Film Review: Halloween II

 "Halloween II"  

***  (out of ****)

For a horror movie "Halloween II" (1981) starts off in a strange way. The very first thing an audience hears is the movie's soundtrack. It isn't the famous theme created by filmmaker John Carpenter but the 1950s female a cappella group The Chordettes singing "Mr. Sandman". Why is that interesting? It either speaks to the titillating nature of horror movies combining sex and violence or is an attempt at dark humor. Maybe it's both!

"Mr. Sandman" is a love song. A song about a lonely person wishing and hoping (that's the name of another song) to find "the one". The search for "the one" expands beyond dreams into reality. In "Halloween II", as in "Halloween" (1978), the villainous Michael Myers is doing his own searching for "the one" in Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) though his kiss may prove to be more deadly (did you see what I did there?). 

The first few minutes of "Halloween II" basically reuses the ending of the first movie though replaces its soundtrack (the first movie had better music) and makes some minor edit changes. We see Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance) shoot Myers repeatedly causing Myers to fall off of a second floor balcony. By the end of the first movie the audience and Dr. Loomis are aware the body of Michael Myers is no longer in the spot he landed. Part II begins with Dr. Loomis' hunt for the deranged serial killer that same night.

Much like a movie western "Halloween II" is about a posse searching for an escaped bandit with Dr. Loomis as a mixture of sheriff and Professor van Helsing. Maybe I've lost my marbles but I also thought there were traces of Brecht's "Three Penny Opera" (of course minus any social and economic commentary) and foreshadows of Carpenter's "The Ward" (2010) and Woody Allen's Brecht inspired "Shadows and Fog" (1991) which also featured Pleasance.

Carpenter's "Halloween" is one of my all-time favorite horror movies delivering real thrills and suspense. I can't quite honestly say "Halloween II" is up to par. Directed by Rick Rosenthal from a script co-written by Carpenter and Debra Hill, "Halloween II" is a movie that knows the melody but not how to play the tune properly. At times this sequel feels like a by-the-numbers horror movie.

However I don't know if my judgement is skewed because of my appreciation for the original. Does "Halloween II" stand on its own? I would imagine I'm partially bias but I can't believe there would be viewers that would feel this sequel is better than the original.

One of the major differences this time around is that Michael Myers has much more screen time. As a general rule I prefer it when the killer is sparsely seen on screen but remains an ominous presence. This, I feel, creates more suspense, keeping the viewer on the edge of their seat. Once you see the killer so often the character loses their fear factor. The viewer becomes too accustomed to their presence. It's not so much the sight of Myers that then becomes scary but the horror clichés i.e. Myers slowly approaches a character in a car that won't start. Will Myers get them?! A character runs away from Myers but falls down. Will Myers catch them?! Myers is seen walking down a hallway but the character has their back to him. Will they turn around in time?!    

We also notice in this sequel that Laurie is not a driving force of the plot. After Dr. Loomis shoots Michael Myers, Laurie is taken to a hospital, where she remains for the rest of the picture. Her character is also heavily sedated for the remainder of the movie. The character is constantly the victim of the plot. Meaning she is always on the defense, always reacting to something happening to her.

The driving force of the movie is Dr. Loomis. The movie is as much of a showdown between the doctor and Michael Myers as it is between Laurie and Myers. Interestingly enough Jamie Lee Curtis gets higher billing. Literally higher billing. Pleasance and Curtis' name appear on-screen together with Curtis' name written higher on the screen. In the original movie Donald Pleasance is billed first with an "introducing" credit for Curtis.

By today's standards the movie isn't very gory either. This was not the reaction movie critics had at the time however. New York Times movie critic Janet Maslin described the gore as "very explicit and gruesome" but added it "won't make you feel as if you're watching major surgery." Chicago Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert wrote "It is not a horror film but a geek show." I've indicated numerous times excessive violence in horror movies is not scary. To borrow a phrase from Ebert, it does turn those movies into a "geek show". There is nothing scary about watching a character get sliced and diced and "Halloween II" by and large keeps excessive gore off screen. What does it say about me and society when what we see in this movie is an "acceptable" amount of gore? Clearly in 1981 it was pushing the envelope.

Maybe because of Debra Hill's involvement "Halloween II" doesn't feel like an assault on females either. For a genre usually described by some as misogynistic there isn't anything demeaning here. Yes the male to female ratio in the final body count isn't even and yes there is a scene featuring brief female nudity, but we must remember this is an 80s horror movie. At least there is no scene like the one in "The Evil Dead" (1981) where a tree branch penetrates a woman. 

Refreshingly the movie also doesn't focus around Myers killing a group of teenagers or teenage girls, as had been commonplace in the genre during the decade. In "Halloween II" the victims are adults - a security guard, a head nurse, a doctor, and a U.S. Marshal. The movie, and the genre, can't completely escape the fatalities of young adults but it is drastically toned down.

Using a single primary location reminded me of a device used in Carpenter's "Assault on Precinct 13" (1976) which was inspired by the western "Rio Bravo" (1959). Both of these movies used a single small space to create suspense. The hospital setting in "Halloween II" is a much bigger location but the principle idea is the same. The movie's objective is to get all of the characters to meet in the same location for a shoot-out.

Still "Halloween II" feels a bit like a letdown with no big scares. Whatever does get a reaction from an audience will be due to the way the movie builds suspense as the zombie-ish Myers approaches his potential victims. The movie only starts to kick into high gear in the last third of the picture as the first two-thirds establish the final battle.

Forty years after this sequel the "Halloween" franchise is still a cash-cow. In a couple of weeks the latest installment, "Halloween Kills" (2021) will be released and in the following year there are plans to release "Halloween Ends" (2022) which would bring the total number of movies to lucky 13. Even director Rick Rosenthal would return to this material in "Halloween: Resurrection" (2002).

At the end of "Halloween II" the closing credits bring us back to the song "Mr. Sandman". Maybe the writers were on to something even though they didn't know countless sequels and remakes would follow. Maybe these two characters are made for each other. Maybe Michael Myers is the man Laurie sees in her dreams. Sleep tight!