Franchises: Halloween. Halloween II (1981)

As Halloween's ending credits rolled after that first time I saw it on USA, they announced that Halloween II would be up next as part of their Halloween weekend horror marathon (I can remember the announcer declaring, "The Boogeyman is loose!", as it showed some clips, the most vivid one being Michael Myers getting shot in the eyes and blood streaming down the mask). At that point, I got up and went to go eat the lunch our grandmother had made for us, but the dining room was right next to the living room at the time and so, while I didn't see the movie's opening, I could definitely hear it. I can remember sitting there, eating my grandmother's delicious stew, while the Halloween theme played in the next room, making for quite an eerie lunch. Eventually, like the first film, I did sit down and watch it, and again, the stuff that I saw which stuck with me was during the last act, when Michael chases Laurie through the hospital and the finale where he and Dr. Loomis get blown up. The images of Michael walking out of the fire, engulfed in flames, and his burning mask after he collapses stayed in my mind long after the movie was over, much like what I remembered from the first one. As I said back in my review of the original, I became obsessed with finding out everything I could about the Halloween series and desperately wanted to see and own all of these movies, but that wouldn't happen for a long time. In fact, up until I got both the original and H20 on VHS for my birthday a couple of years later, Halloween II was the one I'd seen more than once, as they often played it on TV, usually on either USA or Sci-Fi Channel. Thus, when I got it on VHS for Christmas in 2001, I was quite familiar with it. That also shaped my very favorable opinion of it, as I absolutely love Halloween II. Once again, going back to my 101 Favorite Horror Films list, I put both it and the original as a tie in my top ten, something I'm well aware a lot of people wouldn't even dream of doing. To me, though, this is just as classic as the original, and I can't imagine one without the other. 

While there are a fair amount of people who also like Halloween II quite a bit, it feels like there are more who either hate its guts or are just blasé about it, mostly due to its being more of a standard body count movie than the original. Many, including a good number of those behind both it and the original, feel that the amped up amount of gore takes away from the classy, Hitchcockian feel of its parent. I can understand where they're coming from and, trust me, as time has passed, I've been able to pick out a good number of flaws that I never thought about before. Regardless, I still not only think this is an awesome flick and one of the best horror sequels ever, but that it does manage to recapture a lot of the atmosphere and style of the first one, just with a larger helping of the red stuff (which I personally don't think is a bad thing, necessarily). I also think it was a really cool idea to pick up right where the first film left off and continue the story of Michael Myers' murderous rampage in Haddonfield on Halloween night in 1978. A number of sequels have also gone that route, but I think Halloween II is the one that did it best.

Being young and naïve when I started getting into the Halloween movies, I assumed that John Carpenter did all of them, much like how I assumed Wes Craven did every Nightmare on Elm Street and Tobe Hooper every Texas Chainsaw Massacre. In fact, when I got a copy of John Stanley's Creature Features in 2000, he credited the direction of Halloween II to both Carpenter and Rick Rosenthal. Thus, I was a little confused when I finally saw the opening credits and, while Carpenter was credited with writing and producing, along with Debra Hill, Rosenthal was the sole credited director. Over the years, I'd learned snippets of what went on behind the scenes, but it was only when Scream Factory put out their Blu-Ray of the film, with the documentary, The Nightmare Isn't Over: The Making of Halloween II, that I learned just how contentious its development and production was. As any fan knows, a sequel was the furthest thing from Carpenter and Hill's minds when they made Halloween. However, Irwin Yablans and Moustapha Akkad felt very differently, with the former coming up with the idea for one while the first was still in release. Over the years, Carpenter has said that the reason why he and Hill opted to be involved with Halloween II was both out of a feeling of obligation and also to recoup profits that were still owed them from the first. But it seems as though they were actually legally shackled to it. Yablans sued both Carpenter and Robert Rehme of Avco Embassy Pictures when he learned the two of them had partnered up to do The Fog, which Yablans claimed Carpenter had promised to do with Compass International, along with Halloween II. As part of the settlement, Carpenter was allowed to make The Fog at Avco, but was obligated to make the Halloween sequel immediately afterward. Both he and Hill produced and wrote the screenplay, though Carpenter would always describe that as torture, as he felt there was no more story. As a result, the much despised revelation that Michael Myers and Laurie Strode are siblings would be ascribed by him as a result of desperation and too much beer while at the typewriter.

Ironically, after all of that drama, Yablans ended up screwing himself when he made a deal with Dino de Laurentiis that sold him the rights to Halloween II. De Laurentiis was then able to get Universal to distribute both it and a prospective third film, which he had a contractual option on. Though the deal was very lucrative for Compass International, it barred Yablans from have any creative influence on the film; he's credited as executive producer, but that was just ceremonial, and not surprisingly, he would refer to this deal as one of the biggest mistakes of his career. Compass International would soon fall apart, and Yablans' relationship with Carpenter and Hill would not only deteriorate even further in the coming years, but so would his business partnership with Akkad.

Neither Carpenter nor Hill, who also had directorial aspirations, had any interest in directing Halloween II. Tommy Lee Wallace, Carpenter's childhood friend and major contributor on the first, was keen to direct, but hated the violent script and turned it down. According to Dustin McNeill and Travis Mullins in their fantastic Taking Shape books, David Lynch, who wasn't quite yet an auteur, was attached at some point. Ultimately, the job went to Rick Rosenthal, who'd only done some little known TV work and a short film called The Toyer, the latter of which is apparently what got him hired. Since the film was meant to be a direct continuation of the original, Rosenthal felt obligated to retain its style in terms of look and camerawork, as well as favoring suspense over gore. However, his initial cuts of the film impressed neither test screening audiences nor the producers, and Carpenter, in turn, stepped up his involvement. He not only deleted and re-edited scenes, but also reshot and added some new ones that featured more blood and gore, which I guess is why John Stanley decided to credit the film to both of them. This also led to a lot of contention between Carpenter and Rosenthal, the latter of whom felt stymied by having to bow to the sometimes conflicting demands of so many different cooks in the kitchen, be it Carpenter, Hill, Moustapha Akkad, or Dino de Laurentiis. However, I've never felt that the film suffered from this and, despite some issues here and there, is actually very cohesive, solid, and well-made.

One complaint I often hear, which even Debra Hill voiced, is that, in her second turn as Laurie Strode, Jamie Lee Curtis spends a good chunk of the movie in a hospital bed. On the one hand, I always figured that made sense, seeing as how she's badly injured from being attacked by Michael, with a stab wound on her left arm (which now seems more serious than it was in the first movie) and an injured leg, and then, they dope her up. But, at the same time, I do agree that it's weird to bring Curtis back and not give her that much to do or even say. As the authors of Taking Shape: Developing Halloween from Script to Screen noted, you'd think Laurie would remember that three of her friends are dead and grieve, now that she finally has the opportunity to, or would ask if Tommy Doyle and Lindsey Wallace are alright, or wonder who Dr. Loomis was. That said, it's not like Laurie does nothing at all or is completely helpless. She's smart enough to beg the doctor and nurses not to sedate her (it doesn't work, but still), and even when she's sort of out of it, she knows something's up when she hears the nurses talking about how there's a problem with the hospital's phones. She eventually deduces that Michael is in the hospital, searching for her, and despite her condition, summons up enough strength to get out of her room and hide somewhere else, which turns out to have been a wise decision. When Michael finally does find her, Laurie runs as fast as she can through the hospital, despite her injuries, and puts herself through the painful exertion of climbing through a small window in the basement. And in the finale, she does become proactive, as she shoots Michael's eyes out and helps Loomis by attracting the blinded killer's attention when he's swiping his scalpel the doctor. Now, I will say that she does do some dumb, slasher movie things along the way, like scream when she comes across a dead body in one room, giving herself away, not running down the street when she makes it out of the hospital, or barely makes a sound when help does arrive, only to scream once they're inside the building and can't hear her, but I can ultimately forgive her because I like Laurie, and Jamie Lee does still play her well.

There are two other common gripes concerning Laurie in this film. One is the wig that Curtis had to wear since, by this point, she'd cut her hair to the shorter style she's known for. Now, maybe I'm just stupid, but until I heard people talk about it and read about it in trivia, it never crossed my mind that it wasn't her real hair. And even looking at the movie today, now knowing that it is a wig, I don't think it looks that bad... for the most part. There are some shots, like the ones I placed here, where it

does look horrendous. The other complaint is the major revelation that Laurie is Michael's other sister. Since I only saw the last third of the first movie originally, I didn't know that their being brother and sister was never implied there. And since I saw Halloween II more often at that time, and knew by then that it was a big part of the series' lore, I just assumed their relationship was universally accepted and didn't give it much though. But, while it still doesn't hurt my 

enjoyment of the movie, now that I can view the whole thing in hindsight, it doesn't make much sense. We're told that she was born two years before Michael was committed, making you wonder where two-year old Laurie was when her brother killed her older sister. Maybe she was being babysat, but why wasn't Judith just watching her, then? Laurie also has a dream at one point that implies she subconsciously knows the truth, and the imagery of her standing in the doorway to Michael's cell, as he turns and glares at her, highly

suggests she may have visited Michael while he was in the institution. I don't why in God's name the Strodes would allow that. And ultimately, this brother/sister revelation has no bearing on the story as, unless she just figured it out from those dreams, Laurie never learns the truth herself onscreen. It's something you could remove and, aside from coming up with another way for Dr. Loomis to realize Michael is at the hospital, it would play just fine.

One genuine complaint I do have is that the lead-in from the original screws up that movie's creepy ending, especially where Dr. Loomis is concerned. In stark contrast to his unfazed look when he saw that Michael was gone after he shot him off the balcony, here Loomis runs downstairs afterward and is visibly shocked when he only finds his impression on the lawn. He then becomes much more hysterical than before, yelling repeatedly, "I shot him six times!", and, "This guy, this man... he's not human!" That doesn't line up with how before, he instinctively knew he was fighting a losing battle against something that is pure evil and can't be defeated. But, as always, Donald Pleasence is so awesome that I'm able to overlook those initial misgivings. In fact, one good thing that comes out of this transition is that Loomis is now more determined to stop Michael and really trying to get the authorities to listen to him. He's smart enough not to just assume that Ben Tramer, who was dressed similarly to Michael and died in a burning car wreck, was him and has the body examined to be sure. And once he learns this guy was a few years short of Michael's age, he knows Michael is still alive and on the loose, so he resumes his search (granted, it was partly Loomis' fault Tramer died to begin with, and he also scared the crap out of a bunch of trick-or-treaters by running down the sidewalk with a gun, shouting like a maniac, but given the circumstances, I find it hard to fault him).

You also can't help but feel bad for Loomis here. First, Sheriff Brackett repeatedly accuses him of letting Michael out and blames him again when he finds Annie's body. Second, determination aside, he's way off the mark when he gets back to searching for Michael, as that red herring wasted a lot of precious time. And third, he's eventually ordered to return to Smith's Grove by order of the governor, as the news of him hunting down and shooting his own patient is all over the state and

one of Smith's Grove's head administrators is afraid it may negatively impact their rehabilitation program. They've even sent a marshal, meaning he has no choice but to go along with it, leaving Haddonfield behind with Michael still on the loose and an unprepared police force. He even tells Nurse Chambers when she says she's sorry she didn't believe him about Michael, "Don't feel sorry for me. Feel sorry for that little town back there. It'll be years before they forget this." That's when she tells him that Laurie is Michael's sister and,

now understanding that she's his target, Loomis forces the marshal to turn the car around and head for the hospital, even firing a warning shot through the window to make him cooperate. When they arrive, they're just in time for him to, again, rescue Laurie and empty his revolver into Michael. But, like before, Michael gets right back up, kills the marshal, and chases Loomis and Laurie, leading to the finale in the operating room. Locking themselves in there, Loomis gives Laurie a gun to defend herself, and then plans to shoot Michael

himself when he breaks through the door. Though he gets stabbed him upon realizing too late that his revolver is empty, Loomis does manage to get back on his feet and distract Michael after he's been blinded. This gives Laurie enough time to get to safety, and once she does, Loomis sacrifices himself by igniting the gas that had been filling the operating room.

Charles Cyphers returns in his role as Sheriff Brackett but, even though he gets third billing in the opening credits after Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence, he's only in the movie for a little bit of the first act. By this point, Brackett is fed up with Loomis, telling him, as they search without finding Michael, that he's reaching the point where he's going to stop listening to him (not that he listened to him all that much before). He disbelieves Loomis' claims that he shot Michael six times, ignoring him when he says Michael isn't human, and he also has to chase after Loomis when he runs down the sidewalk, brandishing his gun like a madman, upon mistaking Ben Tramer for Michael. For some reason, Brackett continually blames Loomis for everything, accusing him of letting Michael out. He said something similar in the original movie, "If you are right, damn you for letting him go," but doubles down on it here, saying, "You let him out. His own goddamned doctor!" I don't know why he thinks that, given that Loomis told him what happened. Regardless, Brackett leaves the film shortly after learning that Annie has been found murdered, along with Lynda and Bob, at the Wallace house. There's a poignant moment where he lifts up the sheet on the gurney to identify Annie and when he sees it is her, he shuts her eyes before her body is taken away. (They brought Nancy Loomis back for that one bit, yet she told me that the makeup effect of her slashed throat took hours to apply.) Brackett goes home to tell his wife what's happened but before he leaves, he, in his grief, once again feels compelled to blame Loomis, growling, "Damn you. What have you done? You let him out!" You'd half-expect him to come back near the end and attempt to take revenge on Michael, but it doesn't happen. Even Cyphers himself has said he thought it was weird that his character disappeared so early on.

With Brackett out of the picture, Deputy Hunt (Hunter Von Leer) takes over. At first, he's a bit like Brackett in that he thinks Loomis is just nutty and melodramatic, due to the sight of his friend distraught over the death of his daughter and his feeling Loomis is responsible. Hunt is also convinced that the man killed in the car wreck was Michael, but is willing to have the charred body examined per Loomis' request. When the dentist discovers the man was around 17 or 18 years old, whereas Michael is 21, Hunt decides not to take any chances and orders the police force to begin searching every inch of Haddonfield again. There's a nice scene between him and Loomis when they arrive at the Myers house to get control of an angry mob that's smashing it up, and Loomis tells him of Michael's evil and how he was the only one at Smith's Grove who understood how dangerous he really was. I'm not sure if Hunt believes everything he says, as he seems somewhat skeptical, but while there, they learn that the man in the accident was likely Ben Tramer, much to Hunt's horror. Later, when Loomis is forced to return to Smith's Grove, Hunt assures him that they'll find Michael, but Loomis asks, "Where are you gonna look?", to which Hunt admits, "I don't know," seeing as how they've looked just about everywhere. Loomis, in a defeated manner says, "Neither do I," before he finally leaves, and the way Hunt watches the car drive away makes it clear he has no idea what to do next. He then appears in the last scene outside the hospital. Another officer comes out and Hunt asks, "What's the count?", to which he answers, "Ten... so far." You can tell by both of their faces that they realize just how right Loomis was.

Another complaint I often hear is that the staff of Haddonfield Memorial Hospital are just a bunch of stupid, throwaway slasher movie victims with no personality at all. Some of them are, but a few are memorable and have a bit of meat to them. The most notable one is Jimmy (Lance Guest), a paramedic who knows Laurie since she goes to school with his younger brother. From the get-go, it's clear he's concerned for her well being, and has a bit of a crush on her. He's also a pretty likable guy overall, getting angry with Budd, the other paramedic, when he's insensitive about what's going on, and later goes into Laurie's room and whispers to her that he's not going to let anything happen to her. He's horrified when she appears to sink into catatonia due to the medication she was given, and when the doctor, who's been murdered, fails to show up to examine her, Jimmy searches the hospital for the others. When Laurie then disappears from her room, Jimmy tells the only nurse who's left that, if they don't find anybody, she'll have to drive down to the police department and get help. He, meanwhile, keeps looking and that leads to one of the most confusing and unusual "deaths" I've ever seen in a movie. He finds Mrs. Alves' body in an operating room, and it's only after he walks into the middle of it that he realizes the floor is covered in her blood. He turns to walk out, and slips and falls hard on his back. Later, when Laurie makes it outside and hides in one of the cars in the parking lot, Jimmy climbs in. Dazed and likely suffering from a concussion, he notices Laurie hiding in the passenger floorboard and tells her they're going to leave. He tries to start the car, then mumbles, "I think, I think, I..." and drops his head onto the steering wheel. When Laurie yanks him off the wheel, he just falls back limp. The first time, I wasn't sure if he died or not, but when he didn't show back up at the end, I figured he did and thought, "Well, that's an odd way to go out." Of course, I've since seen the alternate ending in the TV version, where you learn he actually lived, but in the theatrical version, his fate is really confusing. 

I must admit that I do like Budd (Leo Rossi), the other paramedic. Yeah, he can be kind of a prick, is insensitive about the fact that people have been killed, and is only concerned about either getting a pizza or some ass from Karen, one of the nurses, but he's really charismatic and funny, regardless. I do smirk at some of the stuff he says, like when they're watching the news about the chaos going on in Haddonfield and he comments, "It looks like a goddamn homecoming." Insensitive, yeah, but funny. I also like the moment between him and another nurse, Janet, when she's telling him that a friend of hers claimed to have seen Michael Myers the day before, when she was coming into work, and Budd tells her, "Julie's full of shit! He didn't escape until last night." He adds, "She's a goddamn moron, anyway," and Janet, exasperated, tells him,, "Every other word you say is either 'hell' or 'shit' or 'damn.'" What does Budd say to that? "I'm sorry. I guess I just fuck up all the time." Yeah, I'm immature, but I think that's funny, as well as when Karen comes into work and Budd, thinking about her, sings, "Amazing grace/Come sit on my face/Don't make me cry/I need your pie." Well, the good news for Budd is that he does manage to talk Karen into giving some "therapy" later. The bad news is that both of them die as a result.

The one person in the movie I absolutely cannot stand is Mrs. Alves (Gloria Gifford), the head nurse. I guess since Dr. Mixter is an old boozer, she has to be the one to take charge, but she's such a bitch about it towards everyone she works with, particularly Jimmy, who's just as concerned for Laurie as she is. When she first comes in to check on Laurie and finds Jimmy standing there, she tells him to leave her alone and makes him leave. Okay, fine, maybe him hovering over her like that was a little creepy, but it should be plain to anyone after a while that his intentions aren't malicious. The moment that pisses me off the most, though, is when she comes in on Jimmy talking to Laurie later on. She tells him, "Time's up, Jimmy. Let's go," in an unnecessarily stern manner and gives him this dagger-filled look. And when Jimmy is leaving, he whispers, "I'll be back," but Mrs. Alves swings around and says, "No, you won't. Vising hours are definitely over." First time, I was like, "God, lady, what is your problem?!" And just to add insult to injury, after Jimmy leaves, she says to Laurie, "Men, you can't live with them, you can't live without them," to which I'm like, "Oh, fuck you!" I know rules are rules and she has to enforce them, but does she have to be such a tyrant while doing so? As mean and stern as she is to everyone else, Jimmy just seems to be the one who gets the worst of it, and it actually makes me kind of mad that we didn't get to see her die onscreen. Some may say I'm overreacting but I've had to deal with a lot of people like her throughout my life and I just can't stand them.

Everyone else at the hospital are pretty standard fare as far as slasher movies go. Karen (Pamela Susan Shoop) is most notable for two things: her big breasts, which you see quite a bit of in the scene in the therapy room with her and Budd, and her death scene. We also learn she's fairly irresponsible and flaky, as she's not only late to work that night but, according to Mrs. Alves, it's the latest time she has been, which she admonishes her for. There's even less to say about the other two

nurses, Jill (Tawny Moyer) and Janet (Ana Alicia)' again, the only truly thing memorable about either of them is their death scenes. Other than that, Jill's compassionate and Janet wears a type of apron over her uniform and doesn't know how to work a walkie-talkie. I could add that she's a bit lazy, given how, when Mrs. Alves tells her to inform the security guard that there's something wrong with the phones, she makes the excuse that he's at the other end of the hall, but now, I'm really grasping

at straws. The same goes for the aforementioned security guard, Mr. Garrett (Cliff Emmich). Yet again, one of the few memorable things I can say about him is his death scene, which does have a fairly suspenseful build up to it. In addition, because he's more interested in reading a magazine than watching the security monitors, Michael is able to slip into the hospital. This lack of attention rears its head again when he makes Janet wait for him with a walkie-talkie while he looks outside, ignoring her when she says she doesn't know how

to work it. Mr. Garrett also has the distinction of being one of the few characters in the Halloween series who's a victim of the old cat scare, which is more common to the Friday the 13th series. And Dr. Mixter (Ford Rainey) appears in only one scene (alive, that is) and is so plastered that he doesn't know what he's doing, forcing Mrs. Alves to finish what he's trying to say and do for him. Not somebody you'd want sticking you with a syringe.

Nurse Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens) not only returns here but is given a bigger role as well. She's sent with a marshal to Haddonfield to tell Dr. Loomis that he's been ordered back to Smith's Grove. Rather than come off as somewhat sarcastic and not really taking him seriously like before, she's a bit more sympathetic towards him, despite forcing him to leave with her, and tells him that she's sorry for not believing him. Significantly, she's the one who tells Loomis that Laurie is Michael's other sister, which he didn't know since those files were sealed by the courts years before (though, you'd think they would have let Loomis, of all people, see them). By telling him this, she unwittingly prompts him to disobey the governor's orders and head to the clinic to find Michael (how did she expect Loomis to react upon learning that information?). At first, she's little more than a tag-along to his "mission," even trying to tell him not to do it. But after they rescue Laurie from Michael, she does what Loomis tells her and runs out to the marshal's car to use the radio to call for help. At one point, she becomes frustrated with the protocol that comes with talking over the radio, telling the officer on the other line when he redundantly says, "Unit calling, identify suspect," "Michael Myers! Just get your ass over here!" And finally, during the last scene, when these reporters are trying to get Laurie, who's being rolled to an ambulance in a wheelchair, to talk about what happened inside the hospital, Marion, in a very awesome moment, growls at them to leave her alone.

There are a couple of noteworthy people who pop up unexpectedly in Halloween II. The most notable to me is Jeffrey Kramer, who was Deputy Hendricks in the first two Jaws films, as a dentist who's brought in to examine Ben Tramer's fried corpse. Interestingly, Dick Warlock, who plays Michael in this film, worked on the Jaws movies as well as a stuntman. Speaking of Warlock, he appears early on as the patrolman who accidentally hits Tramer; the young man walking

around with a boombox, who unknowingly informs Michael where Laurie is, is Dick Warlock's son, Lance; and Craig, one of two boys who ask Hunt about Ben Tramer at the Myers house, is Warlock's other son, Billy. And finally, Dana Carvey makes his movie debut here. You only see him from the side or the back, and he doesn't say anything, but in any case, he appears as a young guy with a baseball cap who's being instructed by a female reporter at the Wallace house to talk to some kids to try to find out if anybody heard or saw anything.

In trying to replicate the look and feel of the first film, I think Rick Rosenthal did a good enough job to where, if you watch them back-to-back (which I often have), the transition from one to the other is quite seamless. It helps that Dean Cundey returned as the cinematographer, and while the original's trademark blue lighting is pared down considerably, it's still shot in Panavision widescreen and makes much use of the Steadicam, particularly for a number of shots from Michael Myers' POV (in fact, we see from his perspective

far more than here than in the original). Also like before, there are a number of instances of framing where we see something in the background that the characters don't, like Michael standing in the nursery, then walking down the hall behind the oblivious Mrs. Alves and Karen at a nurse's station, Budd being murdered outside while Karen is toweling off in the therapy room, and Michael stepping out of a hallway right behind Jill. And even though the scenes set in the main town square were shot in Sierra Madre, since there was still

filming done in South Pasadena once again, and it was all done at night, save for the ending scene, it's easy to buy that this is the same town. In fact, since all we saw of the town itself in the previous movie was the hardware store, it could be argued that the town square is virtually. Many, however, have suggested that Halloween II perhaps recreates a few too many elements from the original film, with the only difference being the circumstances or that they're amped up. The opening title sequence  

again involves a slow zoom-in on a lit jack-o-lantern (albeit with a significant twist); after the credits, we go into a lengthy shot through Michael's POV; there's a moment where Michael's face slowly materializes out of the darkness behind someone; there's a big chase scene involving Laurie during the third act, this time through the hospital, and there's another instance where Laurie is banging on a door for someone to let her in, as Michael slowly walks toward her. In fact, the story

is mostly a feature-length version of the original film's latter half: Dr. Loomis is searching one part of Haddonfield for Michael, unaware that he's on a killing spree elsewhere and is slowly moving in on Laurie, and the film climaxes with Loomis saving her and stopping Michael. But, while the sequel does, indeed, hit a lot of the same beats, I can't say I dislike it. I'll even go one better and admit that I think it does some things better. I know some have read that and are like, "Blasphemy!", but I'll do my best to explain why and where I feel that way as we go on.

Despite the similarities, Rosenthal did manage to bring his own style to the film, mainly in how much darker the cinematography is. The sheer blackness of the many exterior scenes give the feeling that it's now much later at night, heading into early morning, while during the latter part of the film, the interiors of Haddonfield Memorial Hospital become a maze of long, dimly lit hallways, rooms that are almost completely dark, other spots where just about the only light is from a glowing jack-o-lantern, and spots where there's

eerie green and even bright-red lighting, like in one room down in the basement or a light near the parking lot. The scene where Michael kills Janet in Dr. Mixter's office after she discovers his body is lit only by a fish tank, making it look especially freaky. Rosenthal also does a lot of work with shadows and high contrasts, creating memorable images like Michael's silhouette behind a curtain as he eavesdrops on Jimmy and Jill, shadowy branches scraping the outside of Laurie's window, Jimmy standing in the doorway of the completely

dark ladies lounge while he's searching for Mrs. Alves, and that shot of him lying in the pool of her blood in the surgery room, with the only light coming from the exterior hallway. (However, if your brightness setting isn't well adjusted, a number of scenes can be so dark that you might not be able to see what's going on. That was especially true on my old VHS tape and whenever the movie played on cable.) Like John Carpenter in the first movie, Rosenthal also manages to come up with

some moments that are downright Hitchcockian, especially in how the camera will sometimes shows us imagery of Michael roaming the hallways on security monitors. The best instance of this is when Jill, searching for Mr. Garret, runs to his station, the camera pans down to the monitor, where we see Michael enter a room, she then hears a sound nearby and goes to investigate, and the camera uses the same monitor to show that she's heading right for the room he went into. In

addition, the big wide shots of Michael wandering the hallways are effectively creepy. Finally, the dreams that Laurie has are bathed in an otherworldly bright light, and in the moments where we see from her own POV, the lens is distorted and blurry to show that she's still half-sedated.

The main setting of Haddonfield Memorial Hospital is another major reason why I love this film, as hospitals and doctor's offices are creepy enough already. Like a lot of people, they've always made me uncomfortable, likely because of their overall cold, clinical atmosphere, and because you just instinctively associate them with pain, suffering, and death. I remember back when I was a kid, my mom often watched ER, and while I would often find myself watching it as well, typically because I was bored and had nothing else

to do, it would always make my skin crawl, particularly the operation scenes (for some reason, Mom didn't want me watching these horror movies when I was young, but it was okay for me to watch ER with her). So, when you have a monster or a killer like Michael Myers picking people off in such a setting, I find it particularly effective, especially when surgical instruments are used to commit murders, as is the case here. Michael replaces the butcher knife from the first film as his main weapon with a scalpel and, God, do I hate

scalpels (and this one is hooked, no less)! Again, it's because they're so cold and precise-looking in nature, and so damn sharp that you can nick yourself without even handling one that roughly. Thus, the sight of people getting stabbed and sliced with one of those things makes me shiver. Michael also kills some people with hypodermic needles, another medical instrument I hate, as I associate them with pain and discomfort from the times I've either had a shot or had blood drawn. The moment 

where Laurie's blood is drawn and she's then injected upon first arriving at the hospital, which they, of course, show in loving close-up (and which looks awfully realistic, doesn't it?), already makes my skin crawl and gives me chills, so Michael sticking them in fatal areas and killing with air embolism is... ugh!.

Aside from the atmosphere, the hospital itself (which was actually several different ones in Los Angeles and Pasadena) is used to marvelous effect. Besides the long, ominous hallways and dark rooms, you have an exterior door that makes an eerie creaking sound whenever it moves (I initially thought it was part of the music), a dark and creepy storeroom and basement area, the outside of said storeroom, with a dumpster and nearby fence, and a long, dim stairwell. Even the therapy room, with its hot tub, has an ambience that's not quite right,

mainly because it feels so industrial, with the steel look of the tub and the factory-like temperature controls outside. Every one of these rooms and sections is milked for everything they're worth and, of course, on top of everything else, much of the place is decorated for Halloween. Now, a question that often comes up is, "Why is the hospital so dark and empty?" The first part of the question is answered in a deleted scene, where you see the main lights suddenly go out, obviously

Michael's handiwork, and a generator kicks on. Also, in the final film, you learn that something's wrong with the phones, so it wouldn't be too hard to deduce that Michael did the same thing to the lights. Now, as for why the place is so empty, that's not logical. Even really late at night, you would expect to find more than just what amounts to a skeleton crew at a hospital, and there have to be more patients there than just Laurie. There are moments where the nurses are buzzed, which is the

one sigh we do get that there are other patients here, but you'd think some of them would come out to investigate the commotion they have to be hearing during the movie's latter half. But that said, I think the emptiness of the place adds to the mood and atmosphere, that Laurie is virtually alone in this creepy, dark building with Michael. Again, it may not make logical sense, but I can accept it aesthetically.

Speaking of atmosphere, I feel that Halloween II does well in maintaining the general creepy vibe of the original, like in the actual opening following the recap of the original's ending. When Loomis runs outside to find Michael gone, it's so creepy due to how quiet it is, save for the sound of a dog barking off in the distance. And when he touches the spot where Michael hit the ground and finds some blood, this ominous music slips into the soundtrack, accentuating the dread Loomis is feeling as he gets to his feet and scans the

neighborhood, wondering where Michael went. Similarly, although it's not as effective as the one in the original, and Loomis gives a redacted version of his speech to Sheriff Brackett, I think the scene between him and Deputy Hunt at the Myers house has an eerie factor all its own, with Loomis talking about Michael's evil amid the pandemonium and outrage his murders have caused, at the place where it all began, and looking up at the very room where it happened, no less. And I also find it creepy that Michael broke into an elementary

school, stuck a knife into the figure of a little girl in a crayon drawing (did he draw that himself or did some kid leave it there on their desk?), and wrote the word "Samhain" on the chalkboard, in blood. I don't get why Michael would write that or whose blood he wrote it in, for that matter (maybe it was his own), but it's unsettling nevertheless, and also ties into an overlooked aspect of the film that I'll go into later. And finally, I really buy that this is taking place on an October night. Like the original,

the film was shot in the spring, and like I did there, some would argue that the completely green trees make that obvious, but since it's all at night, I can accept it more. Plus, everybody's wearing coats and jackets, signifying that it's cold, you see lit jack-o-lanterns here and there, and trick-or-treaters and teenagers partying, completing the illusion.

Michael Myers is much more front and center here than in the original, with shots of him in more brightly lit environments and more close-ups, as well as many shots from his POV and instances of him actually killing his victims rather than mostly stalking them. Some have said this makes him less scary and more of a typical slasher rather than an undefinable force of evil; for my money, while I do like him lurking in the shadows, I also enjoy just seeing him do his thing. That could be because I initially saw this film many more times than I did the original, but also simply because Michael is my favorite slasher villain and I'm not going to complain about seeing more of him. In addition, Dick Warlock's portrayal has always been my personal favorite. Nick Castle was great in the original, but Warlock's slow, methodical, almost undead walk has always given me the creeps and emphasizes what I said in my review of the original about how, if it weren't for the breathing and occasional grunts, you wouldn't think Michael was even alive. One moment I particularly like is when, as he's chasing Laurie, he walks down the stairs leading into the basement but isn't looking down at his feet, instead just staring straight ahead. And Michael also feels more unstoppable to me here, with how he's able to nonchalantly smash through a glass door and tear through a wooden one. When combined with his movements, it gives a feeling that he's taking his time because he knows he can get to you no matter where you hide and that absolutely nothing can or will stop him.

Another reason why I think casting Warlock as Michael was a good idea is the same reason why Nick Castle worked for the original: his average, nondescript build. Warlock is very slim and is a lot shorter than you would think, about five foot, nine, forcing them to put lifts in his shoes to make him taller. It's best exemplified in the scene where, after learning where Laurie is, Michael walks through the Haddonfield town square on his way to the hospital. Nobody takes a second glance at him because he's so average-looking and fits in

amongst all those who are walking around, dressed up on Halloween night, allowing him to easily move from one part of town to another. If he was really tall and bulky, as he is in many of the later films, he would draw more suspicion, and it would be hard to swallow that he can appear out of the shadows and then disappear just as suddenly and silently. That, for me, is the major difference between Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees: Jason is a big brute who charges in and rips people in

half, while Michael is both more ordinary and phantom-like, able to become one with the night. A lot of the series' later directors didn't seem to understand that and thus, many of the later portrayals of Michael, despite having their own unique strengths, just aren't the same as what we get in these first two films.  

I really like the way the mask looks here, too. It is the same mask that was used in the original, which both Debra Hill and Dick Warlock confirmed, but the wear-and-tear it received previously (Nick Castle is said to have often stuffed it in his pockets in-between scenes), three years of aging, and the way it looks on Warlock's rounder head cause it to look noticeably different. I'll go as far as to say that I think it often looks creepier here than in the original due to the way it's lit in many scenes, like in the therapy room, the darkened main hallway,

and from the fish tank in Dr. Mixter's otherwise dark office. And the close-ups on it after Michael kills Janet, as well as when he kills Alice, the girl at the beginning, are quite threatening, particularly with how Warlock's eyes look inside it during the latter. That's another gripe I hear, that you can sometimes see Michael's eyes, whereas it's much scarier when the eye-holes in the mask are completely black. Maybe, but it's not something that's ever bugged me. One thing I do wonder

about, though, is why the mask's hair looks more reddish in this film, whereas it was a dark brown in the original, and looks better groomed and not as wild as before. Again, it's not something that's ever kept me from enjoying the movie, something I do notice. In any case, as far as the mask goes, Halloween II, for me, is the last time that Michael Myers actually looked like Michael Myers for a good long while, as the masks they came up with in many of the other movies sometimes make it very hard for me to believe it's the same character.

The general consensus on Michael's character here may be fairly mixed, but the one part that's almost universally despised is Laurie being his other sister. No one hates it more than John Carpenter himself, and it's not surprising that when he finally returned to the franchise for the Blumhouse trilogy, Halloween II and the brother/sister connection were eliminated from the continuity. Now, does this revelation give Michael more of a motivation? Yes. Was it much scarier when there was no rhyme or reason to his killing people? Yes. Does it make

much sense in the context of the original's story or even pay off in the end? No. But, all that said, I don't think it hurts the film as much as many seem to think it does. For one, even though Michael's main target is Laurie, he's still killing anyone he comes across. You could say he's doing so to ensure no one's around to help her, but were people like the old, drunken Dr. Mixter going to pose that much of an obstacle? And what about Alice, the random girl he kills at the beginning? She definitely wasn't in his way at all. Also, while it is

a motivation, you still don't know why he wants to kill her, or what compelled him to try to murder both of his siblings. It's not like some of the later sequels, where they say he's under the influence of an evil cult, or in Rob Zombie's second one, where he's being driven by the spirit of his mother to "reunite the family,"; it's straightforward and still keeps him quite mysterious, regardless. And if you think about it, it doesn't fly in the face of the original as much as you may believe. If you

remember, Michael was most fixated on Laurie there, and now we know why (some may ask how Michael himself knows Laurie is his sister: I don't have an answer there, but it would be creepy to think that, somehow, he just does). Again, I do agree that it was scarier when it was random, but I don't think it's really that big of a deal. For me, there are just some things you have to go with, or you won't be able to enjoy what a movie has to offer.

Now all that said, I've heard others come up with a far simpler explanation for Michael hunting down Laurie at the hospital, and it's actually so obvious that I wonder why Carpenter and Debra Hill didn't consider it themselves: she's the first one to ever get away from him. As I heard another say, rather than a need to kill his other sister, it would've been less controversial and even scarier to consider that, once you're in Michael's sights, he will not stop coming for you until you're dead. Yeah, it's still a motivation, but one that's more of an extension of

the original notion that he's an embodiment of pure evil, one that wants to kill for no other reason than that's just what he does, and one you can't escape from so easily. Furthermore, you could have Dr. Loomis, after exhausting every other possibility, suddenly hit upon that notion that Laurie escaped Michael, prompting him to head to the hospital for the climax.

As I've been saying throughout this review, I can't deny that Halloween II is definitely flawed, and a lot of it comes from the writing. Besides what I've already mentioned, a major contrivance is the death of Ben Tramer early on due to his wearing a mask and costume very similar to Michael. I do like the idea of it being the guy whom Laurie said she had a crush on in the first movie, and in the past, I defended this scene as an example of how hard it would be to spot Michael on Halloween night, but the fact that both the mask and the clothes are

virtually the same? Yeah, that's a tad too convenient. (I could also mention how Tramer acts like Michael, and doesn't pay attention to somebody running after him with a gun, but his friends later say that he was rather drunk.) There's also a moment where Laurie appears to slip into catatonia due to the medication she was injected with, but it's dropped almost immediately, making me wonder what the point was or if Laurie was somehow faking it (if she was, she managed to

keep her pupils from shrinking when Jill checks her eyes). Roger Ebert once accused the movie of being loaded with the typical horror movie trope of dumb characters doing dumb things, and while I can be lenient on some, like Mr. Garrett not watching the security monitors as Michael slips into the hospital (a lot of people, including Dr. Loomis, didn't pay good attention in the first movie, either), there are others, like him not listening to Janet saying she doesn't know how to

work a walkie-talkie, neither Janet nor Mrs. Alves spotting Michael standing in the maternity through it open door or wide windows, and Karen not realizing that the hand caressing her shoulder, which she then kisses, isn't Budd's, that I can't defend. The worst is when neither Jimmy nor Jill see Michael's silhouette behind a curtain as they stand in a doorway, even though it's right within their peripheral vision. Bu, this movie does so much else right for me, that I can overlook these flaws, as big as some of them may be.

One thing I rarely hear anybody mention is how the film, briefly but intriguingly, makes reference to Halloween's Celtic roots (interesting, considering that would be the very core of the next film). Though some may see his writing "Samhain" on the chalkboard as another example of giving Michael too much of a knowable drive, and like I said before, I don't know why exactly he would write it to begin with, I do find it kind of spooky in how it suggests he may have some ties to the occult. And like with this film's initial version of

the brother/sister dynamic, its true meaning is left ambiguous, long before they brought in the "Cult of Thorn" concept and just made it ridiculous. Dr. Loomis, in only the way that he can, expounds upon how the holiday's dark roots could relate to Michael in a nicely metaphorical way. As he and Marion Chambers are being driven back to Smith's Grove, he tells her of ancient Druid rituals that involved burning criminals, murderers, and animals alive, hoping to see omens of the future in 

the process. He then scoffs, "2,000 years later, we've come no further. Samhain isn't evil spirits. It isn't goblins and ghosts or witches. It's the unconscious mind. We're all afraid of the dark inside ourselves." Which is what Michael Myers represents: what you would become if you gave your dark side free reign. It's stuff like this that makes me frustrated when people write off all the Halloween sequels as just a bunch of slasher tripe, as many of them are far more intelligent than they get credit for.

Halloween II also goes into the town's reaction when news of the murders in the first movie gets out. You see how it first begins to circulate over the television and radio, with the horror marathon that was playing being repeatedly interrupted until it's suspended altogether (though there is a continuity error, as not long after the reporter says they're now going to stay on the air, more of Night of the Living Dead is heard and seen on the TV), and people like the elderly Mrs. Elrod and Alice are among the first to hear it. Onlookers and then news reporters

converge on the crime scene, watching as Laurie is taken to the hospital and the bodies are removed from the Wallace house. As news of the killings spreads further, the initially still active town square empties and we're later told that some streets in town have become jammed with cars, as people are either trying to leave or get to the scene so they can gawk. Misinformation also begins to spread, with the reporters assuring listeners that Michael will be captured soon, and so do rumors and hysteria, with Janet mentioning how her friend, Julie, claimed to

have seen Michael when she came into work the day before, even though he didn't escape until late that night. The news is even the reason why Laurie finds herself being stalked by Michael again, as they mention how she was taken to the hospital, which he overhears on a kid's boombox. And finally, forty years before Halloween Kills would get really heavy-handed with it, Halloween II shows us the outrage that the murders sparks in one simple scene, as the Myers house is vandalized by

an angry crowd. Okay, Loomis' comment, "The tribe. One of their number was butchered. This is a wake," may be a tad much, but I much prefer it to constant chanting of, "Evil dies tonight!" (Halloween 4 would also do this more effectively, as we'll get into there.)

As I mentioned at the beginning, director Rick Rosenthal intended to stick with the bloodless, more suspenseful style of the original Halloween, but when John Carpenter saw his rough cut, he described it as about as scary as an episode of Quincy. He also felt it was too tame to have any chance of being successful at the height of the slasher craze, prompting him to increase his involvement in post-production, beefing up the already filmed death scenes and adding more instances of blood and violence. Over the years,

there have been a number of rumors and speculation, mostly among the fandom, that he may have had ulterior motives, ranging from him being jealous that Rosenthal, a novice, was actually giving him a run for his money in the filmmaking department and thus, tried to make him look like a hack who didn't know how to direct suspense, to him intending for Halloween II to be a splatter film and not as stylish as the original for the simple reason that he didn't want there to be any sequels at

all. This is something I really, really don't want to believe, because I admire Carpenter so much, but at the same time, I can't deny that, in interviews and according to some who have met him, it does seem like he can be kind of a jerk (I've met him twice, though, and he was cool with me). Plus, the way he tends to talk about other people's work, such as the late Bob Clark and Black Christmas in one interview, makes him come off as a smidge egotistical and judgmental. In any case, Rosenthal

was quite unhappy with Carpenter's reshoots, saying he ruined his "perfectly-paced film," and while Rosenthal has said in recent years that he holds no ill will towards Carpenter, they're not exactly close, nor were they ever. It's a shame there had to be so much bad blood and discord behind the scenes because, despite Rosenthal's original vision being severely changed, I still think Halloween II is something worth being proud of.

I do ponder, though, how effective Rosenthal's original cut actually was, specifically how he got around the large amount of gore written into the script. Since we don't have his original cut, we can only speculate, but I would assume, knowing his intent for the movie, all of the really suspenseful moments were shot by him, whereas Carpenter mostly did the gore, as well as other moments like when Michael walks through the town square on his way to the hospital. Judging from those instances of suspense, like the chases through the

hospital and moments like the recreation of Michael's face appearing out of the darkness, I think the first cut might have been rather good, just maybe not quite on the level of the original. I just hope to God it wasn't like the TV version, which I'll talk more about later, as it's absolutely awful and used a lot of the stuff Carpenter deleted. If that's the case, then I'm glad Carpenter did some post-production work, as that wouldn't have had a chance in theaters.

While the gore is often accused of making Halloween II feel less classy than the original, I've always felt it gives it a visceral punch that the original doesn't have. These kills have always made my skin crawl, not only because of the hospital setting and the use of items like scalpels and hypodermic needles as weapons, but also because none of them are that over the top. It's not like a Friday the 13th movie, where the deaths are so exaggerated that it's impossible to take it seriously and the overall vibe is one of insane fun.

These deaths are meant to unsettle and make you wince and squirm in your seat. The way the blood itself looks helps with that. Granted, there are some instances where it looks too vividly red and quite fake, like in the cutaways to it dripping on the floor during Laurie's dreaming and the overhead shot of the pool on the surgery room floor after Jimmy slips and falls in it (though it never looks as fake as it does in some of Tom Savini's early work, like Deranged, Martin or Dawn of the Dead), but most of the time, it looks legitimate. There's often a very

dark texture mixed in with the red, which is helped with how it's mostly shot in dim lighting. The first kill is very vicious and immediately establishes the tone. After sneaking into the Eldrods' home and taking a knife from their kitchen, Michael creeps into another house and kills a young woman named Alice by stabbing her right in the neck. It's senseless and quite mean-spirited, but also very quickly edited, with Michael stabbing and blood splattering beneath Alice's chin, accompanied by a

fleshy sound effect to make you wince, ocurring within two seconds. The next gore effect is something that's never explained but makes me cringe, regardless: right before the ambulance carrying Laurie arrives at the hospital, we see this woman leading a kid with a bleeding mouth inside. I once thought I missed something and that he ran into Michael, who gave him the bleeding mouth because he was particularly pissed, but no, that's not the case. They focus on this kid for a bit, 

showing him and his mother at the front desk, and later on, after he's seen the doctor but still can't talk, though his mouth isn't bleeding anymore, but we never learn what happened. I think it's meant to be a take on the urban legend of the razor blade in the apple but, as random and pointless as it is, the close-up of that kid's mouth when he first arrives, with blood all over it and a bloody air-bubble inside is very nasty looking and believable, making you go, "Ugh." Strangely, the first death at the 

hospital, that of Mr. Garrett, is virtually identical to a death in Friday the 13th Part 2, which came out the same year: Michael puts a hammer-claw right into his head, just as Jason does to a cop in that movie (the difference is that this kill is from the front, while Jason's was from the back). The shot is very brief and there's no blood, but the effect is wince-inducing. Ben Tramer's charred corpse, which you see in all its grisly glory at the coroner's office, is very, very gruesome, and the sound of the dentist scraping the teeth with a pick goes right to your spine.

One of the most discussed deaths is that of Karen in the therapy room's hot-tub. Budd gets killed through simple strangulation outside the door, a bloodless and completely silent Hitchcockian moment that I could see John Carpenter doing himself. But then, Michael moves in on Karen, grabs her head from behind, and dunks her back and forth into the increasingly hot water. When I first saw the movie on TV, it cut right after the second dunk, and I figured there was more to it. But when I first saw it on VHS, I was taken aback

by the very realistic and nasty effect of her skin scalding off her face, culminating in the gruesome close-up of her third-degree burns after Michael drops her dead on the floor. The next kill is another popular one and just as nasty. Janet goes into Dr. Mixter's office to tell him of Laurie's apparent negative reaction to the medication, only to find him dead from a hypodermic needle sticking in his eye (the close-up of that... well, look!). Then, Michael appears out of the darkness behind her and sticks another needle into the side of her head, very

close to her right eye, and kills her through air embolism. This was another kill that was heavily edited on TV, and when I saw it on VHS, the close-up of the needle going in really made me wince, while the eerie music that accompanies it makes it all the more unsettling. Though Mrs. Alves' actual death happens offscreen, when Jimmy finds her body in a dark, isolated surgery room, the implications are just sick. After he checks for a pulse and discovers that she's dead, he notices a

tube has been inserted into her arm and sees that the entire floor is covered in her blood. Though we don't know if it's actually how Michael killed her, the idea that he fixed it to where she slowly bled out is really disturbing. Jill's death isn't the most graphic but it looks painful when Michael not only stabs her right in the back with his scalpel but actually lifts her up before she expires.



The climax has some memorable blood effects as well, starting with the death of the marshal. Despite Dr. Loomis' warnings that Michael isn't dead even though he just shot him and made him collapse, the idiot gets too close and Michael proceeds to grab him and slash his throat with the scalpel. The sight of Michael pulling that thing across the guy's throat, with blood streaming out (which I also didn't see until VHS), is a prime example of why I hate scalpels. So is the moment when Michael stabs Loomis in the side and pulls out the scalpel,

blood dripping from the blade. And finally, we have the awesome moment where Laurie shoots Michael right in the eyes with the gun Loomis gives her and the blood slowly drips out of the eye-holes and down the mask, like tears. I've seen that image duplicated many times in fan art, merchandise, and even in the cover art for some home media releases, and for good reason: it's about as iconic as the poster art for the original Halloween and some of the imagery from that film.

Halloween II also has its fair share of genuinely creepy moments and scenes, some of which, again, are amped up from the original. The opening title sequence, for instance, initially seems like a straightforward recreation of the original, with a glowing jack-o-lantern against a black background (I actually like this jack-o-lantern better; it has more of a traditional Halloween look to it), the slow zoom-in towards it as orange credits roll, and the theme playing. But then, as the camera gets close to its face, it slowly opens to reveal a skull

inside it, with the camera slowly zooming towards its right eye until it goes completely black, as the sequence ends and we get our story underway. I absolutely love it. Rick Rosenthal then manages to pull off a very Carpenter-esque moment when Michael sneaks into the Elrod couple's house and takes a knife from their kitchen. As Mrs. Elrod stands in the living room doorway, listening to the first news bulletin about the murders, Michael comes in through the kitchen door behind her, takes the knife from the cutting board, and we get a

great shot of him standing right behind her with it, while her sleeping husband is in the foreground, before he ducks back outside. Another moment that I think is effectively creepy is when Karen arrives to work at the hospital. You see her get out of the car, head inside, and the camera slowly pans over to her car's side-view mirror, revealing Michael's face reflected in it. That got me the first time I saw it, due to the music sting and because his mask looks particularly freaky in that shot. After 

Michael first sneaks inside the hospital, there's a moment where he ducks into the maternity ward to avoid being seen, and for about a minute, he's in a room full of newborn babies! Granted, he doesn't do anything except glance at them, but the very idea of this embodiment of pure evil, whom we're now not even sure is human, standing right next to them is very unsettling. Like I said, Michael strangling Budd right outside the therapy room, with Karen completely oblivious to it due to the

lack of sound, is like something you'd expect to see Carpenter himself do. It gets even more tense when Michael enters the room behind Karen and, instead of killing her right away, places his hand on her shoulder, which she thinks is Budd. I remember being very tense when I first saw that, just waiting and waiting for him to kill her, and also wondering why he was touching her like that, like he's attempting to cop a feel. It could be an example of that morbidly playful nature about him I mentioned

in the first film, something more unsettling, suggesting he does, deep down, get something of a perverse thrill from what he does. And again, just the mere sight of Michael walking the hospital's darkened hallways, both in actuality or when you see it on a security monitor, is really creepy to me since, atmosphere aside, it's somewhere you're supposed to be safe.

Now, here's a hot take: I think the instance of Michael's face materializing out of the darkness is even scarier here than in the original. The set up, with Janet finding Dr. Mixter's body, backing up into the darkness, and Michael appearing right behind her, all while this nightmarish music plays, makes it one of the most frightening things I have ever seen in any movie, period, and that's no exaggeration. And then, you have the moment where Michael slowly enters Laurie's room, creeps towards her bed, scalpel in hand, repeatedly stabs

into her sheets, only to pull them back and find she fooled him with the old pillow trick. Again, the music and Dick Warlock's slow, almost undead movements make that so damn scary to me. I already mentioned the nicely suspenseful moment where the security monitors are used to show us Michael enter a room and then Jill heading in the same direction. Seriously, that's something that would have made Hitchcock smile. And when Jill goes out to her car and attempts to drive to the

police station, her car won't start, and she discovers that her tires have been slashed. Even worse, she checks the other cars and sees that all their tires have been punctured as well. Yet another very atmospheric and chilling moment, helped by both the visuals and a very spooky bit of music.

As with the first Halloween, you have a major chase scene with Laurie and Michael, something else I like even more here than in the original. One reason is because the stakes are raised considerably, with the chase being confined to the hospital's claustrophobic corridors and because Laurie can't move well due to both her leg and the lingering effects of the medication. Another is that the sequence is very well shot and paced, with a new version of the "Shape Stalks" adding to the intensity. After watching Michael kill Jill, Laurie

runs down the hallway, turns a corner, desperately blocks Michael's path with a gurney, and then runs down the stairs leading to the basement and hides in the boiler room. There's a very nice shot looking up at Michael from down below as he comes down the stairs, while Laurie, as she hides, comes across Mr. Garrett's hanging body. Naturally, she screams and gives herself away. In a very scary moment, she hears a sound and then, Michael slowly rounds the corner behind her. Desperately, she climbs up through a small window that leads to another

section of the basement, as Michael tries to grab her feet and then swipes at them with his scalpel. Laurie tumbles out of the window, onto a pile of garbage bags, and quickly runs through this little room to an elevator, which, of course, takes its sweet time getting down to her. All the while, you hear Michael tumble into the garbage bags as well, followed by a close-up of his feet crunching on broken glass and his hand holding the scalpel as he closes in, breathing heavily. Laurie just barely

manages to get inside the elevator and the door closes right when Michael reaches it and sticks the scalpel inside (naturally, the door should've opened back up for him, but fate decided to be kind to Laurie). Once Laurie reaches the lobby, she runs right out the front door and hides in a car in the parking lot. Like I said before, she should have just took off running down the street but, at the same time, given how injured she is, I'm not sure how far she would have gotten before Michael eventually caught up with her.

For me, the climax of Halloween II is so awesome and satisfying on every level. After Dr. Loomis, Marion Chambers, and the marshal arrive, Laurie runs to the front door and bangs and screams for help, as Michael slowly walks through the parking lot towards her. As fairly slow as he is, he's almost on top of her before Loomis manages to get to the door and let her in (we constantly through Michael's POV, making it particularly tense). Michael then smashes through the glass and Loomis unloads his revolver into him again, like a

badass. Michael collapses and Loomis sends Marion out to use the marshal's radio to get help, only for Michael to quickly get back up, kill the marshal, and begin the chase again. He pursues Laurie and Loomis through the hospital's now very dark hallways, and they take shelter in the operating room. As Michael closes in, Loomis tries to give Laurie a gun of her own, but is forced to put it at her feet when she refuses to take it. Michael reaches the door and begins pounding on it, managing to easily break his way through it.

Loomis prepares to shoot him again but only then realizes he's out of bullets. Michael stabs him and he collapses back into a bunch of operating equipment, a rough-looking fall that Donald Pleasence did himself. Michael then approaches Laurie who, unable to do anything else, calls him by his name. Michael actually stops for a second at this, lowers his the scalpel, and does that inquisitive head tilt, making you wonder what's running through his mind at that moment.

Whatever it is, though, it's only fleeting, as he draws his scalpel again and goes in for the kill. Laurie tells him to stop and when he doesn't, she shoots him right in the eyes, blinding him. Even that doesn't stop him, as Michael begins swinging the scalpel back and forth. Some, including James Rolfe and even Dick Warlock himself, don't like this, but, for some reason, I've always dug it, as do many fans. I just like that nothing hinders Michael's resolve, and if you listen carefully, you

can hear him growl in frustration a couple of times as he swings. Loomis manages to get to his feet and Laurie confuses Michael by turning the valves on air tanks and letting out some hissing air. Loomis, in turn, manages to get Michael away from Laurie when he corners her, pulling some air hoses loose and drawing him over with the sound. Once the path to the door is clear, Loomis tells her to get out, which she does. He then pulls out a cigarette lighter that Deputy Hunt gave him earlier

and, after telling Michael, "It's time," flicks it, blowing both of themselves up and forcing Laurie to take cover in the hallway. Nevertheless, Michael staggers out of the fire, completely engulfed in flames (and still holding his scalpel), before finally collapsing, much to Laurie's relief, as we see his mask burning and melting.

Unlike the original, I have actually seen Halloween II's TV version. During AMC's Monster Fest back in 2002, they showed this, along with Halloween III, 4, and 5 (they didn't play the original but instead played an episode of their behind-the-scenes series, Backstory, on it, which was actually just a pared down version of the Cut Above the Rest documentary), but it was the TV cut. I don't get why they couldn't show the theatrical version after USA, Sci-Fi, and other channels had been 

doing so for years. I was really shocked when I saw the TV cut, first because I wasn't expecting it, and second because of what a poorly edited mess it is, one that makes Rick Rosenthal look downright incompetent as a director. It messes up right from the beginning, starting with the opening credits, then going straight into Mr. Sandman, which is what you first hear in the theatrical version, followed by the opening scene. Thus, when Loomis runs off after telling the neighbor to call the police (they remove his original exchange with

the man, instead randomly changing the man's line to, "Was that a Halloween joke?"), we get the start of the Halloween theme, but since we've already seen the credits, it abruptly cuts off and we transition to the next scene (we also hear the sound effect of Michael stabbing Alice but, in this version, we don't see the kill). Here, the sequence of the following events is Laurie being taken to the hospital, Loomis and Brackett searching for Michael and Ben Tramer's death, and then, we go to the scene after the credits, where Michael stalks

around some houses and back-alleys. When we do, we get the tail end of the main theme, which now feels really random. Fortunately, they had enough sense to cut the moment when Loomis meets up with Brackett, given the order of events, but this reordering continues throughout the film. For instance, here Loomis' learning about Michael and Laurie being siblings happens before Michael chases Laurie through the hospital.

The editing is sometimes just downright bizarre, such as when Michael sneaks into the Elrod home. In the theatrical version, after Michael takes the knife and walks out, Mrs. Elrod turns around, finds some of his blood on her cutting board, realizes the implication, and screams; here, as she turns around, it cuts to a random shot of Michael's face (a still image from the hot tub scene later on), implying that he's still in the house, staring at her from the doorway, then she screams, and it cuts to Michael

walking outside. It's awkward and downright stupid, and makes you wonder what the intention behind it was (I think they were trying to imply that Michael killed Mrs. Elrod, but her screaming continues uninterrupted when he walks outside). Even funnier than that, when we get to the hot tub scene itself, instead of Michael simply lunging at Karen once she finally turns around and sees him, he stands there for a couple of seconds and makes an odd gesture with his eyes, like he's confused,

before attacking (it actually looks like Dick Warlock is waiting for a cue). The first time I saw that, I actually cracked up. Also, whoever put this cut together obviously knew nothing about suspense, as they badly telegraph Mr. Garrett's death. When he opens a door in the storeroom and a bunch of junk falls on him, it suddenly cuts to a shot of Michael opening a door, and the Shape Stalks theme starts up as Mr. Garrett continues searching the basement. As he gets to the second door, we're treated with shots of Michael taken

from his chasing Laurie later on, here meant to be him closing in for the kill on Mr. Garrett, before he closes the one door and sees Michael standing there. Nice way to ruin what was a really good jump-scare. (Stuff like this makes me really hope that this wasn't how Rosenthal's original cut was.) Finally, they attempt to clarify Jimmy's fate by editing it to where he's still wandering around during the climax and falls because of the shock-wave from the operating room exploding. They then tie it up at the end by putting in an alternate ending that I'll go into presently.

The re-editing around Jimmy ties into this version's attempt to significantly soften the violence and bloodshed, mostly by just not showing it. While we do get the shot of Michael watching her from outside, we don't see Alice's death; we don't get the graphic close-up of the kid with the bleeding mouth, and only see him at all when he and his mom are at the main desk; despite that long build-up they put in, the film cuts right before Michael kills Mr. Garrett (we do see his hanging body

later); and as for Karen, it cuts after Michael first shoves her head into the water. Both Janet and Mrs. Alves just disappear, Dr. Mixter's death is implied but we don't see his body, and even though we do see Jill get stabbed and lifted up, it's shortened, and after Michael drops her, they added in a groan, suggesting she's still alive. And instead of getting his throat slit, the marshal is grabbed, hauled up, and stabbed in the back, and we don't see any details. Strangely, although they don't show the close-up of the blood on Dr. Loomis' fingers when

he touches the ground where Michael fell, they do show us Ben Tramer's burning body, albeit from slightly different angles, and his charred corpse later. In fact, a number of alternate takes are used, such as for when Deputy Hunt tells Brackett that Annie is among those who've been found murdered, with Hunter Von Leer giving a performance that tries to sound anguished but just comes off as melodramatic.

Naturally, they also had to do something about the really harsh language, but the looped replacement lines are often both baffling and hilarious. (Personally, I've always felt it's best to just mute out foul language. As awkward as that can be in and of itself, ADR is glaringly obvious because of the change in quality and sometimes, as is often the case here, they can't even get the actual actor to do it, forcing them to use somebody who hardly sounds like them and might not even try.) Budd is 

the one who's looped the most and some of these alternate lines are priceless. When Janet talks about Julie having supposedly seen Michael the day before, instead of, "Julie's full of shit," he says, "Julie's full of sugar," and when Janet notes that every other word Budd says is a curse word, instead of, "I guess I just fuck up all the time," he says, "I guess I just foul up all the time." Granted, I don't know what could've had the same impact as the original line, but when he says that, there's no

reason for Janet to get so irritated and walk out of the room. His song about Karen is especially funny here: "Amazing grace/Come show me your face/Don't make me cry/I tell no lies." Strangely, when Budd later tells Karen, "Everybody's all weirded out tonight," instead of, "All this Michael Myers crap," he says, "All this Michael Myers tripe." I guess "crap" was also considered an inappropriate word back then. But the funniest looping by far is when, as she radios for help, Marion Chambers tells them the suspect is

Michael Myers but, instead of, "Just get your ass over here!", it's, "Just get yourself over here!", said by someone who sounds nothing like Nancy Stephens (she actually kind of sounds like Minnie Mouse!). There are also dialogue changes when it's unnecessary, like what that neighbor says to Loomis at the beginning or the last scene, when they change the officer telling Hunt that the body count is ten at the moment to, "Don't know yet... for sure," (the latter was probably due to the body count being shortened), and music cues are either changed or used in spots where there was no score originally.

Similar to the TV version of The Thing, a lot of deleted scenes had to be used to make up for the running time lost by the pared down violence. Some of these are interesting to see, like Mrs. Alves trying to get a hold of Laurie's parents, Jimmy bringing Laurie the Coke he promised her earlier, and the sequence I mentioned where you see the lights go out, which also has Jimmy telling Laurie that Michael's dead, which she doesn't believe, and she then becomes hysterical,

struggling with him and needing to be sedated. Others, like Dr. Mixter and the nurses undressing Laurie when she first arrives, Jimmy talking to Janet about the dosage Mixter gave Laurie, Mixter commenting on the work he did on Laurie's leg, a scene between Hunt and Dr. Loomis after they examine Ben Tramer's corpse, and a scene where Janet flips out about Karen's nonchalant attitude about what's going on, are superfluous and unnecessary. An inclusion I don't like at all is the

alternate ending, where Laurie is sitting in the back of the ambulance and suddenly, a sheet-covered figure rises up next to her. It turns out to be Jimmy, who's been treated for his head wound. Laurie tearfully exclaims, "We made it!", and they hold hands as the ambulance drives off. That's far too sentimental for me, and doesn't have the dramatic weight of Laurie sitting in the back of the ambulance by herself, thinking about the night of terror she just survived, with the last shot being Michael's burning head, etched into her mind. In

conclusion, some likely have nostalgic memories of the TV cut from when they saw it back in the day, and it is available to see on the Scream Factory Blu-Rays, but I think it's a cluttered mess that's only effective if you want a laugh.

By this point, John Carpenter had a musical collaborator in Alan Howarth, who'd first worked with him on Escape from New York and, save for Starman, whose music Carpenter had no involvement with, they would work together on the music for every one of his movies up to They Live. According to Howarth, because Carpenter was busy with pre-production for The Thing, he left Halloween II pretty much up to him. Thus, for the most part, he took the original score and overdubbed the tracks with a synthesizer organ. When I saw Halloween II for the first time since that initial viewing, I was actually a little surprised to hear how different the music sounded because, by that point, the version that my brain had processed and remembered was actually the one you heard on the main page of a website called The Life and Times of Michael Myers, which I'm sure doesn't exist anymore. But as I watched the movie many more times, especially when I got it on VHS, I not only got used to how the music sounded but grew to really like it. In fact, there are some compositions here that I enjoy more than their counterparts in the original, and one of them, believe it or not, is the main theme. As creepy and iconic as it sounded in the original film, the synthesized take on that 5/4 rhythm makes it sound as if it's being played on a church organ and, as others have noted, gives it an almost Gothic flavor, which I think fits with the idea of Halloween very well. Howarth also gives it more of a beat that it had originally, as well as a very threatening, low bass sound near the end of the opening credits, as the camera zooms into the skull's right eye-socket. I also really like what plays during the recap of the original Halloween's ending at the beginning. As Michael stands up behind Laurie and stalks toward her, we get this slow, building version of the theme that becomes more high-pitched, becoming really fast when Michael tries to strangle Laurie and Dr. Loomis runs in and shoots him. And when Loomis runs outside to find Michael gone, we get a low, ominous piece that accentuates the notion that he's still out there somewhere, as well as Loomis' confusion and terror over how he could have survived being shot six times.

Howarth's version of Laurie's theme sounds pretty good, coming off as lighter and airier, which kind of fits with how she's much more vulnerable this time around. There's also a nice subtle bit at the end, where you hear a soft, plucking note several times before the music finally ends. The Myers House theme also sounds good in this manner, although I don't find it as scary as the original. The piano octave gave it a very eerie, uncomfortable feeling which isn't present here, although it does work very well in scenes like when Loomis tells Marion Chambers about Halloween's Druid roots. My favorite part of this entire score, however, is the new version of the "Shape Stalks: theme. The way it sounds, accompanied by an unsettling, synthesizer clicking noise and a loud, constantly beating drum, is very threatening, and it's constantly building as it plays. The original got up to one beat and stayed there, but this one has a sound underneath it at all that you can hear come into play early on and, from there, it just builds and builds, getting more and more tense, almost like a tightrope, until it reaches its zenith right at the end and releases it all. It sounds amazing and perfectly captures the suspense and terror of Michael stalking Laurie, and later both her and Loomis, through the hospital's dark, claustrophobic hallways. Howarth also created some new pieces of music, such as low, menacing ones that accompany something frightening or disturbing, like when Sheriff Brackett looks at Annie's corpse and closes her eyes, or when Michael enters Laurie's room (the latter grows tenser as he approaches her bed, before mimicking the motion of his stabbing into the sheets). The music that plays when Michael kills Karen in the therapy room has a rather nasty, stabbing sound to it, accentuating how brutal this death is. One small piece that I like is when the film transitions from Loomis after he's been told he has to go back to Smith's Grove, to a shot of Michael walking down a hallway on the security monitor. It's always sounded really doom-laden to me, accentuating how he's being forced to leave both Laurie and Haddonfield at large to Michael's mercy. The same goes for this low, eerie piece you hear when Jimmy realizes Laurie appears to be comatose due to the medication, and the one that plays when Janet discovers Dr. Mixter's body and is then killed herself. Those sounds you hear as Michael inserts the hypodermic needle near Janet's right eye are among the freakiest things I think I've ever heard in a movie. In fact, there are a lot of well-done "stinger" sounds accompanying the scares, like when Michael pops up to stab Alice or when he suddenly appears in front of Mr. Garret with the hammer. And as I said earlier, the sound you hear when you see Michael's mask reflected in the mirror of Karen's car, combined with how it looks in that shot, is very unsettling. One final piece I want to touch on is this very eerie bit you hear when Jill sees that all the vehicles in the parking lot have had their tires slashed. It sounds like a high-pitched moan, combined with a noise akin to escaping air, and is really chilling.

Some people have been like, "What the hell?!" when they've watched Halloween II and the first thing they hear is Mr. Sandman by The Chordettes. I myself was certainly perplexed by its use here the first time and still am, since it doesn't match the movie's subject matter; you'd expect to hear it A Nightmare on Elm Street, if anything. Some have said it ties into Laurie's drugged, often comatose state in the film, but I never once made that connection. In his book, Halloween: The Changing Shape of an Iconic Series, Ernie Magnotta suggests that the song ties into Laurie's repressed, lonely nature in the first film, with Michael a dark manifestation of her desire for a boyfriend (which is not only nightmarish in and of itself but makes the brother/sister revelation almost as awkward as the one involving Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia). In any case, the song has become something of a franchise mainstay, as you hear it again in H20, and a cover plays a couple of times in Rob Zombie's first one.

For my money, Halloween II is a flawed but, on the whole, more than worthy follow-up to John Carpenter's classic. It's atmospheric and very creepy at points, has some good acting, particularly from Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence once again, it captures the mood and style of the original very well, there are some exciting and tense sequences, the hospital setting is great, and it has another well done music score. Some may not like the gore or the motive it gives Michael Myers, but to me, the gore makes it more visceral than both the original and most of other slasher films of the time, and despite said motive, Michael is still a terrifying villain who's so evil that he'll kill anyone he comes across. Finally, I not only think Halloween II closes this initial story in a very satisfying way but I don't feel the series has ever been able to reach the high of these first two films. Even though I like a majority of the later movies, and some have come quite close, these original two will always be joined together as two classics. They go together like bread and butter or, in this case, Halloween and the color orange.