Review of Halloween II (1981) by Steve W — 30 Aug 2009

Following directly after the climatic ending of the first film, Halloween 2 shows that continuing horrific Halloween night as the murders of the first film start to unfold and people begin to realize there is a killer loose in the small town of Haddonfield.

As young Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis returning again) is taken to the hospital, while Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance again) searches the streets for the murderous Michael Myers whom now seems to be a truly unstoppable killing machine.

A path of death leads Michael to the hospital Laurie resides in where he continues to kill just about everyone that crosses his path in that hospital, all while trying to search his little sister out, whose clearly aware of his presence but handicapped thanks to hospital drugs and bandages.

Overall, I felt as though this was a pretty good follow-up. I really enjoy sequels that follow the continuity and flow of the originals, all while using most of the same characters and actors who portray them.

Anything that was (or continues for that matter) to follow up Carpenter's classic is going to be held at a disadvantage, but new director Rick Rosenthal makes a valiant effort to produce a fun and entertaining sequel (though he also returns again later on to deliver THE worst sequel of the franchise!!).

Some of the highlights include another terrific performance from Pleasence as well as some particularly more violent and bloody deaths (which many opposed, but I'm always game for). That being said, a lot of the excellent suspense and plot from the first film is less prevalent in part 2.

Also, Curtis is somewhat underused. Still, Halloween 2 proves to be a good movie for me and the start of many follow-ups to come. We'll NEVER see another Halloween movie like the original, but part 2 will always be the one that got the closest.