“Why won’t he die?”
John Carpenter’s Halloween is a strange beast. In many ways, it was a slapdash, fly-by-night production, with much of the behind the scenes personnel wearing multiple hats. But it was nevertheless so successful that it arguably helped create, and inarguably helped define, a subgenre in horror: the slasher film. In a genre so prone to franchising, Halloween is remarkable in that it is not a closed loop, but it also doesn’t feel like Carpenter (and screenwriter Debra Hill) deliberately left the door open for a sequel. That said, if there was going to be a sequel to Halloween, as there almost assuredly was, the best approach is the one taken by Carpenter and Hill (who co-wrote the script) in Halloween II.
That’s not to say that this is a perfect sequel – oh no, it has its flaws. It won’t be joining the ranks of Aliens or The Empire Strikes Back any time soon. But the remarkable thing about the film is that, for long stretches, it’s able to recapture the immediacy and urgency of Carpenter’s classic. Rick Rosenthal is in the director’s chair this time, and while he’s no great shakes as a filmmaker, that’s forgivable, because he has the template of the excellent first film to build upon.
Halloween II begins literally right where Halloween ends; the first few minutes, in fact, are a reiteration of the ending of the first film. I’m a sucker for sequels that pick up mere seconds after the original, something that the Evil Dead series did with aplomb. Much like those films, Halloween and Halloween II could ostensibly be edited together into one film, and not suffer for it. The best thing about Halloween II is that it doesn’t feel superfluous, it doesn’t feel like a cash grab. It feels like a natural continuation of the story. The fact that Carpenter signed on to co-write (he also helped with the music) but not direct shows his frame of mind: there is meat left on this bone, but not much beyond this film. There’s a reason he was disinvolved from the franchise until David Gordon Green’s 2018 update.
When Halloween ends, the audience asks: where did Michael go? This film answers that. Shooting from Michael’s POV is just as slickly effective as it was in the first film, and we get little glimpses of Michael’s escape. This is a good way to expand this neighborhood, and one of the scariest shots is of Michael standing unnoticed in an elderly couple’s kitchen. The audience can feel him deciding whether or not to kill them. Ultimately he decides not to, but we know the choice was arbitrary. There’s no real code at work here, but a skewed sense of logic, and in many ways Michael Myers calls to mind Anton Chigurgh from No Country for Old Men: an unreasonable avatar of evil who nonetheless possesses his own internal reasoning.
Much of the movie takes place at the hospital Laurie is taken to, but before that, there are some nice touches. Sheriff Brackett has to leave, distraught over the death of his daughter; the ambulance drivers recognize Laurie as the daughter of a real estate developer and as a classmate of a sibling, respectively. At times, the film goes too far with this – for some reason seemingly everyone at the hospital knows Laurie – and that makes Haddonfield feel more like Mayberry. When it works, it works. It’s a mostly even balance.
The bulk of the action takes place at the hospital, which is a divisive location for a lot of viewers. From a narrative standpoint, it makes sense that this is where Laurie would end up, and that she would be too distraught and drugged up to be a big part of the action. That’s not the problem. The problem is that the hospital is literally deserted, filled with no more than ten people at a time. It’s the middle of the night, sure, but there was also a triple murder just reported on the news. I’ll admit to being bothered by the world’s darkest, emptiest hospital, but here’s what will help your viewing of the film: think of the empty hospital as the film embracing the schlocky B-movie that Halloween always flirted with being.
A big problem with Halloween II is that the central cast is a lot less likable and interesting than the first film’s. This doesn’t apply to Laurie, of course; Jamie Lee Curtis is terrific in this role, and makes Laurie one of the most likable, sympathetic protagonists in all of horror. But the personnel of the hospital just isn’t that interesting. The nurses – Jill, Alice, Karen, Janet – are all pretty interchangeable, and Laurie’s ostensible love interest, Jimmy, is fairly bland. There’s also an abrasive character named Budd, who acts like Harry Dean Stanton, which is a coincidence because Stanton plays a character named Bud in Repo Man, one of the best movies ever made.
As you can imagine, Michael runs roughshod through the hospital, picking off the staff one by one. Some of the kills are nicely inventive. Michael boils a woman alive in a hot tub, and there’s a great sequence wherein a security guard follows Michael’s trail by a series of broken locks. Halloween II is definitely gorier than its predecessor, which works sometimes. A big hindrance is that Michael is played by a different actor, Dick Warlock, who just doesn’t have the same presence as the original Shape, Nick Castle. Warlock is shorter and stockier, and even though he’s wearing the same mask used in the first film, the face looks more drawn, and somehow younger. This isn’t the muscular Grim Reaper we saw in the first film. The flip side to this is that Warlock’s slight stature helps sell the idea that Michael Myers is 21.
Of course, the big revelation in Halloween II is that Michael and Laurie are related. On one hand, it makes sense, and plays into Michael’s motivation to kill his entire family. On the other hand, it’s a serious misstep for the franchise, and is a needless complication to the story, to the point that David Gordon Green erased all Halloween sequels for the purpose of his 2018 film. Michael Myers works best as a nightmare, and at its best Halloween II has the same sense of inevitability as a bad dream. Michael is best as the personification of evil, which is undercut by his and Laurie’s relationship. It’s unnecessary, and undermines the element of randomness that made the first film so effective. Weirdly enough, even though it’s a major plot point of the series, it doesn’t hamper this film all that much (for the purpose of writing, I’m treating every Halloween film as canon).
As established, Halloween didn’t need a sequel. But the case could be made for one, and the case looks like this. I’m attracted to the idea of one long film detailing Laurie Strode’s entire, horrible night, where she has to endure one horrific scenario after another (I picture S. Craig Zahler directing this). Halloween II feels like the completion of a thought, which is one of the best things one can say about a sequel. It’s not perfect, not by a long shot, but it has a reason to exist, and is buoyed by some incredible imagery, such as a burning Michael Myers lurching out of the flames. A sequel to Halloween was inevitable. Luckily for us, it’s not half bad.
10/1: Hellraiser / The Invitation
10/2: Splice / Banshee Chapter
10/3: Jennifer’s Body / Raw
10/4: Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist / Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
10/5: Kill List / A Field in England
10/6: Halloween II / Halloween III: Season of the Witch
10/7: A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge / A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
10/8: Ginger Snaps / Creep
10/9: Cube / Creep 2
10/10: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) / The Ritual
10/11: Hell House LLC / The Taking of Deborah Logan
10/12: Re-Animator / From Beyond
10/13: Beetlejuice / Sleepy Hollow
10/14: Idle Hands / The Lords of Salem
10/15: The Ring / Noroi: The Curse
10/16: I know What You Did Last Summer / The Monster
10/17: Night of the Living Dead / Train to Busan
10/18: The Devil’s Backone / Southbound
10/19: Event Horizon / Dreamcatcher
10/20: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari / The Bad Seed
10/21: Eyes Without a Face / Goodnight Mommy
10/22: The Strangers / The Strangers: Prey at Night
10/23: In the Mouth of Madness / The Void
10/24: The Amityville Horror / Honeymoon
10/25: Gerald’s Game / Emelie
10/26: The Monster Squad / Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
10/27: Veronica / Jacob’s Ladder
10/28: High Tension / You’re Next
10/29: The Innkeepers / Bug
10/30: The People Under the Stairs / Vampires
10/31: Saw / Saw II
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