Halloween II (1981) Review

Halloween 2018 would have you believe that Halloween 2 never happened. But it did happen! We watched it. And we’re going to talk about it god damn it!  Halloween II Poster Halloween 2 can be found on HBO Now/Go right now, but is also available to rent on Amazon or anywhere else that you do that type of thing. Here is the trailer: https://youtu.be/RCiuZ9MvdJs Halloween 2 (1981) Synopsis Halloween 2 picks up right where Halloween left off. Michael Myers disappears from the lawn after being shot by Dr. Loomis 6 times. Why do I remember it was six times you ask? Because Dr. Loomis reminds us every time he is on screen. Michael Myers continues killing the youth of Haddonfield in a deadly game of peekaboo with the audience. Now you see him, now you don’t. Wee!  Review of Halloween II This film tries to recapture the moody and dread filled allure of the first Halloween, but doesn’t ever really deliver. Most of the interesting parts of the original were leading up to the killing spree at night when the shape is stalking Laurie and her friends. In this movie, it’s just the third act of the first film the whole time. Efforts are made to tack on a story and motivation to fill out the slasher. Dr. Loomis babbles about the philosophical and historical nature of Michael’s evil, and there’s also a shocking revelation akin to Empire Strikes Back! Other than that, character development and plot is pretty thin in this movie. The only character we really care about is Laurie in this film, and she does nothing for most of it. However, if you enjoy kills, this film delivers them at the slow and steady pace of Michael Myers. Score of Halloween 2 (1981) 5/10 While not a resounding endorsement, it's more of a confirmation that this is an archetypal slasher. Halloween II (1981)Watch the full movie of Halloween 2Buy/Rent on Amazon Halloween II (1981) Spoilers Expand for Spoilers Loomis As previously mentioned, Dr. Loomis is really here just to spout off about how many times he shot Michael Myers and wax philisophical about the nature of Michael's evil. Did I mention the time I shot Michael Myers six times? A lot of his dialogue expanding the lore of the Halloween franchise. When the word Samhain is scrawled on the blackboard in blood, Dr. Loomis explains the significance. https://youtu.be/0PUCi1hJLlc Later on in the car with his colleague, he explains the festival of Samhain as a druid ritual involving human sacrifice. Mentions of witches and ghouls might be there to set up the expanded halloween universe we would only get to see in Halloween 3: Season of the Witch. The opening titles One of the coolest parts in the movie is the opening credits, the jack-o-lantern opening up into a skull will probably haunt my nightmares. Boo! The first part of the movie subverts expectations quite a bit. The first opportunity that Michael Myers has to kill someone is an elderly couple, but he ends up walking away with their knife and murders a teenage girl instead. Also early on, there is a fake out death of "Michael Myers" that later is found out to be just some random kid. Of course we killed the killer in the first 20 mins... The Hospital The bulk of Halloween 2 (1981) takes place in a hospital. From the looks of it, an abandoned hospital. However, this doesn't keep the skeleton crew of seven of so doctors and nurses from being there. I mispoke. Doctor. There was one doctor in the entire hospital. A drunk doctor. How many reasons do you need to move away from Haddonfield? Deaths in Halloween II (1981) As with any slasher, there are several interesting deaths: Death by claw hammer Death by boiling someones head Death by scalpel Death by needle in the eye Good old fashioned knife-stabbing Being Blowed up Pacing The pacing of the Halloween movies feel really slow compared to modern horror movies, but it does a good job of keeping your attention. This is done mostly from the novelty of the kills, and certainly not from character development. Laurie Strode is Michael's Sister Laurie is in this movie, but only is in scenes for about 20 minutes of the run time. Her main purpose, other than continuity, is to lend her character to the films most shocking spoiler: Laurie Strode is Michael Myers' sister. Yeah. Meh. This came a year after Empire Strikes Back, so the cynical part of me says that they were just ripping off the idea. But the idea was easily retconned in later films. In fact the 2018 Halloween completely disregards this film. The Ending of Halloween II There is a final standoff between Michael, Laurie, and Dr. Loomis. Laurie ends up blinding Michael by shooting him in the eyes. This results in the iconic image of blood tears coming down Michael's mask. In the end, Michael gets blown up by a kamikaze attack by Dr. Loomis. We see Michael burning to a crisp laying motionless on the floor for several minutes. The film goes to great lengths to communicate finality. However, nothing resurrects villains better than earning potential. Michael Myers and even Dr. Loomis star in many of the later Halloween films. Final Recommendations As previously stated, if you are a fan of slashers, this is a must see. It is an archetype of a classic slasher. Thin on story, but thick on kills. It's an excellent follow up to the original Halloween. Transcript for Horror Movie Talk Episode 65: Halloween 2 (1981) Review Expand for full transcript Support for horror movie talk comes from our friends at multi missile mortgage by speedy loans. They understand that Holmes play a big role in your polygamist marriage. That's why they created multi missile mortgage. Multi missile mortgage gives you the confidence you need when it comes to buying a second home or refinancing your existing home loan for an expansion. Polygamy is complicated, but housing your family's doesn't have to be whether you're looking to buy your second home or your 10th or whether your wives know about each other or not. With multi missile mortgage, you get an easy, discreet online process that gives you the confidence to make an informed decision. It's convenient. Our trusted partners allow you to share your financial information with multi missile mortgage at the touch of a button. Multi missile mortgage by speedy loans. Apply easy commit fully mortgages. Multiply a ball to get started. Goto multi mental mortgage dot com slash hmt Equal housing lender Licensed in all 50 states. A. M M. L s Consumer access orig number 69 69 Hello and welcome to horror movie talk and opinionated and accidentally funny Horror Movie review. Show your panel of expert hosts each week are Dr Bryce Hansen, who holds a phD in spook ology, and Professor David Day, the foremost expert in Scare No nose. New theatrical releases always get priority, but we also review older horror movies both good and whole. Horrible. Uh, whoa ho is like a do cadi or something. What were you just now? And I'm David Day Welcome. Welcome to our little show. Check us out at our website horror movie talk dot com. There you'll find links dollar, social Media and past episodes and our blog's on or movie topics. We'll talk about our latest blog's coming up, You should know, and we want you to know that we post every Wednesday So please subscribe And, more importantly, leave a rating if you like us. If you don't like us, leave a rating like you like us. Anyways. We're trying to get to 200 ratings by the two year point of the podcast, and we're coming up on month 15 something, something like that. So we got a ways to go. Um, also, if your ah wanting to add a little more positivity into your life, check out the positive a cast by David Day, a daily short podcast. 3 to 5 minutes of little nuggets of positivity that you condemn posit in your brain. Right now, I've been focusing on my Siri's, continuing the series where I just look around the room and try and find things within the room to spin positively. I was talking to an old friend and he said It's like listening to use describing it to his wife. And he said, It's like listening to what? Adam? What can't Adam complain about? But in reverse? What? What can't David talk nicely about, huh? All right, so anyway, let's get onto the show. We got a great show today. We're gonna thio today to kick fuck out in. Trust me. We've got a great show. Great. Fucking fuck. It was really It's a really good show. Once we edit it today to kick off, October will be talking about Halloween. Two more like Halloween. Boo. Thesis is the 1982 Halloween to not to be confused with the Rob Zombie 2009 Halloween, too. Yeah, I believe so. So every episode we start out by giving a brief review and our score for the movie. We score on a scale of 1 to 10 1 being a miserable dredge where it makes you angry. Five being a completely average film that hits all the expected marks and 10 being so good that it transcends genre boundaries after we give our score will get into spoilers and take a deeper dive into what we liked and hated about the film. And then later we're gonna play a game called Attack of the Rotten Tomatoes game. Oh, Lila. And this is a themed one. It's going to be Halloween versus Nightmare on Elm Street. Oh, we're gonna pit the two franchises franchises together and you have to pick which one scored higher on run tomatoes. Yeah, Okay, that's cool. I I actually that's that's it. Use that nightmare on Elm Street. I I just got done a now hour ago. I just got done watching. Ah, nightmare on Elm Street. Three Dream Warrior An hour ago Way started watching it last night, and then we fell asleep. So Okay, picked it back up in the morning. You say you got up like five in the morning. That's right watching We're committed to horror movies here. Horror movie talk. That's right. Just 24 7 were watching horror movies....