Halloween II

Halloweeen II (1981)

Runtime: 93 minutes

Directed by: Rick Rosenthal

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Charles Cyphers, Lance Guest

From: Universal

No, I’m not writing about the apparently awful Rob Zombie Halloween II that came out last year. Rather, this is the first sequel to the legendary original Halloween, a movie I haven’t seen recently but remember pretty well as I’ve seen it on a few occasions. Back in 2007 there was a special one night only 20th anniversary screening so I got to watch it on the big screen. However, I’ve only seen this particular film once, at least ten years ago on a VHS tape! I really didn’t remember too much about it. I more remember “The Halloween that has nothing to do with Michael Myers (III) and the fourth and fifth in the series (with Danielle Harris; believe it or not, on another night there was a nationwide deal where amazingly those two movies in the series were shown back to back on the big screen) rather than this one. I haven’t seen the others in the series and believe me, Rob Zombie’s contributions to the series don’t count at all.

The plot to this is rather simple; it starts right after the first one ends… which if you don’t remember, Laurie Strode (Curtis) is able to escape Myers after Dr. Loomis (Pleasence) shoots him six times and falls off a balcony, but then vanishes. This movie has Laurie going to the hospital-which is staffed by a totally incompetent crew-but Michael discovers where she’s at. Meanwhile, Dr. Loomis and Sheriff Brackett (Cyphers) are on the hunt for him.

This movie was produced and written by John Carpenter and Deborah Hill so you’d hope that two of the main forces behind the original could work their magic again. Well… there were some creepy and chilling moments (e.g., there’s a scene where in the background a character gets strangled by Michael and in the foreground there’s another character, totally oblivious to what’s going on behind them) but far too often the film ends up being disjointed, confused, and just plain dumb. You’re happy to see Michael kill some of those doofuses, and I don’t know if that was supposed to be the plan. And then there’s a rather ridiculous finale, especially when you consider the subsequent sequels. Alas, tis a shame…

There is one interesting thing I do have to mention, and it revolves around the back of the DVD case for this motion picture; I rented this from Blockbuster recently and as with most of their rentals the DVD’s come in their original case. On it I suddenly noticed quite the blatant spoiler, and yes I’ll be revealing it but I’m sure that most of you already know it by now.

I have no idea how this got out and Universal didn't notice it, but if you read the blurb on the back of the DVD, it says the following:

"It seems the inhuman Michael Myers is still very much alive and out for more revenge as he stalks the deserted halls of the hospital where his sister lays waiting. As he gets closer and close to his terrified target, Dr. Loomis discovers the chilling mystery behind the crazy psychopath's savage actions."

Um, idiots at Universal... not only did you spoil the "chilling mystery" but then right after you did so, you bragged that the movie HAD a "chilling mystery"! I couldn't believe it when I realized they made such an obvious mistake and it wasn't caught by anyone before it was released. Yes, it is true that the mystery is the relationship between Michael and Laurie (something that was later admitted to be a mistake), but to spoil it like that was not something I was expecting.

I'll be back Friday night with a new review.