Halloween II (1981) Reviews

• Ok sequel. Lacks suspense and tension of original.

  tylerkirks082018-10-07

  The gore is upped in this one. There are a couple of good stalks in the hospital but character development and the payoff isn't here as in original. Dr. Loomis and Laurie are great. Some very unecessary kills too. I don't mind how they establish that Laurie is Michael's sister but a direct followup on the same night as original doesn't seem to work. I wish a little time had lapsed and they followed similar plot-builds as H1. The ending chase scene should have gone on longer, those are the best parts. Trying to hide from Michael when he's lurking is effective. Random kill scenes of characters we dont care about was let-down and sign of the slasher times it seems. Overall 6/10.

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• Shallow Slasher Sequel Lacks Any Surprises

  zardoz-132009-08-27

  The sequel to John Carpenter's "Halloween" doesn't surpass the original. Freshman director Rick Rosenthal creates only a handful of suspenseful moments, but "Halloween 2" suffers from a weak script that was unfortunately penned by Carpenter and co-producer Hill. Michael Myers gets up and walks away after Dr. Loomis bangs off six shots into him. We never learn what makes Michael such an unstoppable demon. In "Halloween," Michael embodied a supernatural evil, but in "Halloween 2" doesn't develop his character. No matter how many times people pump bullets into the guy, he just doesn't stay down for the count. The problem is Rosenthal's comatose direction. This chiller generates a body count but it doesn't generate horror. Instead, it becomes monotonous with Michael trudging into and out of scenes like a wraith. The action picks up where it left off in "Halloween." Michael plunges into the yard, hard enough to leave an impression of his body, after Loomis opens fire on him. When Loomis goes to confirm his kill, he realizes to his horror that Michael has gotten up and vanished. Meanwhile, the paramedics haul Laurie off to the hospital. Futilely she pleads with them not to give her anything that will put her to sleep. Of course, the doctor ignores her request and administers an injection designed to knock her out. Although Laurie is deadly afraid of Michael and what he is capable of doing to her, "Halloween 2" doesn't develop a strong sense of fear. The best scene finds a hospital guard investigating noises. When he opens a cabinet, an avalanche of items topples onto him. When he turns around, Michael is there waiting for him. Earlier, the guard had spotted blood in a trash dumpster and a shrieking black cat flew out at him. Everything else unfolds in a matter of fact fashion. Of course, "Halloween 2" is just a mindless horror movie, but the idiocy gets out of hand. The movie lacks a sense of humor, much less a sense of irony. Michael himself doesn't speak, but he seems to know exactly what to do in every given situation and where to go. You cannot fool this bogyman. Sometimes, like in the hydro-therapy, you have to wonder if Carpenter and Hill aren't going a bit off the deep end. I mean, Michael holds the poor nurse's head under the scalding water, but the scorching water exerts no visible effect on him. When he casts the nurse aside, her face looks hideous. If this is supposed to show that Michael is invulnerable himself, then you have to wonder why Carpenter and Hill behave so inconsistently. Later, in the final confrontation in the hospital, Loomis blasts Michael multiple times again but the guy gets back up. Finally, when Laurie—who shouldn't even be able to climb out of bed—blows Michael's eyeballs out, the guy begins to behave like he is mortal. Clearly, Loomis should have shot Michael's feet to ribbons so that he couldn't walk. Imagine how much blood that this guy has lost after being shot—twelve times—but he displays virtually no signs of slowing down. Michael Myers is the equivalent of a Steven Seagal hero. He is indestructible until Loomis sacrifices his own life in the hospital and incinerates him. The end credits show us Michael burning to a crisp. The other thing that bothered me about this mute murderer who escaped from the asylum is his innovative ways of killing people. He stabs a surgeon in the eyeball with a pair of scissors. He buries a claw hammer into the guard's head. He drains the blood from a nurse. He guts another nurse on a scalpel and then hoists her so high in the air that her shoes fall out. Michael acts like he is a scenarist's puppet, killing people in imaginative ways rather than with his brute strength and knife. Another problem with "Halloween 2" is the way that Rosenthal force feeds us exposition. The entire scene in the back of the sheriff's cruiser when the nurse informs Loomis that Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is really Michael's baby sister and all the stuff about the sealed records struck me as too contrived and obvious. Mind you, I know that this is supposed to be a different kind of horror movie with an impervious killer, but there is just no excitement. It looks slick when the nurse's boyfriend is killed behind the marbled glass in the hydro-therapy and it is neat when the nurse believes that Michael is her boyfriend, but afterward things go flat with Michael drowning her. The idea that Michael can stroll around unnoticed and people can bump into him without recognizing him seems contradictory. We are never told why Michael decides to kill who he does and then ignores everybody else. "Halloween 2" does something different in that there are no teenagers getting naked and then dying at Michael's hands. The idea that a hospital would be as deserted as the hospital in the movie seems far-fetched. Neither Carpenter & Hill nor Rosenthal make any of the victims look sympathetic. Michael seems far too clever to be doing what he gets away with. "Halloween 2" is predictable because we know Michael cannot be killed in an ordinary way, but it is also predictable because we know that his victims will die horribly but pose little threat to him. Altogether, "Halloween 2" has all the dramatic impact of a flat-line on a heart monitor. The dialogue is strictly expository with nothing in the way of memorable or quotable lines. Indeed, Michael here is such an inexorable source of evil that he is neither interesting nor intimidating. He emerges as a one-dimensional character that you don't care about any more than you sympathizes his cardboard victims. "Halloween 2" qualifies as an exercise in nihilism.

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• Just as scary as the original

  baumer1999-06-26

  As sequels go, this isn't a better movie than the original, but what it is and what it does well, it does really well. I have to say right away here that I was scared in this movie. There are some truly ingenious and horrific shots in this film. There are times when you really aren't expecting what's about to transpire, and when it does, it sends chills through you. I first saw this film in my " horror " days in the mid 80's. I was 12 years old then. So I just recently watched it again to see if it would have the same affect on me now. I sat in my basement and turned off all the lights and you know what, I was spooked. Right from the opening number of Carpenter's ominous music and the pumpkin slowly transforming into Michael's angry face, I knew right there that I was in for a night of fear. And I was. The story starts the same night as Halloween ended on. Laurie is being taken to the hospital and there is a massive manhunt to find Myers. Laurie eventually gets settled into the hospital and it becomes only a matter of time until Michael can find out where she is. He finally comes to get her and then all hell breaks loose. One of the major players in this film is the locale. The hospital is dark and quiet and rather empty. And that adds to the atmosphere of the film. It gives us lots of long hallways so we can have a few shots of Michael hunting his prey. What we also get is an array of rooms to 86 his victims in and a slew of weapons to do it with. Rick Rosenthal directed this film and I am amazed that he really didn't go on to do much because he almost copies Carpenter's style to the tee here. Brilliant in particular are two shots. One is where Michael appears out of the darkness in one room to attack his victim. The lighting is solely responsible for the affectiveness of this shot and it works so well that it still gives me the shivers when I watch it. The second is when Micael attacks one of the nurses while Laurie watched helplessly from a distance. Not only is this a good horror movie, it is a good film and if the first rates a 10/10, this is certainly of a 9. It is that good. And if you don't agree with me, watch it again---by yourself and then answer that question.

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• A creepy and solid sequel

  Smells_Like_Cheese2004-02-10

  Michael Myers, he's a household name, in my opinion he's the ultimate boogeyman, no matter what you do or how many times you try to kill him, he just comes back. Hence the Halloween series. We do have quite a bit of horror movie sequels: the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, Friday the 13th, Hellraiser, Scream, and so on. Most sequels are extremely cheesy and don't deliver the same scares as the original movie does, but the Halloween franchise is a different story, I think these sequels were always a ton of fun and delivered just as many scares. Nothing will ever compare to the original Halloween, but it was cool to see the story continue on Michael Myers. In this story we follow Laurie Strode to the hospital and Michael doesn't just give up that easily, he's on a mission. After the film replays the last scene of Halloween, it moves on to Dr. Sam Loomis warning Sheriff Leigh Brackett that although he has shot Myers six times in the heart, Myers still lives. Meanwhile, Laurie Strode is taken to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital and Myers wanders around Haddonfield in search of her. Laurie is informed that the man who attacked her was Michael Myers, infamous for murdering his older sister fifteen years earlier on Halloween night. After this, Laurie drifts in and out of consciousness, having strange flashbacks about her adoption by the Strodes and visiting a boy in an institution. Myers learns that she is at the hospital. He goes there and murders the hospital's staff one by one. Laurie manages to elude him, but she is limping badly and sedated and is thus unable to move very quickly. Dr. Loomis and the Haddonfield police continue to search the town for Myers. Nurse Marion Chambers, Loomis' assistant, arrives and tells Loomis that she has discovered a secret file on Myers to which he was not privy. The file reveals that Laurie is actually Myers's sister, adopted by the Strodes after Myers killed his older sister, Judith. Chambers also informs Loomis that he has strict orders to return to Smith's Grove. So they have to get back to the hospital to save Laurie before Michael can get to her. Halloween 2 is probably my second favorite sequel in the Halloween franchise next to H20. I can't tell you how creepy this movie was, I know that these sequels are a bit much, but for any horror movie fan, they are a ton of fun to get into. The whole hospital setting was really scary, I love Laurie Strode, she's the strongest female in a horror movie, she's in a weakened state but just keeps going. You have to love the return of Dr. Loomis, him helping Laurie and making sure that Michael goes away for good, well we clearly know that it's not going to happen, but you have to give him credit for his optimism. If you are going to watch a Halloween sequel, I do recommend Halloween 2, it's very creepy and a great addition to the story. 7/10

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• A solid sequel

  Tikkin2006-03-23

  Halloween 2 seems to get mixed reactions but no one can deny that it stands alone as a great slasher film. Of course it's hard to take Halloween 2 as its "own" film compared to the greatness that is the original Halloween, but most should be able to overlook that and enjoy it for what it is. Halloween 2 uses the suspense of Halloween but adds more gore and a faster pace to the mix. I found it thoroughly entertaining, with some great death scenes and genuinely suspenseful moments (Jamie-Lee escaping through the ventilation grill). The only minor points spoiling Halloween 2 are that sometimes it gets a bit far-fetched. For example, Jamie-Lee is escaping through the ventilation grill and Michael Myers takes an eternity to simply walk over and pull her back down. There were also a few moments of very bad acting. Overall though it's thoroughly entertaining and I would recommend it to all horror fans. It doesn't ruin the integrity of the original film like most sequels do.

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