Halloween II (1981) - Weasello Rating: {>>--} (Hmm) {{ Prequel | Sequel }}
Please note that this review is laden with spoilers.

Halloween II is, of course, the sequel to the horror movie Halloween... Which I haven't done a w/u for, and may never do... But we'll see. In any case, let's get down to the dirt:

Body count: Michael Myers (Mike) killed 12 (arguably 13) people in this film, not including references to 3 others kills that more properly took place in Halloween (the first movie). Keeping true to horror-movie form, the killing is evenly divided with 6 females and 6 males. One male death was a self-sacrifice to finish off Mike.

The arguable death is a male, probably the closest you could come to a co-star in the film and also doubles as the love interest of the main character. Upon seeing another dead coworker, he turns to flee but slips on some blood. His head whacks the ground pretty hard and it appears he knocked himself out. Quite some time passes (in both movie-time and our-time) when suddenly he re-appears, acting dazed and confused. He has no visible external injuries, but he collapses at the steering wheel of his car. My diagnosis: Concussion. I could be wrong, however. Many people believe he died of some sort of brain hemorrhage or something.

Scream Count: This is the first movie I have ever taken a scream-count on, and I was surprised by the results. In the first 5 minutes of the film, a male child screams once and a female child screams twice. After this brief interlude, there are only 5 other screams in the film, all female (and one of those 5 was in response to a non-life-threatening situation). I was really expecting a lot more screaming for my rental money!

Mike's injury count: Mike seemed to avoid injury during his murdering rampage, but what injuries he did sustain were rather grotesque. At the beginning of the film (technically, the end of the last film) he was shot 7 times (incidentally, by a 6-chamber revolver), reeled backwards, and fell off of a two-story balcony onto a grass lawn. Then Halloween II-proper begins. Nearly an hour later (our time), he walks through a glass door and is immediately shot 4 times. Time passes. He then punches his arm through a glass window, walks through a solid wooden door, and is shot twice - once in each eye. You would think he'd stop by now, but no. At least he was now blind... He was finally "done in" (as well as a murdering horror movie star could be in a sequel) by entering a room full of volatile gasses and having them ignited.

Porn Count: This is my first time doing a porn-count for a movie, too. This is a listing of the oh-so-common softcore porn items you often find in cheesy horror flicks. This movie had quite a few sexual innuendos before the killing started, but you only see about 60 seconds worth of boobs and a naughty little poem. *clears throat*
    Amazing Grace
    Come sit on my face
    Don't make me cry
    I need your pie
Outline: In the first Halloween movie, Mike escaped from a mental hospital only to go on a murderous rampage killing three teens. It was a race against time for Mike's supervising psychiatrist to track him down before he killed any more! Right at the end of Halloween 1, the seemingly-dead Mike disappears from the spot where he was lying dead just moments before. This movie picks up right at this moment.

Mike kills a few more people, seemingly randomly, until he winds up at a hospital. It turns out he has been tracking down his long-lost sister this whole time! After killing the entire (very sparse) hospital staff, he finally confronts his sister only to be "killed" yet again by the same person that killed him in the last movie.

There never is much plot to these movies.

My Opinion: Though I applaud the idea of actually picking up mere minutes after the last movie, it just seemed like more of the same. The original Halloween movie had a mere 3 deaths, and was based more on suspense than murder. This movie was quite the opposite - going for shock value and blood. Unfortunately for us, they didn't do very well at shocking us and the blood looked like red paint.

All in all, I'm happy I watched the movie for the sake of understanding the entire series - but I would never go and rent it just for kicks, nor will I rent it ever again. Special features on the "special edition DVD" include the original theatrical trailer, suggestions for other movies, and captions in three languages. Woo-ee.

Interesting Notes:
  • This movie is Dana Carvey's first! He is a news reporter's assistant and has about 15 seconds of air time. You can spot him in the crowd scene in front of the Doyle house. He is wearing a blue jacket, has long-ish curly blonde hair and a ball cap.
  • This is the only movie in the entire Halloween series to show the morning after... Every other movie ends before sunrise.
  • John Carpenter, who directed the first Halloween, turned down the opportunity to direct Halloween II but wanted to remain involved... So he wrote the screenplay and oversaw production.
  • John Carpenter ended up having to shoot a few new gore scenes and add them into the movie, as the director didn't "make it gory enough."
  • From IMDB: "Considering how immense Haddonfield Memorial Hospital is (it has wings), and the fact that it has an emergency room and surgical ward, it should not have just four nurses, one doctor, and two ambulance drivers staffed for the entire hospital, even if it is the night shift." Not to mention it's Halloween night, classically having quite a few more injuries than every other night. To their credit, there was one additional security guard. (*rolls eyes*) It should also be noted that the one doctor was drunk. (*rolls eyes again*)
  • In the credits, Michael Myers is listed as being 23... But he is referred to as 21 several times in the movie (and never 23).
  • At one point, there's a rather-tough looking, jean-jacket-wearing, cowboy-hat-adorned tough guy with a big mustache... with a gigantic boombox on his shoulder... Listening to a newscast. Something's wrong here.
  • There is one particular moment in the movie that I thought I should share. It is a minor tale of the most unlucky human alive. There is this Halloween party where a bunch of teenagers are all partying. One particular teenager, who also happens to be the tallest person in the movie, gets super-drunk and decides to walk home. He also happens to be wearing a mask that looks exactly the same as Mike's mask. When the police spot him slowly pacing down the street like Mike does, they scream at him to freeze, stop, whatever. Being the smart, drunk teenager like he is, he slowly turns around and shuffles away from them, crossing the street. One of the movie characters is about to shoot him dead when another policeman knocks the gun from his hand - near death! Phew, maybe this guy isn't so unlucky after all. But wait. A speeding police car arrives on-scene, probably going about 80 MPH when he squarely whacks the teenager with his front bumper. The teenager wraps himself around the front of the car and doesn't even get a chance to go flying through the air. But that's not all. Squealing to a halt, the police car loses control and slams teenager-first into the side of a parked van.

    This teenager has now been sickly-drunk, chased by police, shot at, run over, and squashed into a pancake. What else could go wrong?

    Well, the police car and the van could simultaneously explode and he could be burned alive, trapped as a writhing mass between two pieces of twisted metal... But that wouldn't happen, would it?

    *BOOM*
Lead roles: Directed by: Rick Rosenthal

Writing credits: John Carpenter and Debra Hill (I)

Tagline: The Nightmare Isn't Over
Sources: The oh-so-wonderful IMDB, my head, and the box.

My favorite typo during the creation of this writeup: "Softcorn porn."

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