Halloween Retrospective: Halloween II (1981)

Halloween Retrospective | #2 | Halloween II (1981)

In my last retrospective on the original Halloween, I mentioned that the series was originally supposed to be an anthology franchise, with each installment being helmed by a different director and featuring a different scary story related to the titular holiday. It’s a fascinating idea that, had it been allowed to flourish, could have been something truly great. For better or worse, though, that’s not the franchise we have today, and if any one particular film in the franchise is to blame, it’s 1981’s Halloween II. The original Halloween ended in a cliffhanger, and Halloween II seems to have been created for one purpose alone; to pick off where the first film left off as Laurie Strode is rushed to the hospital and to end the story of that fateful night once and for all.

Halloween II is a bit of a mixed bag of a film. As a sequel to the original, it’s equally mixed. Much of what made the first film so memorable is either absent or here in diminished quantities. The overall minimalism of the original seems to have been lost. This time, John Carpenter’s score takes the same themes and motifs from the original but adds more bells and whistles, causing it to feel grander but overall less enjoyable. It’s not really creepy so much as silly, aside from a few quality numbers towards the end. The direction by Rick Rosenthal isn’t bad, but it feels far less intentional than John Carpenter’s in the first film. It’s not really fair to blame him for this, as this film was notoriously plagued with competing visions and production issues throughout its creation, but the end product is what it is. The story itself is more complex, with more moving parts and a much higher body count along with more grisly violence. At times it feels like it wants to flesh out the mythology and meaning behind the Michael Myers story but at other times it feels more focused on the violence and spectacle in a way that the original never was. Even the voyeuristic elements are lost; the POV tracking shots remain but, as I said before, they feel far less intentional this time around.

The story itself also falls fairly short. Even with all its new layers – the manhunt for Michael Myers that distracts the police from the actual threat at the hospital, where the staff try and figure out what’s happening while also trying to keep Laurie Strode safe, all while Michael Myer’s history and meaning as a horror figure are explored around the edges – it doesn’t really amount to anything particularly deep that the original didn’t already imply. The most it’s able to say conclusively is that there is a darkness in everyone, something that was already clear in the first film. Of course, there’s also the now-famous revelation that Laurie Strode is actually Michael Myers’ long-lost sister, a fascinating layer that is unfortunately not explored enough, as a story that should have focused on her emotional arc instead mostly relegates her to running around and having even less personal agency than in the first film. There’s some weird romantic tension between her and a young paramedic that feels completely one-sided and goes nowhere, and other than that most of the characters in this film seem to exist only for a body count.

Really, this is Dr. Sam Loomis’s show. He was a big part of the original, but in this one he’s really the only truly interesting character as he has to grapple with the consequences of the mistakes he and the facility he’s affiliated with have made. His quest for Michael Myers keeps things interesting while nothing is happening at the hospital, and then as everything converges he’s ultimately the one who proves to be the big hero in the end. Donald Pleasence does a fine job here and his arc is the most memorable part of this film.

With all the criticism I’ve leverage against it, you’d be forgiven for thinking that I dislike this film, but that’s not entirely true. There’s not really all that much of substance here, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t great fun to watch. The first half is a little dry but once Michael Myers reaches the hospital and the stakes start to ratchet up, this film becomes as tense as any good thriller as he stalks through the facilities and destroys everyone in his wake. There’s a certain gruesome fun to be had with slashers like this; they aren’t deep and substantial, but they keep you on the edge of your seat as you wonder, with bated breath, who’s going to get out alive and who’s going to die next – and how.

Michael Myers was established in the first film to be a force of nature, and while he looks a little bit sillier in this one due to the costuming and lighting effects just feeling a little cheaper overall, the higher body count and more gruesome kills really hit home just how brutal and unstoppable he is. There are a number of genuinely effective shots, thrills and kills, particularly in the early and later phases of this film as things wind down from the original and then pick back up again in the final act. There’s just something really entertaining about it that manages to hold it together. As unfocused and at times underwhelming as it is, it’s still really satisfying to watch in a lot of ways, particularly the final confrontations between Laurie Strode, Dr. Loomis and Michael Myers.

If it seems like I’ve talked more about the negatives in this film than the positives, it’s because it’s easier to articulate its flaws than it is its strengths. I can pick apart all the things that’s wrong with it, but at the end of the day it’s still just a fun movie to watch. It’s not the film it could have been, and it’s certainly not the masterpiece that the original was, but while that film elevated pulp horror to an art form, this one feels content to just be a fun spooky time. Whether that’s good or bad is ultimately up to you. For me, it’s a little bit of both.

Good or bad, Halloween II cemented in the minds of audiences the idea that this franchise was specifically about Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. Whether or not an anthology franchise would have been better or worse than the one we have now, it didn’t end up coming to pass, and that is largely due to the existence of this film. Halloween II may have been only a minor success compared to the original, but it perhaps had the greatest effect on the future of the franchise out of all of the Halloween films to date. Is this for better or worse? With this series, I’ll be figuring that out soon enough.