{"id":24099,"date":"2021-10-12T14:53:20","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T13:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/?p=24099"},"modified":"2021-10-12T15:16:04","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T14:16:04","slug":"thirteen-films-of-halloween-reviews-halloween-1981","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/thirteen-films-of-halloween-reviews-halloween-1981\/","title":{"rendered":"Thirteen Films of Halloween Reviews: Halloween II (1981)"},"content":{"rendered":"

No one could have imagined the success of John Carpenters \u2018Halloween\u2019 upon its release in 1978. It became a financial and critical success and created the slasher genre as we know it today and all its quality (or should I say lack thereof). In the wake of Halloween\u2019s success, many studios saw the potential in the market for low-budget gore fests, each film took the Halloween formula, added more sex and nudity, mountains of over-the-top blood and guts and a lack of originality.<\/span><\/p>\n

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With franchises like Friday the 13<\/span>th<\/span> on the rise, it was only a matter of time before Halloween returned to the big screen. Three years later and a whole host of bootleg imitators, John Carpenter and Debra Hill returned as writers and producers (unwillingly) for Halloween II, and what we got was a major fall from grace, even if it is slightly passable compared to other films of its kind at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

The film takes place immediately after the events of the original Halloween, with Michael Myers alive and kicking after being shot six times and falling off a balcony. Laurie Strode is taken to the nearby hospital where the remainder of the movie takes place, while Doctor Loomis is in a panic trying to find and capture Michael before his murderous rampage continues.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before you know it, the stalking and slashing begins, this time however, the film leaves little to the imagination. With an onslaught of gruesome kills that feel rather forced and unconventional, simply to add shock value to drive ticket sales up. While Halloween caught lightning in a bottle, its sequel felt forced.<\/span><\/p>\n

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John Carpenter, Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence on set of the 1981 film.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The characters this time around are all over the place, each one could be labelled as \u2018dispensable character number one\u2019 and so on and so forth. Jamie Lee Curtis (Laurie Strode) and Donald Pleasance (Doctor Loomis) return to reprise their roles from the original. Pleasance again brings his all to the role but is let down by the cliched script. Jamie Lee Curtis on the other hand feels wasted here, her story plays out from her hospital bed and wearing a terrible looking wig, she is used sparingly throughout, she only comes into play when Michael eventually finds her towards the latter half on the story.<\/span><\/p>\n

The film suffers greatly from the change of direction this time around, with Carpenter disinterested in returning to the directors\u2019 chair, he contractually returned to pin the script, and you can tell he really gave a rat\u2019s arse about the outcome of the final product. Carpenter himself admitted that he mainly got through writing the screenplay with a lot of beer and cigarettes. Writing what can only be deemed as the idiot plot, where every character in the movie acts like fucking idiots to keep the film going. Any form of common sense and Halloween II would be over before it started.<\/span><\/p>\n

Halloween II was directed by new-comer Rick Rosenthal, in his defence he tries, but he was given a double-edged sword from Carpenter piss poor script. To his credit, he did negate any blood-soaked violence from the first draft of the script, but thanks to Carpenter (who battled hard for the gore to remain) the film feels pedestrian. This was one of Carpenter’s many mistakes but his greatest one would define a franchise.<\/span><\/p>\n

Michael Myers was scary because he was unknown, the less we knew, the more frightening it became. All that is thrown out the window, when Carpenter inexplicably decided to give the character a motivation.<\/span><\/p>\n