towards.

The second Halloween movie follows on directly from the first, in fact it kicks off with the last five minutes of "the Night he came home". So I guess we know what we are getting into, Mikey on the rampage using various to hand murder weapons with Dr Sam Loomis in hot pursuit ready to use his hand gun again, because that liked worked already. However there are a couple of twists coming our way that redefine Michael from being simply another lumbering supernatural serial killer, to Michael being a man with a plan. Firstly, and for no apparent reason, the big fella breaks into the local primary school, taking time out of his busy schedule to draw a nice picture of his family and to write "Samhain" on the blackboard in blood. Strange behaviour indeed, but even stranger is the discovery that Laurie Strode far from being a random victim was in fact Michael's intended target all along! In case there might be the odd person who has never seen the movie, I'll leave the reasons behind Michael's carefully constructed rampage to the movie viewer. Effectively Carpenter and Hill redefined their original movie, not necessarily to the best effect in my sordid opinion.

Rick Rosenthal took up the Director's mantle from John Carpenter, and hence is always going to come off second best in direct comparisons. However I've got to say the more I watch Halloween II the more I appreciated Rosenthal's efforts. There's some mighty fine tension going down and the atmosphere is once again spot on. Rosenthal doesn't stint from keeping up the atmospherics Carpenter so carefully constructed in the previous movie. I'm just going to say it, Rosenthal matches Carpenter's intensity and delivers one of the best movies in the franchise.

There's a couple of elements to Rosenthal's directing I wanted to highlight that perhaps get over looked in general reviews of Halloween II. Firstly the movie playing on the various televisions in differing locations is Romero's Night of the Living Dead. I dug the scene where the Hospital Security guard has lumbering zombies on his television while an unnoticed lumbering Michael Myers makes an appearance on a security monitor. It's an awesomely good effect that highlights Rosenthal isn't simply here just to make up the numbers. Actually security monitors are used effectively throughout the movie to show the audience where Michael is while the various potential victims remain unaware. This approach has pretty much informed a lot of horror movies, proving Rosenthal joins Carpenter in also having an influence on the genre.

Rosenthal matches Carpenter, and has a clear vision of the movie he wants to deliver

The other element I wanted to point out was Rosenthal's use of darkness to camouflage Michael. Throughout Halloween II we have hands suddenly grasping the central screen character, at no time do the hands belong to Michael. Rosenthal borrows Carpenter's use of Michael gradually appearing out of darkened areas of the screen, generally behind the victim to be. It's an altogether effective technique that had me high fiving the weirdo living in my garage.

Naturally since this is the second movie in the series, scribes Carpenter and Hill add to the mythology surrounding Michael. Laurie directly asks Dr Loomis why Michael can't seem to die, which is of course on the audience's mind as well, Meyers being the first of the indestructible killers. Carpenter carefully avoids giving any answers to Laurie's question, Michael is the bogey man, he isn't human. Similarly with the Samhain reference Carpenter and Hill are introducing elements of Celtic Druid belief, possibly pointing to where they wanted to take their creation in future movies. Not so much the Devil made Michael do it, as the Druids made Michael formulate a new path in life. And finally a "secret file" delivers what is the shock development of Halloween II, the first time you find out about this one it will hit you right between the eyes.

Like in the first movie Rosenthal isn't averse to featuring a set of hooters in all their glory on the screen. It has to be said however that the mixture of sex and death was even at this stage a worrying trend in horror flicks. But full marks for a pair of bazookas that have pride of place in my top ten boobs in horror movies list.

John Carpenter's awesomely simply yet effective score gets a good repeat cycle in Halloween II, it's instantly recognisable and works like a brought one for the visuals going down. I'm always delighted to hear Carpenter's orchestral Halloween movements.

Jamie Lee Curtis (Laurie Strode) is always a pleasure to catch up with in a horror flick, and she's on fire in Halloween II hitting the emotion, being resourceful, and showing the sort of tough vulnerability that is almost a requirement of modern leading ladies in the fright flicks. Not to forget Donald Pleasence (Dr Sam Loomis) who simply goes at it all manic and effectively. Great double team that really work well together.

So I'm digging Halloween II more and more with each viewing, which is just as well as I tend to watch all the movies at least once a year. The sub plots in this movie would by and largely influence the next three Halloween movies featuring Michael, right up to the attempted reboot via H20. A worthy successor to John Carpenter's classic, a must watch outing for any horror fan.

Oh hell go and choose your own version of the movie, seems like we get a new release every second year or so. Rumour has it that the whole fandango is going to BR shortly, so you won't be lacking for choice.

ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ...

  Excellent slasher that cements the Shape as king, Voorhees is a pretender, Freddy is a drama queen