Review of Halloween II (1981) by Eric C — 04 Sep 2009

Michael Myers is back again. Following only seconds after the first film ended we are again thrust right into the horrow of Halloween. John Carpenter has taken a back seat and only stays on as Co-writer. The directing chops are handed to Rick Rosenthal and he does a great job of taking over.

The bar is set higher this time as the blood and gore are evident in this sequel to satisfy the current generation and keep the old generation happy with the scary orange lit empty halls and low haunting score.

All the principal stars are back(Donald Pleasance, Jamie Lee Curtis and cameos by Nancy Loomis and Charles Cyphers)and they keep up the pace of the original and give just a bit more(although Jamie Lee Curtis is reduced to laying in the bed for half the film).

Dick Warlock has taken over the role of The Shape and manages to take over pretty well. He's also the only one to play Michael in the film, so that's a relief.

Halloween II is one of those rare sequels that do a good job at keeping the momentum of the original going and adding a bit to the sequel. This isn't saying it doesn't have flaws it has a lot. Its basically a cat and mouse film with a slasher element to it.

4 out of 5.

Universal are the distrbuters this time and this means we may never get a good Special Edition as they treat this film like Paramount has treated the F13TH films for so long.