Halloween II (1981) Universal/Horror RT: 93 minutes Rated R (language, graphic violence, nudity, sexual content) Director: Rick Rosenthal Screenplay: John Carpenter and Debra Hill Music: John Carpenter and Alan Howarth Cinematography: Dean Cundey Release date: October 30, 1981 (US) Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Charles Cyphers, Lance Guest, Pamela Susan Shoop, Hunter von Leer, Tawny Moyer, Ana Alicia, Nancy Stephens, Dick Warlock, Gloria Gifford, Leo Rossi, Ford Rainey, Jeffrey Kramer, Cliff Emmich, John Zenda, Anne Bruner, Lucille Benson, Anne-Marie Martin, Jonathan Prince, Dana Carvey, Alan Haufrect. Box Office: $25.5M (US) Body Count: 10 (or 11 if you count Jimmy)
Rating: ***
It’s definitely a step down from its predecessor, but Halloween II is still a fairly effective thriller that picks up about a minute after the 1978 original ends. After Dr. Loomis (Pleasence) shoots Michael Myers six times and the killer falls from a second-floor window, he’s still not dead. He’s still on the loose while Laurie Strode (Curtis) is taken to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital for treatment. He wanders around Haddonfield until he learns where his intended victim is. He heads over to pay her a visit.
Meanwhile, Dr. Loomis is on the lookout for his patient, convinced there will be more violence before Halloween night is over. After Sheriff Brackett (Cyphers) learns his daughter Annie (Loomis) is one of Michael’s victims, he curses Loomis for letting this happen and goes home to be with his wife. One of the deputies Gary Hunt (Leer, History of the World: Part One) assumes command. He tries to help Loomis find out where Michael will strike next. Does it occur to them that he will probably go to the hospital to finish the job with Laurie? Apparently not as they end up in a classroom at the local elementary school where Michael written the word “Samhain” on the blackboard in blood!
FYI, Samhain is a festival celebrated at the end of the harvest season in Celtic cultures. In some variations, it involves the sacrifice of animals and children. Some of the elements are similar to those found in the Festival of the Dead, a festival that celebrates the deceased members of a community. I mention this because the whole idea of Samhain figures into some of the future entries in this series.
Anyway, Michael makes his way to the hospital where he stars murdering the staff to get to Laurie. Barely conscious, she has dreams of her childhood, remembering that she was adopted by the Strodes. We soon learn an alarming fact about our heroine, something that was sealed by the court and kept from Dr. Loomis until now. SPOILER ALERT! Michael Myers had another sister, a younger sister who was adopted after her parents died. Laurie Strode is that sister! That’s why he’s been relentless in his pursuit of the girl. Now he’s chasing her around the dark corridors and empty parking lots of the hospital while she’s under the influence of sedatives and barely able to walk (due to her injuries).
Director Rick Rosenthal (Bad Boys, 1983) is a competent director, but he isn’t quite able to sustain the same level of suspense in Halloween II. What was positively creepy in the first movie is now predictable. We already know Michael is going to appear out of nowhere and kill whoever he encounters. The level of graphic violence has been raised. We now get to see Michael kill his victims in a variety of gruesome ways. Two people have a hypodermic needle plunged into their eyeballs, a nurse is scalded to death in a hospital therapy tub, another nurse has her blood drained drop-by-drop with an IV tube and one guy gets it with a hammer claw to the skull (this method of murder was also used in Friday the 13th Part 2 earlier that same year). One of the most ironic scenes in the movie is when young paramedic Jimmy (Guest, The Last Starfighter) slips on a puddle of blood after discovering one of the victims. Like Roger Ebert said in his review, this was bound to happen sooner or later in one of these “mad slasher” movies. It’s actually pretty funny in a macabre way, but the rest of the movie is strictly business as usual.
Michael dispatches everybody at the hospital before he finds Laurie and this raises an interesting question. It’s a pretty big hospital. There must be other personnel working in other parts of the building. So how is it nobody else realizes what’s happening in that part of the hospital? Doesn’t it seem logical to assume that on a busy night like Halloween, there would be a lot of activity in the hospital and somebody would discover the carnage taking place right near the maternity ward? Also, while we’re on the subject of plot holes, there’s a scene where one of the nurses goes out to the parking lot to drive to the sheriff’s station for help and finds that all the tires on all of the cars have been slashed. Why doesn’t she just run for help? Unfortunately, Halloween II falls victim to the syndrome known as the Idiot Plot which requires the characters to behave like complete idiots at all times; otherwise, there wouldn’t be a story. That would explain why characters go wandering off into dark areas of the hospital. It would also explain why nobody was alarmed when none of the phones worked and the electricity got cut.
In terms of style and suspense, Halloween II doesn’t quite measure up to the original movie. It’s still pretty good though. It still has some elements of suspense and one hell of a plot twist. The killings are creative. Part of the problem with Halloween II is its depiction of Michael Myers. He’s no longer a boogeyman; he now has an identity and a purpose. While it’s good to learn something about the man behind the mask, it takes something away from the terror and suspense. Instead of a mysterious shape, he’s become just another homicidal maniac, another zombie-like unkillable killer.
I keep criticizing Halloween II, but I do like it despite its shortcomings and flaws. It’s a joy seeing Pleasence and Curtis reprise their roles, Dr Loomis is still terrified of his patient, screaming lines like “HE’S NOT HUMAN!” and “HE IS STILL OUT THERE!”. Curtis is pretty good this time around even though she spends most of her screen time unconscious in a hospital bed. When she’s awake, she kills it in her last horror role until ’98 and Halloween H20.
The rest of the actors in the movie don’t have too much to do. They’re merely lambs lining up for the slaughter. Most of them have no discernible character traits. Bud (Rossi, The Accused), one of the paramedics, is a foul-mouthed pervert who gets off one of the movie’s best lines. After one of the female orderlies points out that his language is terrible, that he’s always saying s***, damn or hell, he replies “I’m sorry. I guess I just f*** up all the time.” The other paramedic Jimmy (Guest) is a nice guy, a college boy who takes a liking to Laurie. The head nurse Mrs. Alves (Gifford, D.C. Cab) is a ball-buster. That’s about it. This is a movie that doesn’t bother itself with details like creating individual character identities.
I suppose it should be expected that the sequel would not be as good as its predecessor. In most cases, that’s a given. Halloween II isn’t too bad, but after the perfection achieved by the original movie, it leaves something to be desired. It’s a pretty good movie, but it’s a big step down in terms of overall quality. In its defense, it is better than a lot of other sequels, especially all of the subsequent Halloween entries.
