Plot
Laurie Strode is traumatised following her encounter with Michael Myers, and taken to a nearby hospital.
Dr Sam Loomis, discovering that Michael has fled following being shot – seeks assistance from Sherrif Brackett to hunt down Michael and take him down once and for all!
Meanwhile, Michael continues his rampage through Haddonfield – and the body count continues to rise!
Direction
Directorial debut from Rick Rosenthal who does a sound job taking over from John Carpenter. He plays with the audience well, with hiding Michael ‘just out of frame’ – or just out of view of the characters on screen. He would go on to direct Halloween Resurrection in 2002.
The film was written and produced by original director/creator John Carpenter and his collaborator Deborah Hall.
Cast
Jamie Lee Curtis plays Laurie, getting equal casting alongside Donald Pleasence as Dr Sam Loomis.
Curtis spends 2/3 of the film as Laurie in an almost catatonic state following her ordeal – but gets a solid third arc as the scream queen/final girl.
Some secondary cast include Lance Guest as Jimmy, a boy who fancies Laurie, Charles Cyphers – returning as Sheriff Bracket, Nancy Stephens as Marion Chambers (who will return in several future films).
Breakdown
Starting exactly where the first film left off, we see that the town of Haddonfield is discovering what has occurred, as two separate story points continue the saga.
One is Laurie’s – as she is taken to hospital, under the ‘not so watchful’ eye of the nursing staff – who would rather play coitus with each other, and members of the paramedic team.
The other is Loomis’ arc, as he continues to try to track down Michael, as he slowly learns more and more about the “man” than he didn’t know previously, like his link to a cult (which might explain his starving off death, both now and in the future movies), as well as the discovery that he had another sister at the time of first murder… and that sister is Laurie!!!
Of course, because of the age of the film, this is something I’ve grown up knowing (the film was made before I was born), but I imagine this would have had the same type of effect as finding out that Darth Vadar was actually Anikan Skywalker!
As Michael slowly gets his way through town, there are moments where a clearly updated budget means the film is much more explosive (literally) at times – with two scenes in particular.
The first two arcs are focused on some of the disposable characters, with Laurie either asleep or ‘catatonic’ due to what has occurred, and/or the medicine that she has received (from the drunk doctor no less… one of the moments that show the age of the film). There are a few foreshadowing dreams she has of her adopted mother, and visiting Michael before the reveal.
The third act really builds up the tension with Carpenter’s awesome score, and a chase sequence in the hospital basement is quite exciting.
Overall
Solid sequel, which ups the ante with the bloodshed – and adds the now well known plot twist of Michael being Laurie’s sister (which gives the filmmakers plenty of chances of more and more sequels, requels, prequels etc).
4/5
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