Forgot to mention this earlier. When I was trying to find Halloween on Netflix, I found two of its sequels instead. Yeah, they show the panned sequels, but not the critically acclaimed original. Netflix is weird. So, after the success of Halloween. a sequel was comissioned. While Carpenter and Hill considered making a sequel where Michael Myers stalks Laurie in a new high-rise apartment, they ultimately decided to simply set the film immediately after the events of the first one. Akkad and Yablans endowed the film with 2.5 million dollars, larger than the original. However, Carpenter refused to return directing, claiming he didn't want to do a sequel (Should've thought of that when he made Escape from LA), and newcomer Rick Rosenthal was chosen as his replacement. The cast, with the exception of Nick Castle (who played Michael Myers, and I just realized I forgot to mention that in my review of the last one) returned in their original roles. The film was released in 1981 to financial success, bur negative reviews. And it's not hard to see why.
Set immediately after the events of the first film (on October 31st, 1978), Michael Myers (Dick Warlock) disappeared after Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) shot him several times. Loomis immediately goes to hunt him down, becoming more hysterical because of Myers near superhuman healing factor. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is sent to a nearby hospital. Myers steals a knife, and kills another teenager (because....). Anyway, Laurie is kept in the hospital, sedated by drugs. She learns that her pursuer was Michael Myers, who was a local legend because of the murders. Myers eventually learns of her location. Laurie begins to have visions of her as a little girl with her adopted parents, and visiting a young boy (interesting). Meanwhile, Dr. Loomis and Sheriff Brackett (Charles Cypher) try to hunt Myers down. They seemingly kill him by crashing a car into him, but it turns out to be a pedestrian with a similar mask. However, when Brackett learns of Anne's (Nancy Loomis) death, he leaves the film, and is replaced by Deputy Gary Hunt (Hunter von Leer), and they investigate the former Myers residency, and find nothing. Meanwhile,(God, I watched this last night, and I don't even remember the sequence of events!) Myers makes it to the Hospital, where he cuts the phone lines, and kills the staff. Eventually Laurie is left to flee him while still sedated and weakened. Loomis and Hunt go to a local school where Myers was spotted, where the term "Samhain" is found in blood. Samhain was a pagan holiday celebrated on October 31st, so Loomis begins to suspect an occult connection. However, he is confronted by his assistant Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens), who was forced by the Illinois governor to take him back to the hospital. Meanwhile, paramedic Jimmy (Lance Guest), who was developing a romantic interest in Laurie, is rendered unconscious, when he sees a dead nurse, and slips in her blood. (No, really). Having offed most of the staff, Myers continues to pursue Laurie. Laurie eventually finds peace in the boiler room. After killing another nurse, Myers chases Laurie through the room. Meanwhile,(yeah, this movie jumps around a lot), Dr. Loomis learns that Laurie was, in fact, Michael Myers' younger sister, who was adopted by the Strodes after Myers incarceration. Realizing that Myers was targeting Laurie, Loomis forces the Marshal (John Zenda) to the hospital. Laurie barely escapes Myers in the boiler room, but is unable to start a getaway car. Jimmy walks in, but becomes unconscious again on the wheel, alerting Myers to her presence, just as Loomis, Chambers and the Marshal arrive. Laurie is able to alert them, and Loomis shots Myers again. However, Myers once again rises, and kills the Marshal. Finally, he mortally injures Loomis, and is about to kill Laurie, when Laurie shots him in the eye, confusing him long enough for Loomis and Laurie to fill the room with gas, and for Loomis to lit it on fire, killing himself in the process. Laurie looks on as Myers steadily burns to death. As an ambulance takes her back home, Laurie sees the body of Myers burning....
I'll say this. It still had some legitimately creepy moments. Like a scene where Myers sneaks into a home and steals a knife. Or when he is slowly approaching Laurie in the Boiler Room. The twist that Laurie was Myers' younger sister, whilst not making sense, at least is somewhat interesting, and actually provides motivation for Myers seemingly random rampage. It also had its fair share of good kills, and the final scene is fairly well done. The cinematography is still good, with many of the same tricks that made the original such a classic, and the cast still does very well. The new guy playing Michael Myers does well with the role.
The main problem with the film is its tedium. It gets really repetitive seeing Myers kill these random people. Seriously, I didn't really care about the kills in this. They get old really fast, and that loses the horror of these scenes. Further, it goes so slowly,. The pacing gets really slow in the middle, and it pads it out more than a car built for skydiving. Like I said, I could barely remember what sequence the scenes went in, because I stopped caring somewhere in the middle of the film. Dr. Loomis is even worse in this film, than in the original, having murdered an innocent teenager.
Out of all the films I've seen for this, this is probably one of the worst. Not because it's bad, because there is some elements that save it, but it just pales in comparison of the original. It started scary, but it gradually just becomes slow and boring. And not scary. This would have worked better as the ending to the original. Urgh. If you wanted to see the cliffhanger of the original resolved, I suppose you could watch it, but otherwise, skip it.
Next time, we take a look at another John Carpenter film: Prince of Darkness.
Set immediately after the events of the first film (on October 31st, 1978), Michael Myers (Dick Warlock) disappeared after Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) shot him several times. Loomis immediately goes to hunt him down, becoming more hysterical because of Myers near superhuman healing factor. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is sent to a nearby hospital. Myers steals a knife, and kills another teenager (because....). Anyway, Laurie is kept in the hospital, sedated by drugs. She learns that her pursuer was Michael Myers, who was a local legend because of the murders. Myers eventually learns of her location. Laurie begins to have visions of her as a little girl with her adopted parents, and visiting a young boy (interesting). Meanwhile, Dr. Loomis and Sheriff Brackett (Charles Cypher) try to hunt Myers down. They seemingly kill him by crashing a car into him, but it turns out to be a pedestrian with a similar mask. However, when Brackett learns of Anne's (Nancy Loomis) death, he leaves the film, and is replaced by Deputy Gary Hunt (Hunter von Leer), and they investigate the former Myers residency, and find nothing. Meanwhile,(God, I watched this last night, and I don't even remember the sequence of events!) Myers makes it to the Hospital, where he cuts the phone lines, and kills the staff. Eventually Laurie is left to flee him while still sedated and weakened. Loomis and Hunt go to a local school where Myers was spotted, where the term "Samhain" is found in blood. Samhain was a pagan holiday celebrated on October 31st, so Loomis begins to suspect an occult connection. However, he is confronted by his assistant Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens), who was forced by the Illinois governor to take him back to the hospital. Meanwhile, paramedic Jimmy (Lance Guest), who was developing a romantic interest in Laurie, is rendered unconscious, when he sees a dead nurse, and slips in her blood. (No, really). Having offed most of the staff, Myers continues to pursue Laurie. Laurie eventually finds peace in the boiler room. After killing another nurse, Myers chases Laurie through the room. Meanwhile,(yeah, this movie jumps around a lot), Dr. Loomis learns that Laurie was, in fact, Michael Myers' younger sister, who was adopted by the Strodes after Myers incarceration. Realizing that Myers was targeting Laurie, Loomis forces the Marshal (John Zenda) to the hospital. Laurie barely escapes Myers in the boiler room, but is unable to start a getaway car. Jimmy walks in, but becomes unconscious again on the wheel, alerting Myers to her presence, just as Loomis, Chambers and the Marshal arrive. Laurie is able to alert them, and Loomis shots Myers again. However, Myers once again rises, and kills the Marshal. Finally, he mortally injures Loomis, and is about to kill Laurie, when Laurie shots him in the eye, confusing him long enough for Loomis and Laurie to fill the room with gas, and for Loomis to lit it on fire, killing himself in the process. Laurie looks on as Myers steadily burns to death. As an ambulance takes her back home, Laurie sees the body of Myers burning....
I'll say this. It still had some legitimately creepy moments. Like a scene where Myers sneaks into a home and steals a knife. Or when he is slowly approaching Laurie in the Boiler Room. The twist that Laurie was Myers' younger sister, whilst not making sense, at least is somewhat interesting, and actually provides motivation for Myers seemingly random rampage. It also had its fair share of good kills, and the final scene is fairly well done. The cinematography is still good, with many of the same tricks that made the original such a classic, and the cast still does very well. The new guy playing Michael Myers does well with the role.
The main problem with the film is its tedium. It gets really repetitive seeing Myers kill these random people. Seriously, I didn't really care about the kills in this. They get old really fast, and that loses the horror of these scenes. Further, it goes so slowly,. The pacing gets really slow in the middle, and it pads it out more than a car built for skydiving. Like I said, I could barely remember what sequence the scenes went in, because I stopped caring somewhere in the middle of the film. Dr. Loomis is even worse in this film, than in the original, having murdered an innocent teenager.
Out of all the films I've seen for this, this is probably one of the worst. Not because it's bad, because there is some elements that save it, but it just pales in comparison of the original. It started scary, but it gradually just becomes slow and boring. And not scary. This would have worked better as the ending to the original. Urgh. If you wanted to see the cliffhanger of the original resolved, I suppose you could watch it, but otherwise, skip it.
Next time, we take a look at another John Carpenter film: Prince of Darkness.
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