Violence/Gore: The blood factor goes up as the slasher genre demands a bit more carnage. Michael skewers a nurse in the back and lifts her up to show off his handywork, strangles one man and burns a girl alive in a hot tub, buries a hammer in another man’s head, and more. He’s a busy guy tonight.

Sex/Nudity: Ah, Pamela Susan Shoop. Before her face is boiled off, she’s pretty hot in all her topless glory.

Best Line: “I shot him six times!”

Score:

I remember seeing the image of Michael Myers, AKA the Shape, descending a staircase in a television trailer for this movie when I was only about ten or eleven years old. It was an extreme upward-angled shot, with Michael’s Shatner mask in half-shadow, hair sticking out in every direction. This demonic image grabbed me, and I had to see the movie. Strangely enough, it was HALLOWEEN II, not the first film, that introduced me to the saga of Haddonfield’s unstoppable killer and his tireless pursuer, Dr. Sam Loomis. I finally found a VHS copy of the movie a while later at the very first video store we ever visited, back when video rental was inexplicably presented with all the trappings of an exclusive elite club. But there he was on the shelf of new releases at Barry’s Video Station - Michael Myers. And that night, he was coming home.

Seen in context, however, HALLOWEEN II is an often odd but mostly satisfying follow-up to a movie that had already achieved near-legendary status by 1981. The first good move was the opening, which stepped back to the last few minutes of the first film and then allowed us to follow Dr. Loomis out of the house and outside to discover Michael’s body missing. With a great little dialogue sting launching us into the best title sequence in the entire HALLOWEEN series, HALLOWEEN II picks up on the same night and moment, extending the experience and following Michael’s rampage through the rest of that 1978 Halloween night. While Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie spends a surprising amount of the running time asleep, drugged, or otherwise incoherent - and wearing a truly horrific wig that doesn’t begin to match her ‘78 hairstyle and color - Donald Pleasence picks up the slack by hunting Michael through Haddonfield. His dawning realization that Michael is inhuman is only enhanced by his third act discovery of the true connection between Michael and Laurie. An enticing scene set in a local school, suggesting that Michael is capable of more expression than we knew and has some unknown connection to or awareness of ancient Celtic rites, is given no further attention but sets up a sufficiently chilling monologue by Pleasence on the unwavering primitivism of human nature.

But despite the nostalgic fun, and the truly explosive finale that not only showcases Loomis as one of the coolest horror heroes of all time but reveals Laurie’s inexplicable sharpshooting skills, there’s a lot wrong with HALLOWEEN II. For one thing, it’s surprisingly boring in long stretches, with most of it taking place in the most underpopulated hospital on the planet. When Michael shows up to kill, things definitely pick up, but the entire movie has a disjointed sensibility that sometimes leaves you wondering just how much post-production doctoring had to be done to save the film from total incoherence.

In fact, if you watch the version usually aired on TV, you’ll be treated to a few extra bits that should surprise any fan who has only seen the theatrical cut. In fact, the ‘new’ last scene in the film is a shocking revelation about the survival of another key cast member that illuminates the entire post-HALLOWEEN II Myers family continuity. Why the hell wasn’t that scene in the ‘official’ release? Best to just turn on the TV version for the ending, though, as the rest of it is a bizarre recut that shifts entire scenes back and forth in the running time until the whole mess of celluloid is literally tangled up in itself. I mean it - you will count yourself lucky if you can figure out why any one scene follows another in the TV cut. It’s truly mystifying in its sheer unwillingness to embrace the linearity of time. The theatrical cut may have its editing flaws, and there are quite a few, but at least you can follow the story…such as it is.

But I come to praise HALLOWEEN II, not to bury it. Plot holes, editing snafus, odd scene structure and all, I still have a lot of affection for this first HALLOWEEN sequel. It heroically attempted to continue the saga in a seamless transition from the first movie to the second, and it added a crucial bit of history between Laurie and Michael - he’s her brother (come on, you knew that already) - that may have been a little gratuitous but ultimately enabled future films to extend the saga in a number of intriguing directions. This is no GODFATHER PART II or BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, but it is a good rematch between the Shape, Laurie and Dr. Loomis, and the last we would see of all three of them for years to come. But despite all evidence to the contrary, this would not be the end of the Shape…

DVD Extras: Nothing special.

ATB