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Rick Rosenthal's Halloween II isn’t the best release in the series but, with its workmanlike earnestness, the minor dip in glossy quality isn’t a complete undoing. It holds up better than most slasher sequels. Besides, measure the original release both in reception and its critical analysis, the drop is to be expected. There’s no way John Carpenter could hope to match his best work. It’s what happens most often in sequels. Especially in the horror genre, audiences expect more of the same and the creative forces behind the movies tend to overdue it.
In Halloween II, it’s the violence that’s to blame; this is a straight up slasher movie. Myers has become equal to his imitators. Ratcheted up to the nth degree (thanks, ironically, to Carpenter's interference), the violence overpowers the psychological aspect of the original and replaces it with buckets of on-screen gore. Fans would have to wait until Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers to get the psychological back into the series and, by that time, even Carpenter had exited the series.
Picking up EXACTLY where the original ended, Halloween II traces the steps of a (maybe not) wounded Michael Myers as he searches for his sister, Lori Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), in the streets of Haddonfield, Illinois. As the town descends into mass hysteria, people turn on trick or treating kids and the Sheriff Brackett (Charles Cyphers) discovers a whole Samhaim connection to the madness of the Myers plague. Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance), still packing heat, reigns Armageddon down on his former patient in the halls of the local hospital as Myers ratchets up the body count by boiling nurses in hot tubs and mass bloodletting rituals in his obsessive hunt for his sister.
Bloodier and gorier than the original, Halloween II cashes in on the intricate plotting for a more immediate thrill ride this time out. It’s rather straight-forward and while the madness of Haddonfield is interesting to watch, there’s no tasking of the audience to actually think about what they are witnessing. Rosenthal was wise to include scenes of contemporary controversies surrounding the holiday itself. He’s got little else in the picture outside of a Myers, Strode, and Loomis reunion.
Stylistically, Rosenthal attempts to recreate the elements and themes of the original film. He repeats the POV shots – helmed once again by Dean Cundey - that kicked off the original film as Myers searches alleys and enters the house of an elderly couple. His pacing is right on scale with the original and he even inserts a love story into the mix. However, his “jump” scenes are largely off due to his reluctance to keep Myers in our peripherals; most of the time Myers is front and center and he fumbles a couple of key stunt sequences.
Of course, I won’t suggest Rosenthal is the one to blame about the changes in the tone of this two-parter. Rosenthal honestly recaptured the spirit of the original. It was the film’s creator who changed everything else. Yes, folks, John Carpenter will take the blame for mucking up what could have been a really good follow-up.
Carpenter, fearing the picture wasn’t scary enough, entered into the post-production part of the film and started retooling and re-editing the finished product. There are several grotesque scenes he shot and edited to keep the film from being considered too tame. He felt slasher audiences had changed since his Halloween was released and he wanted to address their need for bloodlust with more gore, more nudity, and less actual scares. The close-up of a hypodermic needle being thrust into an eyeball is enough to send anyone into hysterics. Yeah, Carpenter figuratively and literally did all that to Rosenthal’s work.
Halloween II does have its moments but it is largely a victim to a director that felt he had to maintain the style and look of the original and its creator who wanted to shake things up with a violent send-off to the characters people felt they wanted more of. Carpenter might have wanted to kill his creation off but, as we all know, he failed. What we do get are two versions of the movie; the television cut – which took out Carpenter’s gore and nudity and substituted them with Rosenthal’s storylines – and the retooled theatrical version.
You decide which Halloween II is better.
MPAA Rating: R.
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