(1981) ***
I wanted to more excited by this. It's Michael, after all, not some annoying lady in a sweater. I wanted to give it mad props for the fact that it's the same night as Halloween, which is a ballsy move in itself. But it's just not the same.
The music is retooled for three years later, and I wasn't happy with the change. They densed it up with more synth, I suppose to "sophisticate" it up from its bare-bones form in the first one, but instead it just sounds annoyingly shrill.
Okay, okay, we all knew this wasn't going to play like the original. But how does it play as a slasher? The pace moves well enough, the body count is higher...why am I feeling let down by this? Is it because the weapons are largely small entries like hypodermic needles and scalpels?
Maybe so, but it would be wrong to say this movie doesn't have bite. Hospitals are intrinsically creepy places (especially when they're as dark as this one), and Michael does display some style. The head nurse's exsanguation and the hot-tub/gratuitous boob shot killing are nasty enough. (Although apparently they also use the hyrdrotherapy pool to make gumbo, otherwise why could it get so hot?)
Things go up a notch when it's Jamie Lee on the run from Michael. She certainly has the chops to qualify for the Scream Queen of the time. But I was a little annoyed with them repeating the same "somebody open the door!" gag from the first one, and the ending sequence with her and Loomis drawing blind Michael away from each other by opening hissing gas jets seemed overly baroque and not very exciting.
Halloween II has some satisfying quantities of blood, and a nasty edge to it. But this doesn't really feel like more Halloween.
3 comments:
My idea to watch these in order like this came from this excellent review of Halloween II: http://twtd.bluemountains.net.au/Rick/halloweenII.htm
I tried to link her main site off of the Horrorthon site, but Blogger can't hyperlink to her server.
I like this film better than you. Although back in the day I used to think, "How unrealistic that the hospital is so empty at night. . ." Well, let me tell you, I work in a hospital and it's exactly like that. At 5pm all the nurses leave and the place is a ghost town. I often think of being chased by Michael as I'm leaving work. Anyway,I feel like Halloween II is a worthy follow-up, if a follow-up had to be made. If they never made another Halloween I think that it would've been a satisfying finale. It really had no other place to go.
I realize my opinion is being torqued the same way we were discussing during my Ring Two review, i.e. disappointment in a sequel in relation to the original, but I'm going with it since the 'thon is a subjective experience.
(To be clear, in no way am I comparing Halloween II and Ring Two.)
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