Review of Halloween II (1981) by Timothy S — 02 Oct 2011

Even though he didn't direct it, John Carpenter took a lot of flack for "Halloween 2". His landmark original picture started the mad slasher craze and a slew of vastly inferior rip-offs, followed, one seemingly every week. They had nothing in common with the Carpenter classic other than an unstoppable psycho with a knife, and this sequel became one of them. It had none of the style or freshness of the first film, but oddly enough, I loved it all the same. These are such great characters that I might have been all-too-willing to accept anything as a sequel, but I was hooked right from the start.

Jamie Lee Curtis is a strong female lead, and with Dr. Loomis, Donald Pleasence found the part that defined his career and made him one of the most iconic characters in horror cinema. Not much more is done with the Michael Myers' legend in this film, but considering some of the things they came up with in the later lame sequels (he was a Druid in one), that might be a good thing.

This movie is a mindless bloodbath, pure and simple, but I love Carpenter's ultimate horror film score, the holiday setting and the perfect ending the rivals the original. If this film had flopped thereby eliminating any of the sequels that followed, the ending here would have wrapped up the film (and the franchise) perfectly. And, in the words of Quentin Tarantino, this film's owns the do wop classic "Mr. Sandman". No other film should ever use that song again.

All of the complaints people have of "Halloween 2" are probably true, but they didn't diminish my enjoyment of this admittedly flawed follow-up.