TBHND

TBHND
Well that's what I heard,,,

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Newb Views the 80s #9: Halloween II (1981)


Directed By: Rick Rosenthal

Picking up directly where it's groundbreaking predecessor left off, Halloween II is unique and one of my favorite genre sequels because we actually get to see people not directly involved reacting to the events that had unfolded in the previous movie. While the film has Jamie Lee Curtis in "scream queen" mode and Donald Pleasance holding everything together as the true heart of the franchise (even with JLC still involved), the town of Haddonfield itself becomes a character here, as people tell bullshit stories, stone the childhood home of the hated killer, and we get to see newscasts of the story we are watching still unfold. For the citizens of Haddonfield that survive Halloween night 1978, it was surely the most interesting night of their lives. At least until the late 1980s.

What ends up hampering this movie the most is John Carpenter letting outside influences change the Halloween motif. Rosenthal's original cut was similar to the original in its lack of gore, but Carpenter, sensing pressure after Friday the 13th hit to conform to its formula, personally went back and shot more "gore footage" to appeal to that crowd. Also, one thing that set back not only this movie, it's sequels (aside from III), and even retroactively the original, is the success of The Empire Strikes Back and its surprise twist at the end. While working on the screenplay, a drunken Carpenter decided to copy that surprise twist and make poor Laurie Strode the sister of Michael Myers, which not only doesn't make sense (so where was she when he killed Judith?), but now makes Michael a supernatural DNA sniffer, a trait that takes some of the inexplicable nature of The Shape away, since in the original, Laurie is simply a girl he sees through a window and decides to make his main target.

A scene I really don't like is Michael killing some random girl very early on. Michael, even in the sequels, was shown as killing people to prevent them from possibly helping his main target when he decided to go after her. She has zero to do with Laurie, and thus this is Michael killing for the sake of killing, which lessens him. 

Fortunately, what follows is a great chain of scenes, as a drunken kid (later revealed to be Laurie's crush Ben Tramer) is mistaken as being Michael by Loomis and Sheriff Brackett, and as Loomis frantically orders for him to stop, Tramer wanders in front of a speeding police car. It...doesn't go well for him. Not only does this scene provide a classic case of Hitchcock-ian suspense (we in the audience know for a fact that it wasn't Michael), but it also provides a reason for Loomis to be preoccupied and not actively looking for Michael for a bit. Before Brackett can even process that one of his officers just killed someone, he gets the bad news from Officer Hunt: one of the teenagers killed earlier was his own Annie. This is the last we see of Sheriff Brackett, and I have to wonder if there is a behind-the-scenes story for that.

Now we get to spend some time at the woefully understaffed Haddonfield Hospital, and perhaps my favorite side character in a slasher movie ever, ambulance driver Bud.

HELLO ladies...

Bud is awesome. He calls bullshit on an obviously made-up story that is relayed to him, gives a sarcastic response when an uptight nurse criticizes his cursing, and points out that a lot of the people in the streets are  treating the tragedy like a social event. I LOVE this guy. Too bad he has to go out to lead to one of the more obvious "we thought this was a cool idea, whether it makes sense or fits the movies' style or not" death scenes, that of the nurse getting her face scalded off by boiling water in a physical therapy bath. I'm not sure why those things would even have a setting for that high, but maybe safety regulations back then weren't as tight. Also, you'll notice, that while the nurses' face melts away, the water does nothing to Michael's hand. 

After taking that step back, we take another step forward, as Loomis, Hunt, and another officer inspect a classroom that Michael has broken into. The scene is a throwback to the "WTF?" nature of Michael from the original, especially him taking the time to neatly write SAMHAIN on a chalkboard in his own blood. Then Nurse Whittington (Nancy Stephens, a.k.a. Mrs. Rosenthal) arrives from wherever she's been since the opening of Halloween to tell Loomis he's been ordered back to Smith's Grove by the governor. The  unnamed officer makes some goofy, Mike Tenay-esque faces while she delivers this information. I hadn't noticed that before, and it's hilarious.

Back at the hospital, more people die, and Jimmy gets a concussion after slipping in a pool of the head nurse's blood. Cool visual, but I'm not sure I buy the idea behind it. Another nurse goes to leave for the night and discovers that somehow Michael found the time to slash the tires of literally every car in the parking lot. This also makes the engines not start up for some reason. She goes back inside, and soon becomes the victim of the classic stab & lift. That kicks off a pretty nice chase scene, which Laurie survives by hiding in a car. Why Michael stops looking for her like a Zelda monster the moment you leave the room is beyond me. 

Meanwhile, Loomis gets the franchise-hindering news about the Myers' bloodline (right after Whittington completely no-sells a Loomis rant about the meaning of Samhain), and he forces the state trooper to turn his car around and bring him to Haddonfield Hospital. He doesn't see Laurie crawling and weakly crying for help. Fortunately for her, the sight of Michael is enough for her to get up and run, and she's able to catch up with Loomis and the rest.

Now for the ending, which has people show incredible skill that they shouldn't have, stupidity that they shouldn't have, and the classic case of Hollywood crazy making someone immortal. Loomis damn sure should have known that the gun he kept for himself wasn't loaded. There's no way a panicked Laurie would have hit Michael in both eyes on consecutive shots with presumably zero firearms experience, and Michael almost no-sells GETTING SHOT TWICE IN THE FACE, simply stumbling around while blindly swinging a scalpel. 

The ending was intended to be it for the Michael Myers story, and it would have been a fitting conclusion. Loomis sacrifices himself to make sure Laurie makes it out alive and that Michael can't do anymore damage. However, Michael would be revived not by magic, but by a poorly-received sequel...

 He's just a little crispy. He's still good! He's still good!

*** I still like this one quite a bit despite its glaring flaws. Is it a huge step down from the original? Yes, but it's not nearly as bad as a lot of franchise sequels, especially some in this particular series. I also want to note that I love the organ version of the original score that is used here. It adds quite a bit and is at times even creepier than the original version.

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