Ranking the "Halloween" Movies: #3 - "Halloween II" (1981)

Oh man, we're only six days and three posts from the end! Well, two more posts if you don't count this one.

#3 - Halloween II (1981)

Michael Myers is now your HMO 

Halloween was a huge success when it was released in 1978. The chilling tale of a psychopath that escapes from a mental institution to stalk babysitters? It seems like a cliche nowadays. Back then, everybody loved it, and because it was the most successful independent film ever released in theaters at its time, it was almost guaranteed that a sequel would have to come about. Flash forward to 1980 and Friday the 13th hits the scene. Friday the 13th has a bit of a similar history with Halloween, in that the first film in the franchise was made on a shoestring budget, featured all-but-one no-name actor/actress, and featured an unstoppable/unseen serial killer killing teenagers. Where they differed was that in Halloween, the killer came to them. In Friday the 13th, they go to the killer. Classic. Well, no more than a year later, Halloween finally got its sequel.

"Michael, where did you stab me?"

Billed as "More of the Night He Came Home", Halloween II picks up precisely where the first film left off. Michael Myers, the escaped mental patient, was shot six times by his psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis and fell out of a second-story window. Upon investigation, Loomis discovers that Michael's gone. Loomis then returns to the neighborhood streets in the desperate search for Michael, believing him to be too wounded to get very far. Little does he know that Michael is alive and well and has merely moved a couple houses down to steal a knife from an elderly couple and kill their young neighbor. Elsewhere, Laurie Strode has been taken to Haddonfield General Hospital to heal from her injuries sustained in the previous film. It is there she is stalked by Michael, as Michael returns to move in for the kill by taking out the overnight hospital staff one-by-one to get to Laurie. Loomis, meanwhile, is ordered back to Smith's Grove by nurse Marion Chambers, the nurse from the previous film. On the ride back, he learns from Marion that Laurie Strode is Michael Myers' baby sister that was adopted by the Strode family. Seeing no other alternative, Loomis hijacks the squad car escorting back to Smith's Grove and heads back to Haddonfield General. What ensues is a nail-biting final stand in an operating room that sees Laurie and Loomis each deal their damage to Michael; Loomis shooting him five more times and Laurie shooting both of his eyes out. Loomis then fills the room with oxygen released from nearby tanks, urging Laurie to run. In an end-all ending, Loomis lights a lighter, telling Michael "it's time", triggering and explosion that immolates them both and torches half of the hospital. The next morning, November 1st, Laurie is put in the back of an ambulance, and remembers the image of her brother's face burning away in the fire...

Let me start off by saying that Halloween II got the mood for Halloween night spot on. This movie, along with Halloween and Halloween 4, nail the atmosphere to a T. Nothing feels better than watching this film late on Halloween night with all of the lights off, a jack o'lantern burning on your front porch and some popcorn and an ice cold beer. Halloween II, with its grainy footage and sonic synthesizer soundtrack, is one of the perfect horror films to watch in October, if not on Halloween night itself.

"Does this wig look too 'wiggy' or naw?"

Donald Pleasence is back for his second round as Dr. Loomis. His determination to catch and/or kill Michael before he can cause any harm grows more and more desperate as the night goes on. With each and every new event, Loomis becomes more overwhelmed but more determined at the same time and Pleasence conveys this growing sense of urgency outstandingly. There's a scene where Loomis thinks he sees Michael down the road and even pulls out his gun in front of a mother and her group of trick-or-treaters to shoot. The Michael impersonator gets smashed in between a squad car and a van, going up in flames. Loomis literally rubs his eyes in fatigue at trying to hunt Michael down and begin denied time and time again. I think it perfectly builds to the end of the film where Loomis detonates the operating room in the hospital with him and Michael inside. Loomis is finally like "Fuck this. We're both going up!" and BOOM! As I stated in the Halloween III: Season of the Witch post, Halloween and Halloween II were supposed to be the only two films in the Michael Myers storyline. So the ending for this film was really supposed to kill Michael and Loomis and put an end to the Haddonfield story arc. So, having Loomis sacrifice himself to kill Michael put a fitting cap on the whole night. Michael even fakes like he's still alive, walking out of the operating room completely engulfed in flames. However, before it can be played up any, he just collapses on the floor and finally burns to death. It would've been great to leave it at that, but considering just how awesomely done Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers was done...ah we'll get there soon.

The soundtrack has the creepiest rendition of the Halloween theme that I've ever heard and it couples well with the opening of the movie. The opening shows the last little bit of Halloween, with Loomis coming to Laurie's rescue and shooting Michael six times. Michael stumbles back out of the window and falls onto the front lawn. Loomis then goes downstairs and looks, seeing Michael's outline on the front lawn. He feels around in the grass and finds some of Michael's blood. A neighbor comes out from his house and asks "what's going on?", to which Loomis responds "Call the police! Tell the sheriff I shot him! Tell him he's still on the loose!". The neighbor walks up to Loomis and says "Is this some kind of joke? I've been trick-or-treated to death tonight." Loomis looks at him, Michael's blood literally on his hand, and tells the neighbor that he "doesn't know what death is." The new rendition of the Halloween theme chimes in right at that moment, letting both the audience and Loomis know that the night is not over. Halloween was just the beginning, and Halloween II has more in store for the night he came home.

One piece of trivia is that this is the only Halloween film to reuse the same mask as another film. Halloween had that two dollar William Shatner mask that was altered by the art department to look as scary as possible. It was literally that same mask that was used in Halloween II. The mask was left under Debra Hill's bed in between films, collected dust and yellowed because of her smoking, and was brought back out for use in Halloween II. Every subsequent film (excluding Halloween III: Season of the Witch, of course) used a different mask. Dick Warlock, the man who portrays Michael in this film, got to keep the mask from production. He literally owns the same mask that started it all. How cool is that?

"Look down my gun barrel and see your future."

The film is notable because it took an extra step forward in terms of adult material. The original Halloween film was notorious for its lack of blood and gore. Most of Michael's kills in the first film were very clean. He was very polite ot the families whose homes he intruded in. No leftover bloodstains or anything. Halloween II, on the other hand, is where Michael decided he didn't give a shit anymore about clean kills. He pushes a woman's head into a boiling tub of water to the point where her skin peels off (surprisingly not burning Michael's hand flesh), he repeatedly stabs people with scalpels, and there's even a scene where a head nurse is leaked of her blood all over a floor, leading the male EMT Jimmie Lloyd (Laurie's love interest and Jamie's father) slips and falls in. It's overall a gorier film. This was a response to Friday the 13th, where John Carpenter did uncredited reshoots for more gore to make the film more intense for harder-to-scare audiences, as he felt the original cut of Halloween II was too tame and lacked much blood.

There isn't much else to note. The atmosphere of a hysterical town is a fun tone to set the story in, and it would be reused in Halloween 4 when Michael returns to Haddonfield and nobody knows what to do, but again, we'll talk about 4 soon enough. The police officers are just as lost as Loomis is in scrambling to find Michael and following his trail of bloodshed, hoping to stop him. The desperation, the tension, everything; all superb.

Halloween II is another example of how sequels are done correctly. Hollywood nowadays is pretty much ruining the ideas of sequels because now, stories are too big to contain in one film. Halloween was a story that could've been left alone on that cliffhanger ending, but Halloween II gave the viewers of the first film some fantastic closure. The acting, story, setting, and tone all kickstart and take off directly off of the momentum of the end of the first film. It's already extremely tense when the sequel starts, being a continuation. It just builds and builds, higher and higher, waiting for the epic conclusion of this night from hell. Most people just make a point to watch Halloween on Halloween. Me? I make a point to watch both of them. Halloween and Halloween II make for a great double feature on the spookiest night of the year.

What is with the spooky skeleton face on the front of the pumpkin on the posters? Could they not come up with anything more creative? It's on part with Microsoft Office WordArt. Lol.