Michael Myers returns for more of his crazy adventures in Rick Rosenthal’s Halloween II (1981), with him seemingly brushing off the six bullets Dr Loomis (Donald Pleasance) pumped into him during the finale of the previous film. Set merely minutes after the end of Halloween (1978), Myers is once again stalking the streets of Haddonfield, determined once and for all to end the life of that pesky Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis).
However all is not as it seems, as our Michael may have more personal reasons for wanting her dead. Ah fuck it, its because she’s his sister. Sorry spoilers and all that, but it has been 40 years since its release.
With the success of Halloween (1978), a sequel was probably a foregone conclusion. While both John Carpenter and Debra Hill weren’t exactly excited over the prospect of revisiting their earlier hit, producer Irwin Yablans saw the dollar signs and wanted to forge ahead with a follow up to Michael Myers previous rampage.
Perhaps Yablans quickly realised that this may be his only chance at some financial success as his career didn’t exactly go from strength to strength afterwards. Not that you would know that to listen to him. The ego of the man knows no bounds, even going on to write a book called “The Man Who Created Halloween”. Yeah, no worries Irwin, it was all you, nothing to do with those actual writers and director, it was all you.
To be fair, his book has some interesting anecdotes, but he comes across as a bit of an arsehole. You only have to watch the supplementary material of Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) and hear his derogatory comments about the film to realise the type of guy Yablans is. Still, without him there probably wouldn’t be a Halloween, so we have to give him some credit. Just not too much. Don’t want his head getting any bigger.
Yablans would go on to sue Carpenter when he didn’t choose him to produce The Fog (1980), which is just another example of this guy's attitude. The entitlement someone must feel to think they should be offered a job merely based on a previous working relationship is hilarious. The two reached an agreement, with Carpenter being allowed to make The Fog in peace with the proviso he would write and produce Halloween 2 afterwards. Anything for a quiet life I suppose.
Now, it is never a good idea for any filmmaker to get involved with a production when they can't be arsed. Carpenter has stated many times throughout the years that he didn’t think the film needed a sequel, and that the script that he and Debra Hill ended up producing was inferior to their previous work. It seemed Yablans agreed with them, stating at the time their first draft was "pedestrian and predictable.". See Irwin, this could have something to do with you forcing them into writing it.
Carpenter and Hill’s original idea was to set the sequel some years after the original film before deciding to start the film at the exact moment the first film ended. This causes the film's main issue. While it’s nice to get straight back into the action, Carpenter & Hill set themselves an almost impossible task of keeping the audience interested.
The main issue of setting it minutes later is that the injuries Laurie sustained earlier have to be dealt with which leads to Jamie Lee Curtis spending a great deal of the film doped out her tits. Honestly, it isn’t a great idea to have the heroine of your film spend at least half of her screen time lying on a hospital bed. At least with her being out of it she doesn’t have to see the god awful wig they've put on her head.
Saying this, with Curtis now taking something of a back seat, it means Donald Pleasance’s Dr Loomis is given more screen time, even if this ultimately amounts to him running around empty streets frantically looking for Michael until he confronts him in the well staged climax. Still, Pleasance can do frantic as well as any man and once again shows he is one of the franchises most powerful weapons.
The hospital scenes work, with the quietness of the wards giving the film an overall creepy vibe and helps build tension. The setting doesn’t bear much scrutiny though. Considering all the carnage that has befallen Haddonfield, there is hardly any staff on duty. It must be one of the quietest hospitals I have ever seen.
Halloween II is famous as being the entry to introduce a major twist that would become a major factor of the franchise moving forward. The twist that Laurie Strode is Michael Myers' sister, was apparently the result of Carpenter being pished, with him knowing how ridiculous it was. He and Hill felt that they at least had to include something to keep the plot moving, rather than just keeping it the same as the original. Both have commented on how ridiculous it was. It is funny how this one element became one of the the major driving forces of the franchise from here on, only being retconned recently in David Gordon Green’s Halloween (2018).
To be honest, I actually quite like this element of the film. It never did Empire Strikes Back (1980) any harm having the hero and villain be related. It probably wouldn’t work if made today, as the twist would be online in seconds, with some wee shit posting it on their Facebook or Twitter.
One area the script is sorely lacking in compared to the first is its characters. Now, the original didn’t exactly go into great depth but they were at least memorable. The same can’t be said here, with them basically only being introduced to be quickly dispatched by Michael.
There is the odd stand out such as Leo Rossi’s hospital porter, but this is more to do with his inappropriate dialogue, which if said these days to a nurse would probably have him arrested and named and shamed on the internet before the signature on his termination papers was even dry.
Interestingly, Rossi would later go on to star in his own serial killer series with Relentless (1989) and its sequels. While perhaps not in the same league as the Halloween franchise, it is certainly better than some entries in the series and shouldn’t disappoint slasher/thriller fans.
Sci-Fi fantasy fans may also recognise Lance Guest from The Last Starfighter (1984), which was directed by original Michael Myers Nick Castle. While his role here isn’t exactly noteworthy it was enough for Castle to take notice, with him casting him in Starfighter on the basis of his work in Halloween II.
In regards to Castle, he unfortunately does not return to wear the mask this time, with veteran stuntman Dick Warlock taking up the mantle of Michael Myers.
With Carpenter not returning to the directors chair, a replacement obviously had to be found. Initially Carpenter offered the job to Tommy Lee Wallace who had worked on the first film as art director. Like Carpenter, Wallace wasn’t exactly enthused about directing the sequel with him eventually deciding against it.
The directing job finally went to Rick Rosenthal, who would be making his feature length debut. He got the job based on a short he had directed called The Toyer. Rosenthal does a fair job of emulating the style created by Carpenter in the previous entry, with it sharing many of the same visual flourishes.
Obviously, returning director of photography Dean Cudney also had a hand in this, making sure Halloween II at least lives up to its predecessor visually.
While Rosenthal made sure to ape Carpenter’s style, Carpenter was still unhappy with the first cut of the film, stating that it was as scary as an episode of Quincy (1976). Personally it's all a matter of perspective. I'm sure the idea of Jack Klugman trying it on with young women was terrifying for some people.
With this in mind, Carpenter decided to film some reshoots to include more gore and violent kills. This was partly to compete with the slew of slasher movies that arrived in the wake of Halloween. I can totally understand his reasoning, as by this point most of the audience had come to expect a more graphic experience, and in that department Halloween II doesn’t disappoint with there being a number of imaginative death scenes interspersed throughout to keep things interesting.
Apparently Rosenthal was not happy with these inclusions, with him complaining that Carpenter "ruined [my] carefully paced film." Saying this, his original cut must have been extremely dull as I personally feel these scenes are required to liven things up. Rosenthal couldn’t have been too pissed off though as he would later return to the franchise to helm Halloween: Resurrection (2002).
As well as co-writing and producing, Carpenter would compose the score alongside regular collaborator Alan Howarth. Haworth would become quite an important addition to the franchise, with him going on to singly compose the scores for the 4th, 5th and 6th parts of the series.
Halloween II could never hope to live up to the original. Not many sequels can. It didn’t exactly open to glowing reviews, taking in considerably less at the box office than the original even though financially it was still considered a success, making much more than similar slasher movies released at the time.
As long as expectations are lowered, there is still fun to be had. If all Halloween fans want to see is Michael Myers killing a lot of people, they've come to the right place.
Rating: 3/5
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