Halloween II (1981) Review

"I shot him six times!"

-Dr. Sam Loomis

Halloween II picks up immediately where the first movie ended.  As Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) continues his search for Michael Myers (Dick Warlock), the town of Haddonfield becomes more and more unstable and the bodies continue to pile up.  Meanwhile, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is taken to a nearby hospital to recover from her ordeal.  Unfortunately, Michael is on his way to visit her and he will kill anyone who gets in his way.

What Works:

Donald Pleasence is simply a fantastic actor and is my favorite part of most of the Halloween movies he is in.  He has such amazing line deliveries, even if some of what he says doesn't make much sense, Pleasence still manages to sell it.  Dr. Loomis is a great character and I like that he gets more to do in this movie than the original.  He has just the right amount of crazy going for him and when he fires a warning shot to make the marshal turn around, I can't help but grin at the lengths Loomis will go to to stop Michael.

Halloween II ups the gore factor from the original film and gives us a few cool kills, which I'm always a sucker for.  I will never get tired of watching Michael burn a nurse's face off in the hot tub.  I also like watching him lift another nurse into the air using only a scalpel.  Plus we get a couple of really awesome body discoveries, like a nurse being completely drained of blood and a doctor with a needle in his eye.  Almost all of the kills are at least solid and this is one category where this film surpasses the original.

During the first half of the movie, we get to see chaos take hold of the town of Haddonfield.  The first movie just shows us the town under normal circumstances, but as news begins to break out, we get to see the town become more and more unstable.  This gives a solid sense of urgency to the Loomis storyline and one insane moment where a poor fool dressed like Michael Myers gets run over by a police car.  It's a great backdrop for the rest of the film.

The hospital setting is one I enjoy.  The first film does a great job setting up all of the locations in the two houses that Laurie visits during her escape from Michael, but we don't know the setup of the hospital at all.  It's just endless hallways and a spooky basement.  It feels more like a labyrinth than anything, which adds to the suspense.  Michael could come from anywhere at anytime.  That's why I really like Laure's escape through the basement.  It's a really well done sequence with Laurie barely escaping time after time.  It has excellent tension and is one of the highlights of the film.

What Sucks:

Halloween II's biggest problem is Laurie is pretty much sidelined for the first hour of the movie.  She's on a stretcher or in a hospital bed the entire time and when she finally does get up, she's all drugged up and passes out again quickly.  When they finally give Laurie something to do, the movie gets really good, but it's bummer to have her out of it for such a long time.

Most of the supporting characters aren't very interesting.  Almost all of them are staff members at the hospital and we don't get to learn much about any of them and were certainly don't care at all when they get killed off.  Having Laurie be out cold and the rest of the hospital characters be uninteresting defiantly causes the hospital storyline to be weaker than Dr. Loomis'.

My final complaint is the reveal that Michael is Laurie's brother.  It's not that I dislike the twist itself, it's just that it's not well handled.  The only person we get to see reacting to this news is Dr. Loomis, which is fine, but we don't get to see Laurie react to it and that's something I would have really liked to see.  How does one even process something like that?  It's the most interesting concept this movie has and they chose to ignore it completely.  It's annoying and disappointing.

Verdict:

Halloween II is a decent sequel with some awesome kills, an cool setting, a chaotic backdrop, and, of course, the wonderful Donald Pleasence.  Putting the protagonist on the sidelines for most of the movie was a bad call, the supporting characters aren't great, and the big twist was poorly executed, but this is still fun sequel that's just a few steps shy of the original.  It's certainly got it going on.

 7/10: Good