Halloween II (1981)
This is a sequel which ups the ante in every possible way. Loomis now has first-hand evidence that Myers is completely inhuman and he is out for blood. The killings by Myers are more impressive and now that there's a greater sense of urgency the pacing has been upped too. There are even some impressive effects towards the end. And while I wasn't as impressed as I wanted to be with the first person perspective scene at the beginning of the first "Halloween" movie, I was absolutely thrilled by the one here. This time around, watching Michael Myers pick up a knife in first-person perspective was a genuinely troubling moment and I was very impressed by how the whole section towards the beginning was handled.
As for the movie as a whole, the central premise is that most of the action takes place at the hospital. Michael Myers is still after Laurie and so he makes his way into the hospital. The odd thing though, is that hospitals are never really all dark and abandoned like this one. Even when less busy you'd generally expect to find bright lights all over the place. Still, it's a neat little horror premise and while movies like "Halloween" and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" admittedly get a lot of deserved credit for what they are able to achieve without much, or even any, gore at all, I am glad they decided to increase the amount of gore for this instalment.
I want to give a shout out at this stage of the review to "Cold Prey 2". The sequel to "Cold Prey", the Norwegian slasher movie set in the mountains in an area popular with skiiers, owes a great deal to "Halloween II". As with "Halloween II", "Cold Prey 2" is a slasher sequel set in a hospital which also expands the mythology of the serial killer. I am very impressed by the way the first two "Cold Prey" movies successfully learn from earlier slasher movies and manage to exemplify the very best the slasher genre has to offer.
Ingrid Bolsø Berdal as 'Jannicke' in "Cold Prey 2"
Expanding the mythology of your villain in the sequel is a good idea. It's all very well showing us the monster again (and Myers is still mysterious and monsterous), but we need some new hook to keep us guessing about that villain. The vampire genre is constantly being re-invented and each new vampire movie adds some new spin to the vampire lore. Even the traditional Hammer Horror movies would avoid finishing off Christopher Lee the exact same way every time and each new demise gives us new insight into vampire weaknesses. But here it's revealed part way through that Laurie was actually being directly targeted by Mike. That's not really what we see in the previous movie. We only really see Myers going after her because she walks into the house he grew up in to find her friends. However, it is randomly decreed in this sequel that Laurie is actually Myers sister, now adopted into a new family with no recognition of their shared origins.
Still, that's not really my big problem with this film. I am more annoyed with the obnoxious doctor who sings vulgar songs to himself. He's clearly being set up as a victim for Michael from the moment he turns up, just as the nurse he's trying to pull is there to introduce some "obligatory" nudity. Their whole section of the film is an annoying distraction from the main plot and it's a pity because the rest of the film is great and there's a very exciting finale with Dr. Loomis finally playing a much more vital role in the story (rather than just waiting around near the Myers' house and yet strangely failing to notice the teenagers going into the abandoned house to have sex).
I recognise that "Halloween II" needed the first film to set up the premise and to enable us to leap into the action in the way we do. However, I feel like it does a great job building on what has come before and provides a much more exciting and rather better paced horror movie than what came before. Basically, "Halloween" felt like one long tease and "Halloween II" finally gives us a proper payoff.
"Halloween II" still isn't fantastic. This was still early for this particular wave of slasher movies and I don't feel like we really get much inventiveness here. However, "Halloween II" is very effective for a slasher movie of the time playing it straight and this was a very satisfying piece of entertainment.
B+
