Well here we are, “Halloween ll”. Filmed 3 years after the original but based on the night after the first film, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is in hospital but Michael is still on the loose and is still intent on killing her and anyone that gets in his way.
On a personal note I find the Michael in this film (Played by Dick Warlock) more terrifying, he seems more “no holds barred” and I’ll never forget how scared I got in the scene where Michael just walks through that glass door. It still raises goosebumps on my arms after all these years.
The set of the hospital was very well done, watching Michael haunt the corridors, waiting for him to jump out at any moment, built a great tense atmosphere and you rooted for Laurie & Loomis through the whole film, Talking of Loomis, in this sequel you feel like he won’t stop until Michael is stopped, putting himself in danger just to save everyone from his madness. If you didn’t feel towards Loomis in the first film then you certainly will in this one and your aduration for Laurie just grows stronger.
Once again Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance are FANTASTIC and this film really just does solidify your love for the characters. Sequels are always a hit & miss but I truly feel that this was more than a hit, more of a bang as you’re just thrust back into the tensity from the first film and it never dies down.
It is truly a great sequel that lives up-to it predecessor, which you don’t get very often.
The film was dragged into controversy On December 7, 1982 when Richard Delmer Boyer murdered Francis and Eileen Harbitz, an elderly couple. This lead 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 hallucinations 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,
“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.”
Miscellaneous facts about the film: