Review of Halloween II (1981) by John P — 01 Oct 2013

Of course there has to be a sequel after the ending to the first it just seems appropriate. The first one ended in a cliffhanger making you say, "Where the hell is he?" That is where this movie comes in; it starts off immediately after the first Halloween ended. Out of all the sequels, it is definitely the most closely connected with the original. Everyone who survived the first movie is back and they are ready for another round of Michael Myers' mayhem and destruction. What's even more interesting is that the biggest connection takes place on the same night. I mean it literally picks up right where it left off. But this time around they changed locations from a Haddonfield neighborhood to the hospital where Michael continues his murderous spree. So enough of the openings, let us check right in and allow me to tell you what I thought about this.

John Carpenter returns as the writer and all of the characters that lived through the first movie are still here. Donald Pleasance and Jamie Lee Curtis naturally slip right back into their respective roles and not missing a beat. This movie may have demystified some of the motives behind him. Personally I think that the less you know about Michael Myers, the better; but this is sequel so I guess they had to come up with some new kind of twists. One of the things I liked about this was Michael Myers finding new and creative ways of killing people. Like this one scene where he is shoving a guys face into boiling hot water and jamming a needle into someone's head. It makes you want to cringe and reminds you it didn't need to show much of the murders in the first movie. Another scene that I thought was funny in a dark way was when Dr. Loomis thinks he sees Michael and pursues him on the streets, but turns out to be just a random trick-or-treater. What happens to that person afterwards doesn't quite end well for him. You just need to watch it for yourself so you can understand the joke. The final chase between Laurie and Michael is not as climactic as in the first one. Probably because it just follows the same old routine where the girl runs for her life while looking back at the murder as he just calmly walks toward her. When Michael did it in the first movie it was genuinely creepy, but now it feels like he should just hurry up if he wants to kill her. Overall, this movie tried to capture the pure horror essence from the first movie but didn't seem to live up to the glory. However I am not saying that this was bad, in fact, the death scenes were still cool and it was funny at times. Also the ending was decent giving everyone in the movie closure to the horrors of Michael Myers. Which is why I give this film a four star rating.