HALLOWEEN II
Truly, something out of nothing
After a great opening-credits sequence which imitates the original's (but with a cool, final twist), almost everything about this movie is terrible. Yet, somehow, it manages to be quite frightening. For years, this bewildered me. Watching it again tonight, I'm pretty sure that cinematographer Dean Cundey was the only thing standing between this movie and total crapitude. But there he is, and thanks to him, Halloween II is one lean, mean, well-oiled fright machine.
First, a bit of history. Obviously, Halloween was an enormous hit, and the suits were all screaming "sequel". Whether John Carpenter was thinking this way even then, I don't know, but what he eventually decided would be a great idea for the Halloween franchise would be to make different, non-related movies based around a Halloween theme; a series, basically, like The Howling. But before he actually made one like that (that is, Halloween III: Season Of The Witch), for whatever reason (I'm rubbing my index and middle fingers against my thumb right now), he produced and cowrote (with Debra Hill) Halloween II, a straight sequel to his film. And thus his dream was doomed.
What I mean by that is, with Halloween II, the Halloween franchise became (certainly in the public eye) the Michael Myers franchise. It wouldn't have had to have been that way if Carp gave us Halloween III right after the original (and, logically, called it Halloween II). But he caved, and he blew it. That's why, as much love as I have for the man's work, I feel like he comes across as a whiner when he grumbles about the sequels. Maybe he understands that too, and maybe it's why he almost never talks about it anymore.
Halloween II picks up even before Halloween left off - actually repeating the last couple of minutes of the original film as its intro. Michael's gotten away, and the night's a long way from over. So he follows Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) to the hospital where he kills everybody he runs into, while Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance) discovers facts about Michael's and Laurie's relationship which just fly in the face of all logic.
Now, like I said, almost everything about this movie sucks. It's directed by Rick Rosenthal, whose other contributions to the genre include The Birds II: Land's End and...well, that's about it. The dialogue is hopelessly banal, with Loomis using up his one good line about two minutes in, and comic relief provided (poorly) by Leo Rossi singing "Amazing Grace, come sit on my face". Alan Howarth mangles Carpenter's original score by performing it on some sort of cheesy-sounding synth thing, and the resulting music sounds like the kind of thing you'd put in a comedy when the script calls for "scary movie music". The acting's what you'd expect for a slasher-movie sequel, Curtis stumbling around for her screen time because her character spends the entire film sedated. There's less plot in this movie than any slasher movie that comes to mind, and slasher movies are not known for their plots; and with what little plot this has, it's still got holes (like the totally unexplained - and unnoticed - loss of power in the hospital). And as if that all wasn't bad enough, Carpenter himself sabotaged the film in post-production, adding in extra gore scenes under the pretense that they were needed for the film to compete with the bloodier, post-Halloween slasher movies. (most glaring and gratuitous of these additions is a completely needless, irrelevant look at a little boy who bit into a razored apple)
Man, what's a movie to do? All of this spells "S-U-C-K" to me. Yet one lonely thing keeps Halloween II from becoming a bad movie, and makes it scary. And after much thought, I'm pretty sure that thing is Dean Cundey, cinematographer from the first film, who returns and does a bang-up job re-creating the look and feel of it.
This is a look and atmosphere that would make this movie scary if all Michael did was sit around, watch TV, and pay off the pizza delivery guy. Man, the darkness in this movie (and its predecessor) is just so thick. So thick, it even hides a guy in a bright white mask, so he can do The Fade (TM)! You know, that little move he does where, completely enshrouded by darkness, he just kinda slips into the light, very slowly, at first seeming like a disembodied mask, and then coming into full view and killing somebody. I LOVE The Fade (TM)! ALL HAIL THE FADE (TM)!!!
Of course, Michael is NOT sitting around, watching TV or paying off the pizza delivery guy. Being a slasher, he's going around slashing people instead. And it's a good thing that Cundey's here, because without him, this wouldn't even be an average example of the form. The slasher aspect is one of the most obvious executions of the idea I've ever seen; many of Michael's victims only get one scene in which to establish that they even exist in the film before they're killed. Viewing it the first time, I kept wondering "Who is this person? Oh wait, s/he's dead. Never mind." It's like a shooting gallery, but with knives, needles, scalpels, hot tubs (!) and hammers instead of a rifle.
There are scattershot things in this movie I like on their own, like when one guy actually slips on somebody else's blood, cracks his head, and is only seen again to collapse, again. (apparently, in a different cut, he makes it in the end) Watch for the don't-blink feature-film debut of Dana Carvey (wearing a blue baseball cap and nodding a lot), who completely embarrassed himself when he was on Politically Incorrect last year. Also note the hilariously lame moment when Michael just walks right through a plate-glass door. Yes, the sheer force of this guy moving at a snail's pace is enough to shatter the glass! By all means, try this at home - see how fast even the strongest of you have to get going before that glass even cracks.
A lot of people consider this the only true sequel to Halloween, because it's the only continuation of the events that Carpenter had input into. I'd disagree - just because Carpenter wrote the script on a cocktail napkin one night when he was drunk doesn't make it "legit". Halloween II is, to my eyes, every bit as questionable a sequel as, say, Halloween 4, which craps all over it, for the most part.
Bottom line though, guys - Halloween II is scary when most movies of this kind aren't, and for that, if nothing else, I'd have to recommend it. It's living (?) proof that sometimes, you really can make something out of nothing. Gotta love that poster art, too.