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yendiIt's time for the first, and still best, sequel, Halloween II:
Concept: Picking up immediately after the last film ended, we see Loomis and Sheriff Brackett trying to figure out where Michael has gone, while Laurie gets taken to the hospital. Michael, after re-arming himself and committing a murder, makes his way to the hospital, where he starts clearing the way so that he can get to Laurie. As Loomis and Brackett make their way through clues, and Michael makes his way through victims, we discover that Michael's murder spree that night was more than just a set of random acts of violence. He was hunting down his one living sister, Laurie!
Body Count: 9. If you watch the TV version, you'll get anywhere from 5-9, depending on what they show at any given time. Also, in spite of the fact that the theatrical version doesn't confirm it, I'm treating Jimmy as if he lives, both because they explicitly show him alive on the TV version, and because films 4-6 imply he married Laurie.
Really Bad Kills: None.
Really Good Kills: Almost all of them. The opening kill, of Alice, is a nice variation on the "punishment" kills in the previous movie. Instead of sex or drugs, it's Alice's disdainful comment about the Elrons -- "Maybe he started beating her." -- that leads to Michael stabbing her. And we get traditional punishment kills for young lovers Karen and Budd. When the paramedic and the nurse sneak off for some physical therapy in the hot tub, Michael follows them and turns the temperature up all the way. When Budd leaves the room to adjust the hot tub's temperature, we see, through the glass, Michael strangling him while Karen relaxes. Karen, a classic slasher victim, assumes that the guy who's walked in and is toucher her neck is her boyfriend, and only realizes otherwise when he grabs her head and drowns/boils her in the hot tub.
I'm also a big fan of the Marshall's death, even if it's a cliche. He thought Michael was dead, and got his throat slashed for it. Unlike most people who fall for this, he did note that Michael wasn't breathing, and the swiftness with which Michael then moved always reminds me of the description of Hannibal Lecter ripping a nurse to shreds while his heart rate doesn't even change.
And who doesn't shudder when they see Janet get stabbed in the head with a hypodermic needle?
Some of the other deaths -- Dr. Mixter's needle in the eye, Mrs. Alves's blood loss -- are off screen, but still nice finds.
Celebrities: Aside from Curtis and Pleasance, we had Lance Guest, the star of The Last Starfighter and Jaws: The Revenge, as Laurie's potential crush object. We also get a very early (and tiny) appearance by Dana Carvey (it's a blink or you miss it moment). And Ana Alicia, the nurse who gets the needle, went on to be one of the leads on Falcon Crest for nearly a decade.
Denouement: Loomis and the marshall get to the hospital after most everyone's dead. Upon seeing Michael (who walks through a glass door, a great moment), Loomis shoots him four times, but you can't keep a good killer down. After killing the marshall, Michael chases down his sister, and even her shooting his eyes out can't stop him. Fortunately, they're in a room with tanks of oxygen, and after turning on the tanks (whose noise serves to distract Michael, as well), Loomis gets Laurie out of the room. He then flicks his bic, and kaboom! We get a brief teaser, as Michael, fully on fire, staggers out of the room, but then he falls down, and the nightmare is over.
Miscellany: Like Resurrection, this was directed by Rick Rostenthal, although it's known that Carpenter was not happy with the job RR did, and went back and re-shot a number of scenes. The script itself is by Carpenter and the late and wonderful Debra Hill.
Nancy Loomis (who played Annie in the first movie) has a brief vocal cameo as the girl on the phone with Alice.
The kid who gets killed under the assumption that he's Michael, Ben Tramer, is the same kid that Laurie said she had a crush on in the first movie. If that doesn't open up the way for Jimmie, nothing does!
When Loomis and the Sheriff discover the word "Samhain" written on the chalkboard, they not only fail their "pronounce Gaelic" roll, but Loomis then goes a diatribe about Michael being inspired by the ancient Druids (how, exactly, he read up on them while in the asylum, I don't know). Personally, I want to see an ancient Druid slasher flick now.
Overall: This film gets way more grief than it deserves. That's because it is, technically, vastly inferior to the original film. That said, it's not only much better than all the other sequels, it's way better than most other slasher movies, period. The first Halloween movie is a great horror movie, but it's not a slasher flick. This is a true slasher, pretty much Carpenter's answer to Giallo movies. And as such, it's a blast. Michael still has that warped sense of humor (witness the murder of Karen), and isn't filled with compulsive need to just take life (see the opening scene in the Elron house, or later when he's walking through town).
The big debate about this film is whether it was a good idea to give Michael motivation. In the first movie, he's a menacing shape without purpose. Here, we get presented with Laurie as his specific target, and we get told that she's his long-lost (and adopted out) other sister. Depending on where you stand, this either adds layers to Michael, or takes away some of his mystery. Personally, I'm okay with things, because one movie with a killer without motivation is fine, but after that, I like adding more information (although there are limits -- Scream 3 being an obvious example of going way too far). Nothing here hurts the first movie.
See this movie. Don't watch the tv edit, either. If you're at all a fan of the slasher genre that rose up post-Halloween, this is the best of the early lot, and is worth it for that reason, alone. Likewise, if you're a fan of Bava or Argento, here's a movie that captures much of what makes their flicks so much fun, as well. This is good, old-fashioned slasher fun.
Concept: Picking up immediately after the last film ended, we see Loomis and Sheriff Brackett trying to figure out where Michael has gone, while Laurie gets taken to the hospital. Michael, after re-arming himself and committing a murder, makes his way to the hospital, where he starts clearing the way so that he can get to Laurie. As Loomis and Brackett make their way through clues, and Michael makes his way through victims, we discover that Michael's murder spree that night was more than just a set of random acts of violence. He was hunting down his one living sister, Laurie!
Body Count: 9. If you watch the TV version, you'll get anywhere from 5-9, depending on what they show at any given time. Also, in spite of the fact that the theatrical version doesn't confirm it, I'm treating Jimmy as if he lives, both because they explicitly show him alive on the TV version, and because films 4-6 imply he married Laurie.
Really Bad Kills: None.
Really Good Kills: Almost all of them. The opening kill, of Alice, is a nice variation on the "punishment" kills in the previous movie. Instead of sex or drugs, it's Alice's disdainful comment about the Elrons -- "Maybe he started beating her." -- that leads to Michael stabbing her. And we get traditional punishment kills for young lovers Karen and Budd. When the paramedic and the nurse sneak off for some physical therapy in the hot tub, Michael follows them and turns the temperature up all the way. When Budd leaves the room to adjust the hot tub's temperature, we see, through the glass, Michael strangling him while Karen relaxes. Karen, a classic slasher victim, assumes that the guy who's walked in and is toucher her neck is her boyfriend, and only realizes otherwise when he grabs her head and drowns/boils her in the hot tub.
I'm also a big fan of the Marshall's death, even if it's a cliche. He thought Michael was dead, and got his throat slashed for it. Unlike most people who fall for this, he did note that Michael wasn't breathing, and the swiftness with which Michael then moved always reminds me of the description of Hannibal Lecter ripping a nurse to shreds while his heart rate doesn't even change.
And who doesn't shudder when they see Janet get stabbed in the head with a hypodermic needle?
Some of the other deaths -- Dr. Mixter's needle in the eye, Mrs. Alves's blood loss -- are off screen, but still nice finds.
Celebrities: Aside from Curtis and Pleasance, we had Lance Guest, the star of The Last Starfighter and Jaws: The Revenge, as Laurie's potential crush object. We also get a very early (and tiny) appearance by Dana Carvey (it's a blink or you miss it moment). And Ana Alicia, the nurse who gets the needle, went on to be one of the leads on Falcon Crest for nearly a decade.
Denouement: Loomis and the marshall get to the hospital after most everyone's dead. Upon seeing Michael (who walks through a glass door, a great moment), Loomis shoots him four times, but you can't keep a good killer down. After killing the marshall, Michael chases down his sister, and even her shooting his eyes out can't stop him. Fortunately, they're in a room with tanks of oxygen, and after turning on the tanks (whose noise serves to distract Michael, as well), Loomis gets Laurie out of the room. He then flicks his bic, and kaboom! We get a brief teaser, as Michael, fully on fire, staggers out of the room, but then he falls down, and the nightmare is over.
Miscellany: Like Resurrection, this was directed by Rick Rostenthal, although it's known that Carpenter was not happy with the job RR did, and went back and re-shot a number of scenes. The script itself is by Carpenter and the late and wonderful Debra Hill.
Nancy Loomis (who played Annie in the first movie) has a brief vocal cameo as the girl on the phone with Alice.
The kid who gets killed under the assumption that he's Michael, Ben Tramer, is the same kid that Laurie said she had a crush on in the first movie. If that doesn't open up the way for Jimmie, nothing does!
When Loomis and the Sheriff discover the word "Samhain" written on the chalkboard, they not only fail their "pronounce Gaelic" roll, but Loomis then goes a diatribe about Michael being inspired by the ancient Druids (how, exactly, he read up on them while in the asylum, I don't know). Personally, I want to see an ancient Druid slasher flick now.
Overall: This film gets way more grief than it deserves. That's because it is, technically, vastly inferior to the original film. That said, it's not only much better than all the other sequels, it's way better than most other slasher movies, period. The first Halloween movie is a great horror movie, but it's not a slasher flick. This is a true slasher, pretty much Carpenter's answer to Giallo movies. And as such, it's a blast. Michael still has that warped sense of humor (witness the murder of Karen), and isn't filled with compulsive need to just take life (see the opening scene in the Elron house, or later when he's walking through town).
The big debate about this film is whether it was a good idea to give Michael motivation. In the first movie, he's a menacing shape without purpose. Here, we get presented with Laurie as his specific target, and we get told that she's his long-lost (and adopted out) other sister. Depending on where you stand, this either adds layers to Michael, or takes away some of his mystery. Personally, I'm okay with things, because one movie with a killer without motivation is fine, but after that, I like adding more information (although there are limits -- Scream 3 being an obvious example of going way too far). Nothing here hurts the first movie.
See this movie. Don't watch the tv edit, either. If you're at all a fan of the slasher genre that rose up post-Halloween, this is the best of the early lot, and is worth it for that reason, alone. Likewise, if you're a fan of Bava or Argento, here's a movie that captures much of what makes their flicks so much fun, as well. This is good, old-fashioned slasher fun.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-28 01:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-28 01:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-28 01:25 pm (UTC)Jason? Wrong killer?
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-28 01:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-28 01:33 pm (UTC)I was going to ask if you thought there would be another Halloween movie when I saw this (http://imdb.com/title/tt0373883/).
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-31 01:05 am (UTC)And yeah, I knew that they were doing another film, alas.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-28 01:57 pm (UTC)I guess people are more comfortable with the idea that things happen for a reason. bah.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-31 01:06 am (UTC)I think the need to take the motives and expand on them is a natural issue in sequels, though. That was another flaw in the Scream movies. Since the killers were offed in the first film, the second film couldn't go that route (taking the inverse F13 option instead), and that ended with the third movie taking it to the extreme.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-28 02:20 pm (UTC)Considering the sequels, I'd rate III above this, with the rest nowhere.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-28 02:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-31 01:08 am (UTC)Kinda sorta related, but not really
Date: 2005-10-28 03:37 pm (UTC)http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2005-10-26-horror-masters_x.htm
Re: Kinda sorta related, but not really
Date: 2005-10-31 01:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-28 07:39 pm (UTC)Am I nuts or do I remember there being some extra "backstory" stuff in the network version? I coulda sworn there was, and since Uni decimated the most recent H2 DVD release (at the last minute), I'm still curious about this material.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-31 01:10 am (UTC)