Halloween 2 (1981)
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence
Director: Rick Rosenthal
Synopsis: Not at all bad sequel - much more gore oriented and less stylish, but scary and tense anyway.
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

 

"a fair job... Jamie Lee is as good as ever" Time Out

"explicitly bloody" Maltin's

"stylish and snappy" Blockbuster Video

"weak premise" Creature Features

"stylish and atmospheric" 80's Horror

Before discussing Halloween II, let's be absolutely clear about one thing.

Following a film as sublimely brilliant as John Carpenter's Halloween was always going to be an almost impossible task. Expecting any sequel to improve upon one of horror cinema's genuine masterpieces was about as hopeless a proposition as one could imagine. It is rather like asking someone to produce a sequel to Hitchcock's Psycho. They eventually did—and however entertaining it may have been on its own terms, it could never hope to rival the original.

Halloween II was therefore destined to disappoint from the outset, simply because there was no conceivable way it could equal its predecessor.

As it happens, Rick Rosenthal's sequel is a remarkably effective stalk-and-slash thriller. What it lacks is not quality but subtlety. Gone is much of Carpenter's finesse, his patient character development and his almost supernatural ability to generate unbearable suspense from the simplest situations. In their place is a more conventional slasher film that compensates with a faster pace and considerably more explicit violence.

To his credit, Rosenthal works hard to recreate Carpenter's distinctive visual style. The gliding camera movements, the measured pacing and the now-famous point-of-view shots all return, giving the sequel a visual continuity that many later entries in the series would completely abandon.

The principal difference between the two films lies in their approach to fear.

Carpenter rarely relied on graphic violence to frighten his audience. Terror came from atmosphere, anticipation and the feeling that Michael Myers could appear almost anywhere.

Halloween II, by contrast, frequently punctuates its suspense with moments of brutal violence. Several of its strongest sequences culminate in particularly grisly deaths, using gore to amplify the shock in a way the original never really needed.

Even so, there remains more than enough style and craftsmanship to elevate the film comfortably above the vast majority of 1980s slasher productions.

The hospital setting proves an inspired choice. Empty corridors, deserted wards and dimly lit operating theatres create an atmosphere of mounting dread as Myers relentlessly stalks Laurie Strode, who, it must be said, appears to have aged rather dramatically overnight!

The story resumes almost exactly where Carpenter's original left off. Rather than disappearing into the night, Myers simply continues his murderous rampage, pursuing Laurie through Haddonfield Memorial Hospital. It is here that the now-famous revelation is introduced: Laurie is, in fact, Michael Myers' sister—a plot development that would shape virtually every sequel that followed.

Not every decision proves quite so inspired.

Among the film's strangest moments are two extraordinarily long close-ups of Laurie undergoing a blood test. Quite what possessed Rosenthal to linger over the procedure for so long remains something of a mystery. Presumably the intention was to heighten the audience's discomfort, although the effect is more puzzling than unsettling.

The film is never less than entertaining, even if it occasionally pauses for the obligatory doses of teenage nudity and sexual activity demanded by virtually every slasher of the period. Needless to say, those characters displaying the greatest enthusiasm for such pursuits are also the ones rewarded with the most spectacularly unpleasant deaths.

The murder sequences themselves are undeniably graphic and, judging by the audience with whom I watched the film on opening night in New York City, immensely satisfying. The atmosphere inside the cinema was electric, with viewers cheering many of Myers' more inventive dispatches with almost embarrassing enthusiasm.

Once the inevitable disappointment of comparing Halloween II with Carpenter's masterpiece begins to fade, the film can finally be appreciated for what it actually is rather than what it could never hope to become.

Viewed on its own merits, it stands as one of the strongest slasher films ever produced. I would place it comfortably ahead of the admittedly entertaining Friday the 13th series, and several of its suspense sequences remain genuinely frightening even today.

Unfortunately, the closing moments undermine much of the goodwill that has been built up. Michael Myers' seemingly miraculous ability to survive yet again begins pushing the series towards the increasingly implausible territory later occupied by Jason Voorhees. Watching him rise once more after what should have been certain destruction stretches credibility just a little too far.

Even so, Halloween II remains an immensely satisfying horror film. Until Halloween H20 arrived in 1998, however, the series would wander through a succession of increasingly disappointing sequels. Halloween III abandoned Myers altogether, Parts 4 and 5 introduced the perpetually irritating child Jamie Lloyd, while Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers remains, in my opinion, one of the weakest entries in the entire franchise until the abomination that Halloween Ends was!

Halloween H20 finally brought the series back to something approaching dignity even if Michael Myers didn't quite look right.

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