I'm not sure what's happening to me, but I'm having trouble getting a full movie in starting at 11 PM anymore. I guess I'm starting to show my age. Because of that it's taken me three days to actually Halloween II which was written by the original's John Carpenter and Debra Hill and still starring Jamie Lee Curtis (the last one to do so until the continuity killing H20) and Donal Pleasence. This time though it's directed by Rick Rosenthal who later directed a TV sequel to The Birds and a ton of TV including Buffy episodes "Help" and "Normal Again."
H2 is one of the few horror sequels I can think of that picks up directly after the first one leaves off which either means it's not that common or that I'm just highly forgetful, either seems possible. You even get the last few minutes of the original where Michael does his awesome sit-right-up scene that I love and Loomis coming in gun blazing with Michael falling out the window and disappearing. So, with this installment we get treated to the further adventures of that fateful Halloween night in Haddonfield. Laurie gets taken to the hospital while Loomis runs around town trying to find where Michael has gotten off to.
There's a definite difference in feel between this and the originally. For one thing it's a lot darker and harder to understand what's going on at times. There's also less of the POV stuff that I loved so much in the first one, but way way more fake-outs. I guess by 1981 people had seen a fair amount of slasher movies, so instead of kind of inventing the tropes, this one tries to play with them to not the greatest effect.
That being said, I do like this flick. It's got my three favorite elements from the first, Donald Pleasence getting crazier than ever (until next time), Michael Myers (who's in my top two favorite slashers with Leatherface) and Jamie Lee Curtis. Most of the action takes place in the hospital as Michael makes short but bloody work of the staff, but one of my favorite elements takes place outside as what looks like Michael Myers gets hit by a police car and catches fire. Pleasence and his policeman friend think it's Michael for a little while. Yes, it's a little convenient that someone dressed up exactly like the guy who went around killing a good number of the teenagers in town gets killed, but do remember that Michael swiped the mask from a local store so it's not too too crazy. I just like the idea of them being at ease while Michael's still out there killing folks. Also, the kid who dies was Bennett Tramer, the boy who Laurie had a crush on in the previous movie (he's also named after a dude who would go on to work on Saved By The Bell!).
The hospital kills are pretty creative as Michael boils a woman alive in a hot tub (which I don't think is possible), stabs a dude in the head with something, drains the blood out of a woman and others. But for some reason my favorite is when he stabs a nurse through with a scalpel and then lifts her up about two feet off the floor. She's understandably shocked, then her shoes fall off and she finally crumples to the floor. There's just something about the image that has stuck with me since the first time I watched since high school.
That particular kill removes that last other person in the hospital between Michael and Laurie. Laurie's understandably messed up (I think there was something about a coma, but I can't quite remember) so Michael does his usual slow walk chase as Laurie scrambles away. There's something primaly unnerving about watching someone who's already gone through so much craziness just barely able to elude her killer. It's not the kind of thing that had me pulling my blanket over my eyes, but it's the kind of thing that I do think about (probably too much).
Meanwhile, Loomis is driving around with a woman and a cop. He finds out about the hospital and freaks out on the cop, holding his revolver to the cop's face and telling him to head to the hospital against his original orders. I love me some crazy Loomis. Once they get to the hospital, Laurie's outside trying to get this dude in a car to drive her away, but the dude passes out or dies. She's crawling through the parking lot as Loomis and Co. show up, but she doesn't scream out for some reason until after they're already in. I think I'm missing a fairly big piece of the story from falling asleep so many times, like maybe she was drugged up or something. Michael gets on Laurie's trail again so she runs to the door, bangs on it and screams until Loomis lets her in. Michael gets shot a number of times, but of course, he's not dead.
All of which leads to the ending which I actually like very much. Michael chases Loomis and Laurie into some kind of room where he has them cornered. Loomis gives Laurie a gun, but tries to shoot Michael with his which is empty, so Michael stabs him in the stomach. Loomis crumples to the floor and Michael goes after Laurie who's crumpled on the floor. Laurie shoots Michael in the face, which doesn't kill him or even knock him over but it does blind him, forcing him to swing around wildly. I really like this element of the movie because Myers spent the last two movies fairly calm and collected and now he's acting like an animal, slashing the air. Loomis gets back up and opens up a nearby (what I assume) oxygen tank. Michael moves towards the sound away from Laurie so Laurie gets up and opens up even more tanks. Now Michael's really going crazy, Loomis tells Laurie to run away, then busts out his lighter and blows the room up. Out in the hall, Laurie gets knocked down by the blast and the camera just focuses on the blaze for a while until Michael comes stumbling out. Holy crap! Then he falls to the ground and everything's over (haha, right). The song "Mr. Sandman Bring Me a Dream" plays over a last minute show of Michael's face and mask burning. A nice touch.
Here's the thing that a lot of people don't seem to get about the Halloween series. The first was made without expectations of of a sequel (as far as I know) and the second one was made to finish out the series. No more Michael Myers. Then something happened (I'm assuming enough money was thrown his way) and Carpenter decided to turn Halloween into a kind of anthology with a different horror movie every year, which is why 3: Season of the Witch has nothing to do with Michael Myers. Things didn't go so well with that one so they switched back to Michael for part 4. Any horror fan worth their salt knows the deal, but I still hear people complaining about it, which is one of my big horror pet peeves. I guess I'm just a weirdo that way.
thrashing around blindly
"Mr. Sandman" playing over burning carcass
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