Halloween II (1981)
October 24, 2021 12:00 PM - Subscribe

After failing to kill stubborn survivor Laurie and taking a bullet or six from former psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis, Michael Myers has followed Laurie to the Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, where she's been admitted for Myers' attempt on her life. The institution proves to be particularly suited to serial killers, however, as Myers cuts, stabs and slashes his way through hospital staff to reach his favorite victim.

Directed by Rick Rosenthal. Written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill. Available streaming in the US on AMC+ and via digital rental.
posted by DirtyOldTown (3 comments total)
 
A phone call early in this film:

"Yeah. A scream from Mr. & Mrs. Elrod's. She's always picking on him. He probably got tired of it and started beating her. No big deal."
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:08 PM on October 24, 2021


Stray observations:
-The EMT who is Laurie's love interest is the guy who played Alex in The Last Starfighter
-The ER doctor coming in drunk and asking for a pot of coffee
-JLC looks five years older than she did in the first film ("earlier in the same evening.") To be fair, it was a rough night.
-The above isn't a joke about Curtis aging, because we should be so fucking lucky to age like her. It's a joke about the delay in production on a sequel that picks up minutes after the original.
-The best parts of this movie are the repeat performances: Curtis and Pleasance, sure, but also the DP, Dean Cundey and the score by Carpenter.
- I had not registered while watching Halloween Kills that it is arguably a remake of this film (starts with Laurie in hospital, the town wants Michael dead, sheriffs taking it personal, etc.) but with basically everyone empowered/angrier/less helpless.
-The new categories of people Michael kills this time are primarily "asshole men" and "women who enable asshole men." I wonder if that's just how this movie saw men and women or if it's an ethos. Calling it intentional seems like giving too much credit. Most likely it's just dated sexual politics and Michael just kills the people in his way.
-Jimmy's whoopsy-daisy in a puddle of blood and resulting head injury had to be one of the most embarrassing ends in the series.
-I continue to despise the "Oh, we forgot: Laurie is Michael's sister" recon so much.
-Although: the Michael-is-Druid-powered bullshit is even worse.

This is really one that invites divided takes, because they mostly brought the band back together and the team acquitted themselves well. The vibe still works. But Laurie is mostly powerless, the changes to the mythology are ridiculous and caused years of
bad storylines.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:43 PM on October 24, 2021 [2 favorites]


Watch for a young Dana Carvey in his first movie role playing the camera man of the TV reporter
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:21 PM on October 26, 2021


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