Not the first and will not be the last John Carpenter movie on my list. In my younger days, this man could do no wrong when directing a movie. He created some of my favourite movies and in this case a sequel that probably should not have worked based on the actors being so much older than they were trying to be. Based on the thought he didn't really want to do this movie, and in fact didn’t direct this one but he saw it as an opportunity to finish that story to draw closure to the Halloween story and an end to Michael Myers the character that gave me my nickname. It was his end for this, it was his wrapping up with a big bow the story that began with the first Halloween movie that in fairness gave him so much success and got his name out there. This was his way of tucking it neatly into bed and saying goodnight to all associated with it. Ok I mentioned in the conclusion of the last review that there was five words that I would mention here that would just instantly spark my interest and those words are John Carpenter, Michael Myers, and Halloween. This movie was released in 1981 some three years after the original movie. This was written and produced by John Carpenter and Debra Hill it stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance who returned as the original roles from the first film. There were other actors involved in the movie Charles Cyphers, Lance Guest, Pamela Susan Shoop, Hunter Von Leer, Tawny Moyer, Anna Alicia there was even a return for Nancy Loomis. The film was distributed by Universal Pictures and I think it originally premiered in America on the 30th of October, it was produced on a budget of $2.5m And went on to give a similar figure from the box office in $25.5m. It's almost as if they just moved the decimal point one to the right. It had a typical runtime for horror movie at just over an hour and a half long and it wasn't directed by John Carpenter believe it or not, that job was given to Rick Rosenthal. Rick hadn't directed many movies before Halloween II, and he didn’t direct that many others since, but he did direct Bad Boys in 1983 for example as well as Distant Thunder 1988 but then again, he is also responsible for Halloween: Resurrection.
Plot wise this begins on Halloween night literally seconds after the conclusion of the original movie, this picks up exactly where that movie ended. Michael Myers had been shot and fallen from a balcony and when Dr Loomis looked out, he was gone. Michael had taken to stalking the streets again of Haddonfield he had taken a kitchen knife from an elderly couple and then killed a teenage girl next door. To recover from her attack Laurie Strode is taken to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital whilst Dr Loomis continues his pursuit of the killer on the streets of Haddonfield. The Sheriff learns that his daughter may be one of the victims and leaves Dr Loomis with a deputy to continue the search. At the hospital various new characters have joined the story even though the hospital is very empty of patience I believe there is only two people maybe three in the accident emergency section on Halloween night. Michael discovers Laurie has been taken to the hospital as he overhears a news broadcast and then decides to make his way to the hospital to finish the job he began. As soon as he arrives at the hospital, he cuts the phone lines, makes sure the security guards are not going to be an issue and then sets about removing various members of staff including doctors’ nurses but no patience I believe I don't think he kills any patients in this movie. He steadily works his way around the hospital in search of the room where Laurie is. Meanwhile Dr Loomis has worked out that there is a relationship between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers so knows that Michael will be heading for the hospital as soon as possible so he drops everything he heads to the hospital to organise a rescue of Lori and the detainment of Michael. Is that going to work? Is it wise to chase a supernatural killer? Saying that it was only the second movie so they may not have appreciated that they would have to kill Michael another seven or eight times just to finally see him off. Only for him to come back and I believe he's coming back again next year (2021) but there we go I've moved on. I've moved away from the plot, haven't I? I should really be starting a new paragraph and just talking about the film.
So, that is what I am going to do. I really enjoyed this movie. There are lots of reasons probably why I shouldn't enjoy this movie. Nothing to do with the plot per say, But more to do with the action and what you see on screen. There is finally blood in the Halloween movie it takes the second movie for this to happen, but it happens. They use reel blood, which is redder than most and they do use a lot of blood in this movie. Don’t know if they are that ‘gory’ but there are some nasty images on screen. It is probably the special effects the have dated this movie, Laurie's rather poor wig is the reason why not to enjoy this movie. There are many, sequencies, scenes and acting in this movie where you look at the screen and scratch your head and ask, ‘Oh really!?!’. There are decisions that people make that people would never make but apparently it is acceptable in this movie. This was the advent of horror movies and where no doubt scream got their ideas from. The walking into a darkroom, the oh the light switch isn't working, the torch is broken, this window smashed, let's go in the room and find what we can find in the dark shadowy dim lit room with the stench of death. Being aware that there's a killer on the loose that night but still they go about their business like no problem. Nothing is going to stop them, and it leads into something that I haven’t mentioned yet. That's because of the scores being so dramatically different from my own score on this movie. With mine being in the high 80’s IMDb gave this film 6.5 out of 10 and they were generous, compared to Rotten Tomatoes who gave this epic movie (in my eyes) a score of 30%. This is one issue, but I will admit there are flaws in this film there is poor acting, poor decision’s, silly things make this movie not anywhere near as good as the first film, but it had its good side. Dr Loomis and the relationship with Michael really developed in this movie which ultimately meant they could use those characters and have them running with them for however many sequels they made after the original. There are reasons why this movie does work being dated should not be an issue for liking or disliking a movie you must judge the movie for when it was made and the time it is set in. One thing that gets me each and every time I watch this movie and its, where is all the patience? Seriously this is a hospital in America on a holiday that is celebrated with teenage parties yet the only entrant to A&E is a kid with a cut lip. Where is everybody, there has just been murders happening in town, but one victim is brought here but nothing else. This movie still works, it is dated, and it is dated by the special effects more than anything else. Realistically horror has moved on from this movie but if we don't have this movie then the horror genre will be less without it, ok it has moved on far beyond this movie but it still has its place. As it bridges the original film to the fourth movies sorry this is true as I cannot include Halloween III in any of the Michael Myers discussions.
Next on the list isn't it An American slash English version of a foreign movie they remade just so it was in English and you didn't have to put up with those oh so difficult subtitles that means you're reading rather than watching the screen. Clearly, I believe it's they’ve done a good job otherwise it would not be ahead of Halloween 2 in my list. Ready?
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