Halloween II
Encyclopedia
Halloween II is a 1981 slasher film
directed by Rick Rosenthal
, and written by John Carpenter
and Debra Hill
. It is the second installment in the Halloween series
and is a direct sequel
to the Halloween
set on the same night of October 31, 1978 as the seemingly unkillable Michael Myers
continues to follow his intended victim Laurie Strode
(Jamie Lee Curtis
) to a nearby hospital while Dr. Sam Loomis
(Donald Pleasence
) is still in pursuit of his patient.
Stylistically, Halloween II reproduces certain key elements that made the original Halloween a success, such as first-person camera perspectives and unexceptional settings. The sequel was a box office success, grossing over $25.5 million in the United States.
Originally, Halloween II was intended to be the last chapter of the Halloween series to revolve around Michael Myers and Haddonfield, but after the lacklustre reaction to Halloween III: Season of the Witch
(1982), the Michael Myers character was brought back seven years later in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
(1988).
) begins to worry about her, developing romantic feelings for her despite the chagrin of the head nurse who is trying to keep her resting comfortably.
Michael kills the security guard with a claw hammer and moves on into the hospital after the business hours come to a close, he begins killing off the hospital staff by whatever means come available, strangling one of the ambulance attendants and killing his nurse companion by boiling her in a hot tub. He cuts off the phone lines, cutting off all communications with the outside world which rouses Laurie's suspicions when she discovers the phones aren't working. He kills the head physician and a nurse by injecting air into their eye sockets via needles, and Laurie attempts to flee before Michael can find her. Meanwhile, Loomis follows clues connecting Michael to Samhain
and the occult which might explain his seeming indestructibility, but he is interrupted by a nurse from the mental institution who says she had been ordered to take him back under the enforcement of a US Marshal. Enroute, she tells Loomis that Laurie Strode is Michael Myers' younger sister and Loomis realizes that she is his target before forcibly ordering the trooper to turn around. Jimmy discovers the head nurse while looking for Laurie, dead by being drained of her blood before slipping and falling and injuring himself badly. Laurie manages to escape Michael though barely by going through the boiler room and up to the parking lot outside, discovering dead bodies along the way. She is unable to start any cars however and hides in one. Jimmy arrives and falls unconscious or dead from a massive concussion (which one is never explained). Loomis, the nurse and trooper arrive and just barely save Laurie from being killed by Michael. The trooper's throat is slashed and the two flee into the operating rooms. Laurie shoots out both Michael's eyes, causing him to blindly swing at them, Loomis fills the room with hydrogen gas using the distraction to allow Laurie to escape and he then ignites it, blowing up a good bit of the hospital in the process and evidently immolating them both in the fire.
At daybreak, Laurie is loaded onto an ambulance, having visions of the fire that destroyed the last of her family as she is driven off to safety.
Halloween producers Irwin Yablans
and Moustapha Akkad
invested heavily in the sequel, boasting a much larger budget than its predecessor: $2.5 million (compared to only $320,000 for the original) even though Carpenter refused to direct. Most of the film was shot at Morningside Hospital in Los Angeles, California, and Pasadena Community Hospital in Pasadena, California. There was discussion of filming Halloween II in 3-D
; Hill said, "We investigated a number of 3-D processes ... but they were far too expensive for this particular project. Also, most of the projects we do involve a lot of night shooting—evil lurks at night. It's hard to do that in 3-D."
The sequel was intended to conclude the story of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. The third film, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, released a year later, contained a plot that deviated wholly from that of the first two films. Tommy Lee Wallace
, the director of Halloween III, stated "It is our intention to create an anthology out of the series, sort of along the lines of Night Gallery
, or The Twilight Zone
, only on a much larger scale, of course." When asked, in a 1982 interview, what happened to Myers and Loomis, Carpenter flatly answered, "The Shape is dead. Pleasence's character is dead, too, unfortunately." Neither Carpenter nor Hill were involved in the later sequels that featured Michael Myers again.
magazine, Hill mentions the finished film differs somewhat from initial drafts of the screenplay. The plot twist of Laurie being Michael's sister required a retcon
of the timeline between Judith's murder and the events depicted in the first Halloween; while Michael Myers is said to have committed the crime fifteen years ago and to be twenty-one.
Film critic Roger Ebert
, who was a big admirer of the first film, notes that the plot of the sequel was rather simple: "The plot of Halloween II absolutely depends, of course, on our old friend the Idiot Plot
, which requires that everyone in the movie behave at all times like an idiot. That's necessary because if anyone were to use common sense, the problem would be solved and the movie would be over." Characters were described as shallow and like cardboard. Hill rebuffed such critiques by arguing that "in a thriller film, what a character says is often irrelevant, especially in those sequences where the objective is to build up suspense."
Historian Nicholas Rogers suggests that a portion of the film seems to have drawn inspiration from the "contemporary controversies surrounding the holiday itself." He points specifically to the scene in the film when a young boy in a pirate costume arrives at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital with a razor blade lodged in his mouth, a reference to the urban legend of tainted Halloween candy. According to Rogers, "The Halloween films opened in the wake of the billowing stories about Halloween sadism and clearly traded on the uncertainties surrounding trick-or-treating and the general safety of the festival."
, who had played the adult Michael Myers in the original. Veteran English actor Pleasence continued the role of Dr. Sam Loomis, who had been Myers' psychiatrist for the past 15 years while Myers was institutionalized at Smith's Grove Sanitarium. Curtis (then 22), again played the teenage babysitter Laurie Strode, the younger sister of Myers. Curtis required a wig for the role of long-haired Laurie Strode, as she had her own hair cut shorter. Charles Cyphers reprised the role of Sheriff Leigh Brackett, but his character disappears from the film when the corpse of his daughter Annie (Nancy Kyes
) is discovered. Actor Hunter von Leer
heads the manhunt for Myers in the role of Deputy Gary Hunt. He admitted in an interview that he had never watched Halloween before being cast in the part. He stated, "I did not see the original first but being from a small town, I wanted the Deputy to have compassion."
Stunt performer Dick Warlock
played Michael Myers (as in Halloween, listed as "The Shape" in the credits), replacing Castle who was beginning a career as a director. Warlock's previous experience in film was as a stunt double in films, such as The Green Berets
(1968) and Jaws
(1975), and the 1974 television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker
. In an interview, Warlock explained how he prepared for the role since Myers received far more screen time in the sequel than the original. Warlock said,
The supporting cast consisted of relatively unknown actors and actresses, except for Jeffrey Kramer
and Ford Rainey
. Most of the cast previously or later appeared in films or TV series by Universal Studios
(the distributor for this film). Kramer was previously cast in a supporting role as Deputy Jeff Hendricks in Jaws and Jaws 2
(1978). In Halloween II, Kramer played Dr. Graham, a dentist who examines the charred remains of a boy confused with Myers. Rainey was an actor well-known for his supporting roles on television shows such as Bonanza
, Gunsmoke
, and The Bionic Woman
. He was chosen to play Haddonfield Memorial Hospital's drunk resident doctor, Frederick Mixter. A host of character actors were cast as the hospital's staff. Many were acquaintances of director Rosenthal. He told an interviewer, "I'd been studying acting with Milton Katselas
at the Beverly Hills Playhouse and I brought many people from the Playhouse into Halloween 2." These included Leo Rossi
, Pamela Susan Shoop
, Ana Alicia
, and Gloria Gifford
. Rossi played the part of Budd Scarlotti, a hypersexual EMS driver who mocks Jimmy as a "college boy." Rossi would go on to have minor roles in television series such as Hill Street Blues
and Falcone and several direct-to-video
releases.
Shoop played Nurse Karen Bailey, who is scalded to death by Myers in the hospital therapy tub. Featured in the only nude scene in the film, Shoop discussed filming the scene in an interview: "Now that was hard! The water was freezing cold, and poor Leo Rossi and I could barely keep our teeth from chattering! The water was also pretty dirty and I ended up with an ear infection." Before working with Rosenthal, she had made several cameo appearances on television shows such as Wonder Woman
, B.J. and the Bear
, and later made appearances on Knight Rider and Murder, She Wrote
. Gifford and Alicia played minor supporting roles as head nurse Mrs. Virginia Alves and orderly Janet Marshall. Ana Alicia went on to star for 8 seasons on the highly successful CBS serial, Falcon Crest
. Actor Lance Guest
played an EMS driver, Jimmy Lloyd. In much the same way as the original Halloween had launched the career of Curtis, after Halloween II, Guest went on to star in such films as The Last Starfighter
(1984) and Jaws: The Revenge
(1987) and the television series Life Goes On
. The Last Starfighter director Nick Castle stated in an interview, "When I was assigned to the film, Lance Guest was the first name I wrote down on my list for Alex after seeing him in Halloween II." Castle adds, "He possessed all the qualities I wanted the character to express on the screen, a kind of innocence, shyness, yet determination."
, the art director from the original Halloween, to take the helm. Carpenter told one interviewer, "I had made that film once and I really didn't want to do it again." After Wallace declined, Carpenter chose Rosenthal, a relatively unknown and inexperienced director whose previous credits included episodes of the television series Secrets of Midland Heights (1980–1981). In an interview with Twilight Zone Magazine
, Carpenter explains that Rosenthal was chosen because "he did a terrific short called Toyer. It was full of suspense and tension and terrific performances."
Stylistically, Rosenthal attempted to recreate the elements and themes of the original film. The opening title features a jack-o'-lantern that splits in half to reveal a human skull. In the original, the camera zoomed in on the jack-o'-lantern's left eye. The first scene of the film is presented through a first-person camera format in which a voyeuristic Michael Myers enters an elderly couple's home and steals a knife from the kitchen. Rosenthal attempts to reproduce the "jump" scenes present in Halloween, but does not film Myers on the periphery, which is where he appeared in many of the scenes of the original. Under Rosenthal's direction, Myers is the central feature of a majority of the scenes. In an interview with Luke Ford
, Rosenthal explains,
The decision to include more gore and nudity in the sequel was not made by Rosenthal, who contends that it was Carpenter who chose to make the film much bloodier than the original. According to the film's official website, "Carpenter came in and directed a few sequences to clean up some of Rosenthal's work." One reviewer of the film notes that "Carpenter, concerned that the picture would be deemed too 'tame' by the slasher audience, re-filmed several death scenes with more gore." When asked about his role in the directing process, Carpenter told an interviewer:
Rosenthal was not pleased with Carpenter's changes. He reportedly complained that Carpenter "ruined [my] carefully paced film." Regardless, many of the graphic scenes contained elements not seen before in film. Roger Ebert claims, "This movie has the first close-up I can remember of a hypodermic needle being inserted into an eyeball." The film is often categorized as a splatter film
rather than a slasher film
due to the elevated level of gore. Film critic John McCarty writes of splatter films: "[They] aim not to scare their audiences, necessarily, nor to drive them to the edge of their seats in suspense, but to mortify them with scenes of explicit gore. In splatter movies, mutilation is indeed the message ...." Rosenthal later directed the eighth film in the Halloween series, Halloween: Resurrection
(2002).
rhythm
. The score was performed on a synthesizer organ rather than a piano. One reviewer for the BBC
described the revised score as having "a more gothic feel." The reviewer asserted that it "doesn’t sound quite as good as the original piece", but "it still remains a classic piece of music." Carpenter performed the score with the assistance of Alan Howarth, who had previously been involved in Star Trek: The Motion Picture
(1979) and would work again with Carpenter on projects such as Escape from New York
(1981), The Thing (1982) and Christine (1983).
The film featured the song "Mr. Sandman
" performed by The Chordettes
.Mr. Sandman
" which would later be featured in the opening scenes of Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
.
Reviewers commented on the decision to include this song in the film, calling the selection "interesting" and "not a song you would associate with a film like this." The song worked well to "mimic Laurie’s situation (sleeping a lot), [making] the once innocent sounding lyrics seem threatening in a horror film." Another critic saw the inclusion of the song as "inappropriate" and asked, "What was that about?"
and the film was distributed by Universal
. While the gross earnings of the sequel paled in comparison to the original's $47 million, it was a success in its own right, besting the earnings of other films of the same genre released in 1981: Friday the 13th Part 2
($21,722,776), Omen III: The Final Conflict
($20,471,382) and The Howling
($17,985,893). Internationally, Halloween II was released throughout Europe, but it was banned
in West Germany and Iceland due to the graphic violence and nudity; a later 1986 release on home video was banned in Norway. The film was shown in Canada, Australia, the Philippines and Japan.
of the screenplay was printed as a mass market paperback in 1981 by horror and science-fiction writer Dennis Etchison
under the pseudonym Jack Martin. Etchison's novelization was distributed by Kensington Books and became a bestseller. It also features captioned black and white stills from the film at the beginning of each chapter.
network television beginning in the early 1980s, with most of the graphic violence and gore edited out and many minor additional scenes added. There are many edits such as the murders of Alice, Dr. Mixter, Janet, and Mrs. Alves. Also added are scenes of Michael cutting the power (this explains why it is bright to begin with but later very dim) and a generator kicking in. Other scenes like extra dialogue between Laurie and Jimmy, Laurie and Mrs. Alves, Janet and Karen, Bud and Karen and Jill and Jimmy, etc. Another notable difference is the killing of the Marshall. In the theatrical version his throat is slit, while in the TV version he is stabbed from behind (not viewed by audience). While the theatrical version ends with the presumed deaths of Michael Myers and Dr. Loomis, the television cut features an alternative ending showing Jimmy in the ambulance with Laurie Strode. They hold hands and Laurie says, "We made it." This has been incorrectly referred to as Rick Rosenthal's version, Halloween II: The Producer's Cut
.
There has been speculation about a new special edition DVD from Lions Gate, which on 5/7/2010 submitted a classification to the BBFC for a new release in the UK, however it does not state if there are any special features and the current release date is October 2011. Lions Gate re-released the film on DVD in Australia in 2008 and it contains no special features.
released the film on Blu-ray in the United States on September 13, 2011. It is packaged as a 30th Anniversary Edition and includes deleted scenes, My Scenes featurette, Pocket BLU app, an alternate ending and the 1984 documentary feature Terror in the Aisles
.
The release sparked controversy upon its release due to the fact that Universal removed the credit "Moustapha Akkad
Presents" and replaced it with "Universal, An MCA Company, Presents" ... in a font that does not match the rest of the opening credits. Akkad's son, Malek, called the stunt "disgusting. It's a disgrace[;] obviously, bias[.] [O]bjectively, any horror fan would find this as an insult to the man who has done so much to the series. And to come after his tragic death
, he's not even around to defend himself. It's classless. I'm talking to Universal now and they're 'looking into it." However, Akkad was still credited on the packaging. Fans immediately called for a boycott of the disc and set up a Facebook
page. On November 28, Universal started sending out emails announcing that the revised Blu-ray was now available and for owners of the previous disc to provide the studio with their "address and daytime phone number."
. While film critics had largely showered praise on Halloween, most reviews of its sequel compared it with the original and found it wanting. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times
wrote that Halloween II represented "a fall from greatness" that "doesn't even attempt to do justice to the original." Ebert also commented, "Instead, it tries to outdo all the other violent Halloween rip-offs of the last several years." Web based critic James Berardinelli
offered a particularly stinging review:
However, especially more in recent years, critics have taken a more positive stance towards the film, stating that it was far better than the slew of inferior sequels and rip-offs that followed in subsequent years. Janet Maslin
of the New York Times compared the film to other horror sequels and recently released slasher films of the early 1980s rather than to the original. "By the standards of most recent horror films, this—like its predecessor—is a class act." She notes that there "is some variety to the crimes, as there is to the characters, and an audience is more likely to do more screaming at suspenseful moments than at scary ones." Maslin applauded the performance of the cast and Rosenthal and concluded, "That may not be much to ask of a horror film, but it's more than many of them offer." David Pirie
's review in Time Out magazine gave Rosenthal's film positive marks, stating, "Rosenthal is no Carpenter, but he makes a fair job of emulating the latter's visual style in this sequel." He wrote that the Myers character had evolved since the first film to become "an agent of Absolute Evil." Film historian Jim Harper suggests, "Time has been a little fairer to the film" than original critics. In retrospect, "many critics have come to recognise that it's considerably better than the slew of imitation slashers that swamped the genre in the eighties."
Like the original Halloween
, this and other slasher films have come under fire from feminist critics. According to historian Nicholas Rogers, academic critics "have seen the slasher movies since Halloween as debasing women in as decisive a manner as hard-core pornography." Critics such as John Kenneth Muir point out that female characters such as Laurie Strode survive not because of "any good planning" or their own resourcefulness, but sheer luck. Although she manages to repel the killer several times, in the end, Strode is rescued in Halloween only when Dr. Loomis arrives to shoot Myers.
In 1982, the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA, nominated the film for two Saturn Awards: Best Horror Film and Best Actor for Pleasence. The film lost to An American Werewolf in London
(1981) and Harrison Ford
was chosen over Pleasence for his role in Raiders of the Lost Ark
(1981).
On December 7, 1982, Richard Delmer Boyer of El Monte, California
, murdered Francis and Eileen Harbitz, an elderly couple in Fullerton, California, leading to the trial People v. Boyer (1989). The couple were stabbed 43 times by Boyer. According to the trial transcript, Boyer's defense was that he suffered from hallucination
s in the Harbitz residence brought on by "the movie Halloween II, which defendant had seen under the influence of PCP
, marijuana, and alcohol." The film was played for the jury, and a psychopharmacologist "pointed out various similarities between its scenes and the visions defendant described."
Boyer was found guilty and sentenced to death. The incident became known as the "Halloween II Murders" and was featured in a short segment on TNT
's Monstervision, hosted by film critic Joe Bob Briggs
. Following the trial, moral critics came to the defense of horror films and rejected calls to ban them. Thomas M. Sipos, for instance, stated,
Slasher film
A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
directed by Rick Rosenthal
Rick Rosenthal
Richard L. "Rick" Rosenthal, Jr. is an American film and television director. He is also a producer, actor, and writer.-Biography:...
, and written by John Carpenter
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
and Debra Hill
Debra Hill
Debra Hill was an American screenwriter and film producer, who co-wrote the horror film Halloween, its first sequel Halloween II, and The Fog.-Early life:...
. It is the second installment in the Halloween series
Halloween (franchise)
Halloween is an American horror franchise that consists of ten slasher films, novels, and comic books. The franchise focuses on the fictional character of Michael Myers who was committed to a sanitarium as a child for the murder of his older sister, Judith Myers...
and is a direct sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
to the Halloween
Halloween (1978 film)
Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...
set on the same night of October 31, 1978 as the seemingly unkillable Michael Myers
Michael Myers (Halloween)
Michael Myers is a fictional character from the Halloween series of slasher films. He first appears in John Carpenter's Halloween as a young boy who murders his older sister, then fifteen years later returns home to murder more teenagers...
continues to follow his intended victim Laurie Strode
Laurie Strode
Laurie Strode is a fictional character in the Halloween horror film series, portrayed by actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Scout Taylor-Compton. She appears in six of the present ten Halloween installments, first appearing in John Carpenter's original 1978 film...
(Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis is an American actress and author. Although she was initially known as a "scream queen" because of her starring roles in several horror films early in her career, such as Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train, Curtis has since compiled a body of work that spans many...
) to a nearby hospital while Dr. Sam Loomis
Samuel Loomis
Samuel Loomis was a Connecticut furniture maker and the most celebrated maker of Colchester/Norwich style furniture.-External links:* ]]* ]]...
(Donald Pleasence
Donald Pleasence
Sir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...
) is still in pursuit of his patient.
Stylistically, Halloween II reproduces certain key elements that made the original Halloween a success, such as first-person camera perspectives and unexceptional settings. The sequel was a box office success, grossing over $25.5 million in the United States.
Originally, Halloween II was intended to be the last chapter of the Halloween series to revolve around Michael Myers and Haddonfield, but after the lacklustre reaction to Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a 1982 science fiction horror film and the third installment in the Halloween film series. It is the only Halloween where the story does not revolve around Michael Myers. Directed and written by Tommy Lee Wallace, the film stars Tom Atkins as Dr. Dan Challis,...
(1982), the Michael Myers character was brought back seven years later in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is a 1988 slasher film and the fourth installment of the Halloween film series, directed by Dwight H. Little and written by Alan B. McElroy. The central plot focuses on Michael Myers returning home to kill his niece Jamie Lloyd , the daughter of Laurie...
(1988).
Plot
On October 31, 1978, Laurie Strode (Jaime Lee Curtis) is sent to the hospital due to the injuries inflicted by Michael Myers while Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance) attempts to track him down after he had gone missing being shot six times and falling from a second story window. Meanwhile, Michael is still in the area and kills a girl in a nearby house as he seeks shelter to recover from his injuries; He later learns of Laurie's location from a radio broadcast and makes his way to the hospital. Laurie begins having flashbacks of being adopted by the Strodes and visiting a young boy in a mental institution; her sedation leaving her in a semi-consicous state most of the time, and her friend Jimmy (Lance GuestLance Guest
Lance R. Guest is an American film and television actor.-Biography:Guest developed a serious interest in acting in the ninth grade, and he majored in theater while attending UCLA. He has starred in many theatrical films including his role as Jimmy alongside actress Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween...
) begins to worry about her, developing romantic feelings for her despite the chagrin of the head nurse who is trying to keep her resting comfortably.
Michael kills the security guard with a claw hammer and moves on into the hospital after the business hours come to a close, he begins killing off the hospital staff by whatever means come available, strangling one of the ambulance attendants and killing his nurse companion by boiling her in a hot tub. He cuts off the phone lines, cutting off all communications with the outside world which rouses Laurie's suspicions when she discovers the phones aren't working. He kills the head physician and a nurse by injecting air into their eye sockets via needles, and Laurie attempts to flee before Michael can find her. Meanwhile, Loomis follows clues connecting Michael to Samhain
Samhain
Samhain is a Gaelic harvest festival held on October 31–November 1. It was linked to festivals held around the same time in other Celtic cultures, and was popularised as the "Celtic New Year" from the late 19th century, following Sir John Rhys and Sir James Frazer...
and the occult which might explain his seeming indestructibility, but he is interrupted by a nurse from the mental institution who says she had been ordered to take him back under the enforcement of a US Marshal. Enroute, she tells Loomis that Laurie Strode is Michael Myers' younger sister and Loomis realizes that she is his target before forcibly ordering the trooper to turn around. Jimmy discovers the head nurse while looking for Laurie, dead by being drained of her blood before slipping and falling and injuring himself badly. Laurie manages to escape Michael though barely by going through the boiler room and up to the parking lot outside, discovering dead bodies along the way. She is unable to start any cars however and hides in one. Jimmy arrives and falls unconscious or dead from a massive concussion (which one is never explained). Loomis, the nurse and trooper arrive and just barely save Laurie from being killed by Michael. The trooper's throat is slashed and the two flee into the operating rooms. Laurie shoots out both Michael's eyes, causing him to blindly swing at them, Loomis fills the room with hydrogen gas using the distraction to allow Laurie to escape and he then ignites it, blowing up a good bit of the hospital in the process and evidently immolating them both in the fire.
At daybreak, Laurie is loaded onto an ambulance, having visions of the fire that destroyed the last of her family as she is driven off to safety.
Development
Carpenter and Hill, the writers of the first Halloween, had originally considered setting the sequel a few years after the events of Halloween. They planned to have Myers track Laurie Strode to her new home in a high-rise apartment building. However, the setting was later changed to Haddonfield Hospital in script meetings.Halloween producers Irwin Yablans
Irwin Yablans
Irwin Yablans is an American independent film producer and distributor known for his work in the horror film industry.-Biography:...
and Moustapha Akkad
Moustapha Akkad
Moustapha Akkad was a Syrian American film producer and director, best known for producing the series of Halloween films and directing Mohammad, Messenger of God and Lion of the Desert. He was killed along with his daughter Rima Akkad Monla in 2005 in Amman, Jordan by a suicide bomber.-Early life...
invested heavily in the sequel, boasting a much larger budget than its predecessor: $2.5 million (compared to only $320,000 for the original) even though Carpenter refused to direct. Most of the film was shot at Morningside Hospital in Los Angeles, California, and Pasadena Community Hospital in Pasadena, California. There was discussion of filming Halloween II in 3-D
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
; Hill said, "We investigated a number of 3-D processes ... but they were far too expensive for this particular project. Also, most of the projects we do involve a lot of night shooting—evil lurks at night. It's hard to do that in 3-D."
The sequel was intended to conclude the story of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. The third film, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, released a year later, contained a plot that deviated wholly from that of the first two films. Tommy Lee Wallace
Tommy Lee Wallace
Tommy Lee Wallace is an American film producer, director and screenwriter.He is best known for directing Halloween III: Season of the Witch and It.-Early life:...
, the director of Halloween III, stated "It is our intention to create an anthology out of the series, sort of along the lines of Night Gallery
Night Gallery
Night Gallery is an American anthology series that aired on NBC from 1970 to 1973, featuring stories of horror and the macabre. Rod Serling, who had gained fame from an earlier series, The Twilight Zone, served both as the on-air host of Night Gallery and as a major contributor of scripts, although...
, or The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
, only on a much larger scale, of course." When asked, in a 1982 interview, what happened to Myers and Loomis, Carpenter flatly answered, "The Shape is dead. Pleasence's character is dead, too, unfortunately." Neither Carpenter nor Hill were involved in the later sequels that featured Michael Myers again.
Writing
The screenplay of Halloween II was written by Carpenter and Hill. In a 1981 interview with FangoriaFangoria (magazine)
Fangoria is an internationally-distributed US film fan magazine specializing in the genres of horror, slasher, splatter and exploitation films, in regular publication since 1979.-Planning:...
magazine, Hill mentions the finished film differs somewhat from initial drafts of the screenplay. The plot twist of Laurie being Michael's sister required a retcon
Retcon
Retroactive continuity is the alteration of previously established facts in a fictional work. Retcons are done for many reasons, including the accommodation of sequels or further derivative works in a series, wherein newer authors or creators want to revise the in-story history to allow a course...
of the timeline between Judith's murder and the events depicted in the first Halloween; while Michael Myers is said to have committed the crime fifteen years ago and to be twenty-one.
Film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
, who was a big admirer of the first film, notes that the plot of the sequel was rather simple: "The plot of Halloween II absolutely depends, of course, on our old friend the Idiot Plot
Idiot plot
In literary criticism, idiot plot refers to "a plot which is kept in motion solely by virtue of the fact that everybody involved is an idiot," otherwise "they'd immediately figure out everything and the movie would be over." Reviewing Prime in 2005 critic Roger Ebert said "I can forgive and even...
, which requires that everyone in the movie behave at all times like an idiot. That's necessary because if anyone were to use common sense, the problem would be solved and the movie would be over." Characters were described as shallow and like cardboard. Hill rebuffed such critiques by arguing that "in a thriller film, what a character says is often irrelevant, especially in those sequences where the objective is to build up suspense."
Historian Nicholas Rogers suggests that a portion of the film seems to have drawn inspiration from the "contemporary controversies surrounding the holiday itself." He points specifically to the scene in the film when a young boy in a pirate costume arrives at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital with a razor blade lodged in his mouth, a reference to the urban legend of tainted Halloween candy. According to Rogers, "The Halloween films opened in the wake of the billowing stories about Halloween sadism and clearly traded on the uncertainties surrounding trick-or-treating and the general safety of the festival."
Casting
The main cast of Halloween reprised their roles in the sequel with the exception of Nick CastleNick Castle
Nick Castle is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, best known for his role as Michael Myers in Halloween. He also co-wrote Escape from New York with his friend, John Carpenter.-Early life:...
, who had played the adult Michael Myers in the original. Veteran English actor Pleasence continued the role of Dr. Sam Loomis, who had been Myers' psychiatrist for the past 15 years while Myers was institutionalized at Smith's Grove Sanitarium. Curtis (then 22), again played the teenage babysitter Laurie Strode, the younger sister of Myers. Curtis required a wig for the role of long-haired Laurie Strode, as she had her own hair cut shorter. Charles Cyphers reprised the role of Sheriff Leigh Brackett, but his character disappears from the film when the corpse of his daughter Annie (Nancy Kyes
Nancy Kyes
Nancy Louise Kyes is an American film and television actress. In most of her film appearances, she is credited under her stage name Nancy Loomis. She is known for her role as the teenage babysitter, Annie Brackett, in John Carpenter's 1978 horror classic slasher film Halloween.-Early life:Kyes was...
) is discovered. Actor Hunter von Leer
Hunter von Leer
Hunter von Leer is an American actor who has appeared in films, television shows, and television movies.His first film role was in the 1972 movie Unholy Rollers. He also acted in the 1977 Mel Brooks film High Anxiety and in Brooks's 1981 History of the World: Part 1...
heads the manhunt for Myers in the role of Deputy Gary Hunt. He admitted in an interview that he had never watched Halloween before being cast in the part. He stated, "I did not see the original first but being from a small town, I wanted the Deputy to have compassion."
Stunt performer Dick Warlock
Dick Warlock
Dick Warlock is an American actor and stuntman. He is best known for playing Michael Myers in Halloween II and he was Kurt Russell's personal stunt double for over 25 years....
played Michael Myers (as in Halloween, listed as "The Shape" in the credits), replacing Castle who was beginning a career as a director. Warlock's previous experience in film was as a stunt double in films, such as The Green Berets
The Green Berets (film)
The Green Berets is a 1968 war film featuring John Wayne, George Takei, David Janssen, Jim Hutton and Aldo Ray, nominally based on the eponymous 1965 book by Robin Moore, though the screenplay has little relation to the book....
(1968) and Jaws
Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
(1975), and the 1974 television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Kolchak: The Night Stalker is an American television series that aired on ABC during the 1974-1975 season. It featured a fictional Chicago newspaper reporter — Carl Kolchak, played by Darren McGavin — who investigates mysterious crimes with unlikely causes, particularly ones law...
. In an interview, Warlock explained how he prepared for the role since Myers received far more screen time in the sequel than the original. Warlock said,
[I watched the scenes] where Laurie is huddled in the closet. Michael breaks through. She grabs a hanger and thrusts it up and into his eyes. Michael falls down and Laurie walks to the bedroom doorway and sits down. In the background we see Michael sit up and turn towards her to the beat of the music. ... Anyway, that and the head tilt were the things I carried with me into Halloween II. I didn't really see that much more to hang my hat on in the first film.Warlock also claims that the mask he wore was the same one as used by Nick Castle in the first film. Hill confirmed this in an interview.
The supporting cast consisted of relatively unknown actors and actresses, except for Jeffrey Kramer
Jeffrey Kramer
Jeffrey Kramer is an American film and television actor and film producer.-Life and career:Kramer was born in New York City and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, graduating from Teaneck High School with the Class of 1963. He made his first appearance on the TV series Barney Miller starring in the...
and Ford Rainey
Ford Rainey
Ford Rainey was an American film, stage and television actor.-Early life:Rainey was born in Mountain Home, Idaho, the son of Vyrna , a teacher, and Archie Coleman Rainey. Rainey graduated from Centralia Junior College in Washington state and the Cornish Drama School in Seattle. He first acted on...
. Most of the cast previously or later appeared in films or TV series by Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
(the distributor for this film). Kramer was previously cast in a supporting role as Deputy Jeff Hendricks in Jaws and Jaws 2
Jaws 2
Jaws 2 is a 1978 thriller film and the first sequel to Steven Spielberg's Jaws , which is based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name...
(1978). In Halloween II, Kramer played Dr. Graham, a dentist who examines the charred remains of a boy confused with Myers. Rainey was an actor well-known for his supporting roles on television shows such as Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
, Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
, and The Bionic Woman
The Bionic Woman
The Bionic Woman is an American television series starring Lindsay Wagner that aired for three seasons between 1976 and 1978 as a spin off from The Six Million Dollar Man. Wagner stars as tennis pro Jaime Sommers who is nearly killed in a skydiving accident. Sommers' life is saved by Oscar Goldman ...
. He was chosen to play Haddonfield Memorial Hospital's drunk resident doctor, Frederick Mixter. A host of character actors were cast as the hospital's staff. Many were acquaintances of director Rosenthal. He told an interviewer, "I'd been studying acting with Milton Katselas
Milton Katselas
Milton Katselas was an American film director and famous Hollywood coach for The Beverly Hills Playhouse...
at the Beverly Hills Playhouse and I brought many people from the Playhouse into Halloween 2." These included Leo Rossi
Leo Rossi
Leo Rossi is an American actor and writer. He is known for his role as Budd in the 1981 horror film Halloween II and as Turkell from the 1990 horror sequel Maniac Cop 2. His other films include Heart Like a Wheel , River's Edge , The Accused , Relentless and Analyze This...
, Pamela Susan Shoop
Pamela Susan Shoop
Pamela Susan Shoop is an American character actress in film and on television. She often appeared in shows created by Glen A. Larson.Shoop's best known film role was in the 1981 horror film Halloween II, as Karen, a nurse...
, Ana Alicia
Ana Alicia
Ana Alicia is an American actress. She is best known for her role as scheming heiress Melissa Agretti on the long-running primetime soap opera Falcon Crest.-Early life:...
, and Gloria Gifford
Gloria Gifford
Gloria Gifford is an American actress who has starred in films and on television.Gloria's first feature film was in the 1978 film California Suite, it was not until later she became to be best known among horror film fans for her role as the head nurse, Mrs...
. Rossi played the part of Budd Scarlotti, a hypersexual EMS driver who mocks Jimmy as a "college boy." Rossi would go on to have minor roles in television series such as Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations ...
and Falcone and several direct-to-video
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
releases.
Shoop played Nurse Karen Bailey, who is scalded to death by Myers in the hospital therapy tub. Featured in the only nude scene in the film, Shoop discussed filming the scene in an interview: "Now that was hard! The water was freezing cold, and poor Leo Rossi and I could barely keep our teeth from chattering! The water was also pretty dirty and I ended up with an ear infection." Before working with Rosenthal, she had made several cameo appearances on television shows such as Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman (TV series)
Wonder Woman is an American television series based on the DC Comics comic book superhero of the same name. Starring Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman/Diana Prince and Lyle Waggoner as Steve Trevor, the show originally aired from 1975 to 1979....
, B.J. and the Bear
B.J. and the Bear
B.J. and the Bear is an American comedy series which aired on NBC from 1979 to 1981. Created by Christopher Crowe and Glen A. Larson, the series stars Greg Evigan and Claude Akins.-Plot:Greg Evigan stars as B.J...
, and later made appearances on Knight Rider and Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...
. Gifford and Alicia played minor supporting roles as head nurse Mrs. Virginia Alves and orderly Janet Marshall. Ana Alicia went on to star for 8 seasons on the highly successful CBS serial, Falcon Crest
Falcon Crest
Falcon Crest is an American primetime television soap opera which aired on the CBS network for nine seasons, from December 4, 1981 to May 17, 1990. A total of 227 episodes were produced....
. Actor Lance Guest
Lance Guest
Lance R. Guest is an American film and television actor.-Biography:Guest developed a serious interest in acting in the ninth grade, and he majored in theater while attending UCLA. He has starred in many theatrical films including his role as Jimmy alongside actress Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween...
played an EMS driver, Jimmy Lloyd. In much the same way as the original Halloween had launched the career of Curtis, after Halloween II, Guest went on to star in such films as The Last Starfighter
The Last Starfighter
The Last Starfighter is a 1984 science fiction adventure film directed by Nick Castle. The film tells the story of Alex Rogan , an average teenage boy recruited by an alien defense force to fight in an interstellar war. It also featured Dan O'Herlihy, Catherine Mary Stewart, Robert Preston, Norman...
(1984) and Jaws: The Revenge
Jaws: The Revenge
Jaws: The Revenge, Also known as, 'Jaws 4: The Revenge', is a 1987 thriller film directed by Joseph Sargent. It is the third sequel to Steven Spielberg's Jaws and the final installment of the series....
(1987) and the television series Life Goes On
Life Goes On (TV series)
Life Goes On is a television series that aired on ABC from September 12, 1989 to May 23, 1993. The show centers on the Thacher family living in suburban Chicago: Drew, his wife Elizabeth, and their children Paige, Rebecca, and Charles, who is known as Corky...
. The Last Starfighter director Nick Castle stated in an interview, "When I was assigned to the film, Lance Guest was the first name I wrote down on my list for Alex after seeing him in Halloween II." Castle adds, "He possessed all the qualities I wanted the character to express on the screen, a kind of innocence, shyness, yet determination."
Directing
Carpenter refused to direct the sequel and originally approached Tommy Lee WallaceTommy Lee Wallace
Tommy Lee Wallace is an American film producer, director and screenwriter.He is best known for directing Halloween III: Season of the Witch and It.-Early life:...
, the art director from the original Halloween, to take the helm. Carpenter told one interviewer, "I had made that film once and I really didn't want to do it again." After Wallace declined, Carpenter chose Rosenthal, a relatively unknown and inexperienced director whose previous credits included episodes of the television series Secrets of Midland Heights (1980–1981). In an interview with Twilight Zone Magazine
Twilight Zone literature
Twilight Zone literature is an umbrella term for the many books and comic books which concern or adapt The Twilight Zone television series.-Novels:...
, Carpenter explains that Rosenthal was chosen because "he did a terrific short called Toyer. It was full of suspense and tension and terrific performances."
Luke Ford
Luke Ford is an American writer, blogger, and former pornography gossip columnist known for his disclosures and traditionalist Jewish religious views.-Personal:Ford moved to California in 1977...
, Rosenthal explains,
The first movie I ever did [Halloween II] was a sequel, but it was supposed to be a direct continuation. It started one minute after the first movie ended. You have to try hard to maintain the style of the first movie. I wanted it to feel like a two-parter. You have the responsibility and the restraints of the style that's been set. It was the same crew. My philosophy was to do more of a thriller than a slasher movie.
The decision to include more gore and nudity in the sequel was not made by Rosenthal, who contends that it was Carpenter who chose to make the film much bloodier than the original. According to the film's official website, "Carpenter came in and directed a few sequences to clean up some of Rosenthal's work." One reviewer of the film notes that "Carpenter, concerned that the picture would be deemed too 'tame' by the slasher audience, re-filmed several death scenes with more gore." When asked about his role in the directing process, Carpenter told an interviewer:
That's a long, long story. That was a project I got involved in as a result of several different kinds of pressure. I had no influence over the direction of the film. I had an influence in the post-productionPost-productionPost-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
. I saw a rough cut of Halloween II, and it wasn't scary. It was about as scary as QuincyQuincy, M.E.Quincy, M.E., also called Quincy, is a United States television series from Universal Studios that aired from October 3, 1976, to September 5, 1983, on NBC...
. So we had to do some post-production work to bring it at least up to par with the competition.
Rosenthal was not pleased with Carpenter's changes. He reportedly complained that Carpenter "ruined [my] carefully paced film." Regardless, many of the graphic scenes contained elements not seen before in film. Roger Ebert claims, "This movie has the first close-up I can remember of a hypodermic needle being inserted into an eyeball." The film is often categorized as a splatter film
Splatter film
A splatter film or gore film is a subgenre of horror film that deliberately focuses on graphic portrayals of gore and graphic violence. These films, through the use of special effects and excessive blood and guts, tend to display an overt interest in the vulnerability of the human body and the...
rather than a slasher film
Slasher film
A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
due to the elevated level of gore. Film critic John McCarty writes of splatter films: "[They] aim not to scare their audiences, necessarily, nor to drive them to the edge of their seats in suspense, but to mortify them with scenes of explicit gore. In splatter movies, mutilation is indeed the message ...." Rosenthal later directed the eighth film in the Halloween series, Halloween: Resurrection
Halloween: Resurrection
Halloween: Resurrection is a 2002 American horror film and eighth installment in the Halloween film series. Directed by Rick Rosenthal, who had also directed Halloween II, the film builds upon the continuity of Halloween H20: 20 Years Later...
(2002).
Music
The film's score was a variation of Carpenter compositions from Halloween, particularly the main theme's familiar piano melody played in a compound 5/4 timeTime signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
rhythm
Metre (music)
Meter or metre is a term that music has inherited from the rhythmic element of poetry where it means the number of lines in a verse, the number of syllables in each line and the arrangement of those syllables as long or short, accented or unaccented...
. The score was performed on a synthesizer organ rather than a piano. One reviewer for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
described the revised score as having "a more gothic feel." The reviewer asserted that it "doesn’t sound quite as good as the original piece", but "it still remains a classic piece of music." Carpenter performed the score with the assistance of Alan Howarth, who had previously been involved in Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first film based on the Star Trek television series. The film is set in the twenty-third century, when a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud called V'Ger approaches the Earth,...
(1979) and would work again with Carpenter on projects such as Escape from New York
Escape from New York
Escape from New York is a 1981 American science fiction action film directed and scored by John Carpenter. He co-wrote the screenplay with Nick Castle. The film is set in the near future in a crime-ridden United States that has converted Manhattan Island in New York City into a maximum security...
(1981), The Thing (1982) and Christine (1983).
The film featured the song "Mr. Sandman
Mr. Sandman
"Mr. Sandman" is a popular song written by Pat Ballard which was published in 1954 and first recorded in that year by The Chordettes. The song's lyrics convey a request to "Mr...
" performed by The Chordettes
The Chordettes
The Chordettes were a female popular singing quartet, usually singing a cappella, and specializing in traditional popular music. The Chordettes were one of the longest lived vocal groups with beginnings in the mainstream pop and vocal harmonies of the 1940s and early 1950s...
.Mr. Sandman
Mr. Sandman
"Mr. Sandman" is a popular song written by Pat Ballard which was published in 1954 and first recorded in that year by The Chordettes. The song's lyrics convey a request to "Mr...
" which would later be featured in the opening scenes of Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later is a 1998 slasher film and is the seventh installment in the Halloween film series. It is directed by Steve Miner and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, and Michelle Williams. The screenplay, based on a story by Kevin Williamson further developed by Robert...
.
Reviewers commented on the decision to include this song in the film, calling the selection "interesting" and "not a song you would associate with a film like this." The song worked well to "mimic Laurie’s situation (sleeping a lot), [making] the once innocent sounding lyrics seem threatening in a horror film." Another critic saw the inclusion of the song as "inappropriate" and asked, "What was that about?"
Release
To advertise Halloween II, Universal printed a poster that featured a skull superimposed onto a pumpkin. This imagery is described by film historian and sociologist Robert E. Kapsis as "an unmistakable horror motif." Kapsis points out that by 1981 horror had "become a genre non grata" with critics. The effect of this can be seen in the distributor's promotion of the film as horror while at the same time stressing that the sequel, like its predecessor, "was more a quality suspense film than a 'slice and dice' horror film." Use of the tagline More Of The Night HE Came Home—a modified version of the original Halloween tagline—hoped to accomplish the same task.Theatrical run
Halloween II premiered on October 30, 1981,. The film grossed $7,446,508 on its opening weekend. The rights were sold to Italian producer Dino De LaurentiisDino De Laurentiis
Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis was an Italian film producer.-Early life:He was born at Torre Annunziata in the province of Naples, and grew up selling spaghetti produced by his father...
and the film was distributed by Universal
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
. While the gross earnings of the sequel paled in comparison to the original's $47 million, it was a success in its own right, besting the earnings of other films of the same genre released in 1981: Friday the 13th Part 2
Friday the 13th Part 2
Friday the 13th Part II is a 1981 slasher film directed by Steve Miner, who also directed its sequel, Friday the 13th Part III and several other popular horror films. A sequel to Friday the 13th , it is the second film in the Friday the 13th film series. It was a moderate box-office hit, opening on...
($21,722,776), Omen III: The Final Conflict
Omen III: The Final Conflict
Omen III: The Final Conflict is a 1981 British/American horror film directed by Graham Baker and the third installment in The Omen series...
($20,471,382) and The Howling
The Howling (film)
The Howling is a 1981 werewolf-themed horror film directed by Joe Dante. Based on the novel of the same name by Gary Brandner, the screenplay is written by John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless...
($17,985,893). Internationally, Halloween II was released throughout Europe, but it was banned
Ban (law)
A ban is, generally, any decree that prohibits something.Bans are formed for the prohibition of activities within a certain political territory. Some see this as a negative act and others see it as maintaining the "status quo"...
in West Germany and Iceland due to the graphic violence and nudity; a later 1986 release on home video was banned in Norway. The film was shown in Canada, Australia, the Philippines and Japan.
Novelization
An adaptationHalloween (novel)
Halloween is a 1979 novelization by Curtis Richards of the horror film Halloween which has been out of print since the late 1980s...
of the screenplay was printed as a mass market paperback in 1981 by horror and science-fiction writer Dennis Etchison
Dennis Etchison
Dennis William Etchison , is an American writer and editor of fantasy and horror fiction. Etchison refers to his own work as “rather dark, depressing, almost pathologically inward fiction about the individual in relation to the world.”Stephen King has called Dennis Etchison “one hell of a fiction...
under the pseudonym Jack Martin. Etchison's novelization was distributed by Kensington Books and became a bestseller. It also features captioned black and white stills from the film at the beginning of each chapter.
Television
An alternate version of Halloween II has been airing on AMCAMC (TV network)
AMC is a cable television specialty channel that primarily airs movies, along with a limited amount of original programming. The letters originally stood for American Movie Classics; however since 2002, the full name has been deemphasized as a result of a major shift in programming...
network television beginning in the early 1980s, with most of the graphic violence and gore edited out and many minor additional scenes added. There are many edits such as the murders of Alice, Dr. Mixter, Janet, and Mrs. Alves. Also added are scenes of Michael cutting the power (this explains why it is bright to begin with but later very dim) and a generator kicking in. Other scenes like extra dialogue between Laurie and Jimmy, Laurie and Mrs. Alves, Janet and Karen, Bud and Karen and Jill and Jimmy, etc. Another notable difference is the killing of the Marshall. In the theatrical version his throat is slit, while in the TV version he is stabbed from behind (not viewed by audience). While the theatrical version ends with the presumed deaths of Michael Myers and Dr. Loomis, the television cut features an alternative ending showing Jimmy in the ambulance with Laurie Strode. They hold hands and Laurie says, "We made it." This has been incorrectly referred to as Rick Rosenthal's version, Halloween II: The Producer's Cut
Halloween II: The Producer's Cut
An alternate version of Halloween II was aired on television in the early 1980s in which most of the graphic violence and gore had been edited out and several minor additional scenes had been added. This version is sometimes referred to as the "Rick Rosenthal Version" or "Television Version" and...
.
Home video release
Halloween II was first released on VHS and laserdisc in 1982 by MCA/Universal Home Video and later by Goodtimes Home Video. From 1998, DVD editions have also been released by these companies.There has been speculation about a new special edition DVD from Lions Gate, which on 5/7/2010 submitted a classification to the BBFC for a new release in the UK, however it does not state if there are any special features and the current release date is October 2011. Lions Gate re-released the film on DVD in Australia in 2008 and it contains no special features.
Blu-ray release
Universal StudiosUniversal Studios Home Entertainment
Universal Studios Home Entertainment is the home video division of Universal Pictures...
released the film on Blu-ray in the United States on September 13, 2011. It is packaged as a 30th Anniversary Edition and includes deleted scenes, My Scenes featurette, Pocket BLU app, an alternate ending and the 1984 documentary feature Terror in the Aisles
Terror in the Aisles
Terror in the Aisles is a 1984 documentary film about horror films featuring clips from Friday the 13th I and/or II, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halloween I and II, Jaws 1 and 2, Alien, John Carpenter's The Thing, The Shining and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and The Birds. The film is hosted by...
.
The release sparked controversy upon its release due to the fact that Universal removed the credit "Moustapha Akkad
Moustapha Akkad
Moustapha Akkad was a Syrian American film producer and director, best known for producing the series of Halloween films and directing Mohammad, Messenger of God and Lion of the Desert. He was killed along with his daughter Rima Akkad Monla in 2005 in Amman, Jordan by a suicide bomber.-Early life...
Presents" and replaced it with "Universal, An MCA Company, Presents" ... in a font that does not match the rest of the opening credits. Akkad's son, Malek, called the stunt "disgusting. It's a disgrace[;] obviously, bias[.] [O]bjectively, any horror fan would find this as an insult to the man who has done so much to the series. And to come after his tragic death
2005 Amman bombings
The 2005 Amman bombings were a series of coordinated bomb attacks on three hotels in Amman, Jordan, on 9 November 2005. The attacks killed 60 people and injured 115 others. The explosions—at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, the Radisson SAS Hotel, and the Days Inn—started at around 20:50 local time at the...
, he's not even around to defend himself. It's classless. I'm talking to Universal now and they're 'looking into it." However, Akkad was still credited on the packaging. Fans immediately called for a boycott of the disc and set up a Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
page. On November 28, Universal started sending out emails announcing that the revised Blu-ray was now available and for owners of the previous disc to provide the studio with their "address and daytime phone number."
Critical reception
Critical reaction to the film was negative. It has a 29% "rotten" rating at Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. While film critics had largely showered praise on Halloween, most reviews of its sequel compared it with the original and found it wanting. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
wrote that Halloween II represented "a fall from greatness" that "doesn't even attempt to do justice to the original." Ebert also commented, "Instead, it tries to outdo all the other violent Halloween rip-offs of the last several years." Web based critic James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
offered a particularly stinging review:
The main problem is the film's underlying motivation. Halloween was a labor of love, made by people committed to creating the most suspenseful and compelling motion picture they could. Halloween II was impelled by the desire to make money. It was a postscript—and not a very good one—slapped together because a box office success was guaranteed.He accused Carpenter and Hill of not believing "in this project the way they believed in the original, and it shows in the final product. The creepiness of the first movie has been replaced by a growing sense of repetitive boredom." Berardinelli was not impressed by the decision to give Myers so much screen time. He says, "The Shape, who was an ominous and forbidding force, has been turned into a plodding zombie. The characters have all been lobotomized, and, in keeping with the slasher trend, the gore content is way up. There was virtually no blood in Halloween; Halloween II cheerfully heaps it on."
However, especially more in recent years, critics have taken a more positive stance towards the film, stating that it was far better than the slew of inferior sequels and rip-offs that followed in subsequent years. Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
of the New York Times compared the film to other horror sequels and recently released slasher films of the early 1980s rather than to the original. "By the standards of most recent horror films, this—like its predecessor—is a class act." She notes that there "is some variety to the crimes, as there is to the characters, and an audience is more likely to do more screaming at suspenseful moments than at scary ones." Maslin applauded the performance of the cast and Rosenthal and concluded, "That may not be much to ask of a horror film, but it's more than many of them offer." David Pirie
David Pirie
David Pirie is a screenwriter, film producer, film critic, and novelist.As a screenwriter, Pirie has written numerous mysteries and horror-themed works, mostly for television, including recently the hit ITV series Murderland starring Robbie Coltrane . He was nominated for a BAFTA for his...
's review in Time Out magazine gave Rosenthal's film positive marks, stating, "Rosenthal is no Carpenter, but he makes a fair job of emulating the latter's visual style in this sequel." He wrote that the Myers character had evolved since the first film to become "an agent of Absolute Evil." Film historian Jim Harper suggests, "Time has been a little fairer to the film" than original critics. In retrospect, "many critics have come to recognise that it's considerably better than the slew of imitation slashers that swamped the genre in the eighties."
Like the original Halloween
Halloween (1978 film)
Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...
, this and other slasher films have come under fire from feminist critics. According to historian Nicholas Rogers, academic critics "have seen the slasher movies since Halloween as debasing women in as decisive a manner as hard-core pornography." Critics such as John Kenneth Muir point out that female characters such as Laurie Strode survive not because of "any good planning" or their own resourcefulness, but sheer luck. Although she manages to repel the killer several times, in the end, Strode is rescued in Halloween only when Dr. Loomis arrives to shoot Myers.
In 1982, the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA, nominated the film for two Saturn Awards: Best Horror Film and Best Actor for Pleasence. The film lost to An American Werewolf in London
An American Werewolf in London
An American Werewolf in London is a 1981 British-American horror film, written and directed by John Landis. It stars David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, and Griffin Dunne....
(1981) and Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford is an American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in...
was chosen over Pleasence for his role in Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford. It is the first film in the Indiana Jones franchise...
(1981).
Controversy
Detractors of horror films have blamed the genre for the perceived decrease in the morality and increase in crime among America's youth. According to moral critic Peter Peeters, fragile minds are being warped by "unlimited lust and sex, horror, the gruesome world of corpses and ghosts, torture, butchery and cannibalism, violence and destruction, the unsavory details all vividly depicted and accompanied by the appropriate screams and sound effects." A tragic incident associated with the film Halloween II only heightened such attitudes.On December 7, 1982, Richard Delmer Boyer of El Monte, California
El Monte, California
El Monte is a residential, industrial, and commercial city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city's slogan is "Welcome to Friendly El Monte," and historically is known as "The End of the Santa Fe Trail." As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 113,475,...
, murdered Francis and Eileen Harbitz, an elderly couple in Fullerton, California, leading to the trial People v. Boyer (1989). The couple were stabbed 43 times by Boyer. According to the trial transcript, Boyer's defense was that he suffered from hallucination
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
s in the Harbitz residence brought on by "the movie Halloween II, which defendant had seen under the influence of PCP
Phencyclidine
Phencyclidine , commonly initialized as PCP and known colloquially as angel dust, is a recreational dissociative drug...
, marijuana, and alcohol." The film was played for the jury, and a psychopharmacologist "pointed out various similarities between its scenes and the visions defendant described."
Boyer was found guilty and sentenced to death. The incident became known as the "Halloween II Murders" and was featured in a short segment on TNT
Turner Network Television
Turner Network Television is an American cable television channel created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner...
's Monstervision, hosted by film critic Joe Bob Briggs
Joe Bob Briggs
John Irving Bloom , who uses the pseudonym Joe Bob Briggs, is a syndicated American film critic, writer and comic performer.-Early years:...
. Following the trial, moral critics came to the defense of horror films and rejected calls to ban them. Thomas M. Sipos, for instance, stated,
It would be silly, after all, to ban horror films just because Boyer claims to have thought that he was reenacting Halloween II, or to ban cars because Texas housewife Clara Harris intentionally ran down and killed her husband. Nor does it make sense to ban otherwise useful items such as drugs or guns just because some individuals misuse them.
External links
of the Halloween series.- Halloween II at FEARnetFEARnetFearnet is a cable channel, website and Video on Demand television service owned by Horror Entertainment LLC, a joint venture between Comcast, Lions Gate Entertainment, and Sony Pictures Entertainment...
- Differences with the Halloween II TV Version