Review of Halloween II (1981) by Kevin D — 24 Oct 2012

Pretty good horror sequel. This one takes place immediately after the first Halloween and the series was meant to conclude with this film. The ending felt complete and it would have been perfect if this series could have sailed into the sunset after this film, but then Halloween 3 The Season of the Witch happened. After that movie failed miserably, Halloween 4 The Return of Michael Myers was inevitable. That sequel has my favorite subtitle of all the Halloween movies, because really, all of them are about the return of Michael Myers.

This movie was surprisingly well made. Yeah it was by the numbers and stuck to formula, but the movie felt completely atmospheric. The lighting, music, and camera work were all strong enough to build genuine terror. Sometimes this formula created startling jump scenes (I literally jumped out of my chair during one death scene 15 minutes in). At other times, this formula did work in creating suspense only to give us a false jump scene (which happened more often that not). But still, the important thing is that whether or not the jump scene was genuine or not, at least there was effort in making the film atmospheric.

The characters in this film did not feel too artificial either. Usually in movies like this we get a little bit of characterization of dumb teens before they're executed. However, this time around the characters were a bit more intelligent than most horror victims (they still have their dumb moments). It was nice seeing the intelligent Dr. Loomis once again, but I was saddened that the notorious JLC aka Laurie Strode aka Ms. Activia was wasted in a hospital bed for most of the film (innering Denzel Washington in The Bone Collector). But it does make sense that Laurie would have to be in bed status after everything she went through in the first Halloween movie.

The movie works really well for the first 30 minutes or so but then it just starts getting repetitive. It essentially becomes a second rate version of the first movie, just finding ways of making variations on scenes from the first movie. Nonetheless, this movie and this franchise just has something likable about it. It's always fun revisiting these characters and the city of Haddonfield. The first two films, in their hearts, are just about small town American life in Haddonfield. The first two films don't jip the audience in that sense, we always get an idea of what it's like living in middle America.

Nowadays, most horror sequels are just so derivative. The later sequels in this franchise are even guilty of losing the horror elements and getting dumber as they go along. Watching this film was a breath of fresh air in that sense. No, it's not remarkable or innovative by any means. It's not as good as the original either. This is just old school slasher fare executed very well. And you know what, there's nothing better than that when it gets closer to Halloween.