Happy October everyone and welcome to the first day of year four of Freddy's 31 days of Horror! As always I try to kick things off with one of the many movies from the Halloween franchise and this year I thought I'd go with the original sequel Halloween II. This sequel was made three years after Carpenter's original but takes place at the very end of the original Halloween as producer John Carpenter, Debra Hill and new director Rick Rosenthal all agreed on the concept of "a moment later." This flick is pretty important as it is one of the first slasher sequels and helped spawn the ideas of slasher franchises, but because of its moments later ideas it, unlike most slasher sequels keeps continuity. This is also one of the few cases where many different filmmakers changing things as they went actually benefitted the movie in making it what it is. Series producer Moustapha Akkad, producer Irwin Yablans and financier Dino Delaurentiis all had a say in the film as well as writing team Debra Hill and John Carpenter who also produced giving first time director Rick Rosenthal a lot of cooks in the kitchen to contend with that should've made a mess but instead made a great companion piece to Carpenter's classic. 
Dr. Loomis has shot Michael Myers six times in the chest in hopes of killing him, but to Loomis's horror Michael has walked off into the night. Loomis flags down Sherriff Bracket in his police car to chase down and find Michael while Laurie is rushed to the hospital from her wounds inflicted by Michael. Michael makes his way though the streets of Haddonfield killing as he goes trying to find out where Laurie is to finish the job, only now the citizens know the killer walks the streets and who he is. In panic and paranoia the town goes a little crazy as everyone seems to be trying to track down Michael Myers and news crews report anything they can find on the case. In this news frenzy Michael Myers discovers the whereabouts of Laurie and while Myers slaughters his way through the hospital, Dr. Loomis discovers a secret connection between Michael and Laurie explaining why Michael is on the hunt for her. 
Carpenter never wanted another Michael Myers story, it was supposed to be a one and done with the possibility of Halloween being an anthology with different stories each film like Season of the Witch, but among many reasons including higher pay due to Carpenter feeling he never saw any money for the original Halloween, Carpenter along with Debra Hill wrote the script for another Michael centric film. He's often said a six pack of Budweiser a day helped him write it and interestingly enough a lot of dialogue from the novelization of the original Halloween went into the script for the sequel including, "I've been trick-or-treated to death tonight!" Which Loomis replies with, "You don't even know what death is." I actually really like that line as its super Loomis. With that in place obviously Hill and Carpenter were pretty whatever with the flick but Rosenthal being a first timer had a lot to prove and gave the film a really strong throwback opening. Just as in the original film it opens with the pumpkin lit up as the credits roll but in the sequel the pumpkin splits in half to reveal a skull inside dimly lit by candlelight which just perfectly reflects the franchise for me and the body count in store. Rosenthal also mimics Carpenter's original first person perspective of Michael Myers as a boy killing his sister in the first film with a first person perspective of adult Michael hiding in the shadows from Loomis screaming in the distance. It's tense build as Michael enters an elderly folks home after watching from the shadows and grabs a large knife as an old woman's back is turned watching the report on Michael's recent murders. She turns to see her knife gone and blood in its place with a shriek and it's perfect camera work. Rosenthal also did very well in keeping the dark shadowy look and lighting of the original thanks to the return of cinematographer Dean Cundy. 
Stunt coordinator Dick Warlock took over the role of Michael this time around and does play the part a little differently. In the three year period since the original tons of imitators came along trying to do the Halloween formula but upping the gore factor and intensity of the slashers like Jason from Friday the 13th. Warlock definitely had a quicker and heavy breathed movement that's not bad just different. My favorite thing about Michael in this film was a complete accident though. Thinking they'd never make another Michael Myers film the mask was never taken care of properly often being stuffed away and by Debra Hill's admission kept under her bed where it yellowed from her constant smoking. This gave the mask a grimier and dirtier look which worked for me because at this point he had gone through alleyways and pretty much showered in blood and dirt so it gave Michael a bit more character for me. Michael is much more brutal and kills more gruesomely here as the body count grows through the film between drowning a nurse in boiling water, melting her face and completely draining another nurse's body of blood, it gets pretty hardcore.
While Yablans wanted the film more tame and subtle like the original, Carpenter felt like it couldn't be done anymore with the rise of Slasher films. After original editor Mark Goldblatt cut the Rosenthal version of the film which was more in tune with subtlety, Carpenter went in and filmed several more gory death scenes and took out several scenes Rosenthal shot with the help of editor Skip Schoolnik. You could say the added gore was unnecessary but I felt like it really added to the insanity that was building within the film. I love the paranoia that grips the town and the mob mentality that erupts as citizens loot and try to destroy Michael Meyers old home. My favorite part is when someone wearing the same costume as Michael is chased after and accidentally killed in a wreck, burned to a crisp in an explosion which almost foreshadows how Michael meets his demise in the end. 
Jamie Lee Curtis is only in the film for maybe 25 minutes and mostly in a bed and hospital gown but as always she excels at being the true scream queen. She is completely unhinged and going into sickly visions throughout the film doing her best to limp away and escape Michael when he finds her. This leads us to the epic final battle where Loomis and Laurie fight Meyers. She shoots him right in the eyes of his mask blinding him as he swings his knife through the air trying angrily to cut anyone as Laurie and Loomis fill the room with gas and light it up setting Michael ablaze! In one of the most epic stunt man on fire scenes, Dick Warlock walks out completely engulfed in flames and after a few steps falls to the ground. Laurie is pulled away victoriously in an ambulance through a fog, which I felt was a nod to Carpenter and Curtis's film the Fog, and Michael's mask melts away to the tune of Mr. Sandman.
Halloween is a classic that no one could top and is of itself a one time type of film, but this is the film that established the sequel rules. Bigger, more blood and explain the slasher's back story. Halloween II is the sequel bible and it's a damn fun film that has a lot to thank from too many people involved adding things here and there. This should be a total mess but it works in its own way as a perfect closer to the Michael Meyers story arc with a nice twisted sense of humor from Hill and Carpenter with their addition of a kid who got a razor blade stuck in his mouth from bad candy. Wholesome slasher fare.
30 Days til' Halloween! Halloween!
30 Days til' Halloween! Silver Shamrock!
