Halloween II (1982)
DIRECTED BY: Rick Rosenthal
WRITTEN BY: John Carpenter and Debra Hill
MUSIC BY: John Carpenter & Alan Howarth
DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures
STARRING: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Charles Cyphers, Lance Guest, Pamela Susan Shoop, Hunter von Leer, Tawny Moyer, Ana Alicia, Nancy Stephens, Gloria Gifford, Leo Rossi, Ford Rainey
RUNNING TIME: 92 Minutes
Plot:
Picking up right where part 1 left off Laurie is taken to the hospital while Dr. Loomis and Sheriff Brackett try to find Michael before he kills again. Michael shows up at the hospital and starts killing the people who are working their. Loomis is told to leave Haddonfield turns around when he discovers that Laurie is Michael's sister. Loomis confronts Michael at the hospital and sets off an explosion that seems to kill both of them.
Mythos Information:
Takes place October 31, 1978; the same night as Halloween 1.
Laurie Strode is Michael Myers sister. She was 2 when he killed their older sister. 2 years later (when she was 4) the Myers parents were killed in a car accident. Laurie was adopted by the Strode's who requested the files be sealed to protect the family. After hearing about the killings in Haddonfield the governor authorized the file to be opened.
Michael writes the word Samhain on the blackboard at the school, this marks the first sign of the link between him and the druids. Loomis says that Samhain is the "Lord of the Dead". This is incorrect, Samhain was a festival to celebrate the harvest, not a god. The festival was what inspired the christians to create the holliday of Halloween. It is believable that Loomis would repeat the 'Lord of the Dead' myth because it has been put fourth in many scholarly works who's authors should have known better.
Story:
After Halloween became a hit it seemed that everyone was ripping off the Halloween formula (Friday the 13th, Terror Train). The makers of the original were approached by universal pictures to make a sequel. John Carpenter and Debra Hill said that they would only return if they could have complete creative control, which was given to them. They wrote the script together but Carpenter opted out of directing because he did not to want to make the same film again (a policy that he abandoned some time before directing Escape From LA). First they approached Carpenter's friend and frequent collaborator Tommy Lee Wallace who turned them down. Carpenter was sent a copy of a 30 minute psycho-killer short called The Toyer they hired it's director Rick Rosenthal to direct Halloween 2.
While writing the script they realized that the story line from the original was pretty limited and didn't leave much reason for Michael to keep stalking Laurie. According to Carpenter the idea of making Laurie Michael's sister came to him "at 2:00 in the morning infront of a typewriter with a 6 pack of beer." Also while writing the sequel they wanted to make sure that this would be the only one, because they felt that their was not enough story for any more than 2 movies (how naive;) They constructed the ending in a way that they thought made it perfectly clear that Michael and Loomis were both dead.
The movie was shot in Pasadena, California like the first one. Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Charles Cyphers, and Nancy Stephens all reprised their original roles. Nancy Loomis also returned to play the corps of Annie Brarckett. For the opening of the movie they wanted to re-hash the ending of part 1, but Compass International owned the rights to that one, while this one was being made by Universal. Since any professional film-makers will shoot at least two good takes of every scene they used different takes of the same scene from part 1. This creates several small goofs where a line was read differently or someone was standing in a different place than in the real end of part 1. Kyle Richards & Brian Andrews receive screen credit for playing Lindsey and Tommy, even though they did not shoot anything for this movie, just old discarded footage that they shot for part 1.
During this production Carpenter and Debra Hill sold the rights to this movie to Network TV. The network censors demanded that several cuts be made. In order to fill in the running time Carpenter used the crew from this movie for a 3 day shoot in which they shot some extra footage to put into the network TV version of Halloween.
Near the end of the production on this film John Carpenter had them add more gore. Originally Rosenthal had been keeping the gore down, to let the gruesome details play out in the mind of the audience (like the original); but Carpenter decided that they needed more gore so that they could compete with all of the "Halloween imitators". One of the goriest is the death of Nurse Karen who gets her head repeatedly dunked in boiling water. The scene took 2 days to shoot (most of which required Shoop to be naked see trivia). In reality the water was freezing and the
steam came from a smoke machine. For the shots of her face getting burned they covered her face in latex and injected Vaseline under the latex between each shot to create the blisters on her face. The film was released on October 30, 1981 and went on to make $25.5 million domestically, which is much less that part 1's $55 million but still pretty good.
Trivia:
The film was shot in Panavision Anamorphic at a ratio of 2.35x1.
If you don't know what I am talking about check out my artical on film aspect ratios.
Michael Myers is played by 3 people in this one. Tony Moran plays him in the footage from part 1 of Michael being unmasked. Dick Warlock plays "The Shape". An uncredited young boy plays Michael as a child in Laurie's dream.
Dick Warlock ("The Shape") is about 4 inches shorter than Nick Castle who played him in part 1. The fact that Michael is played by a shorter man is very noticeable in some scenes.
Acress Pamela Susan Shoop is in reality a rather shy person when it comes to exposing her body so she was uncomfortable when shooting the nude scene. Director Rick Rosenthal offered to have the crew take off their cloths to make her feel more comfortable but they flatly refused which meant that it was back to Shoop and Leo Rossi being two naked people surrounded by clothed people. (NOTE: This officially makes Rosenthal a wimp because he suggested the whole 'have the crew get naked' thing but did not have the guts to take the initiative and remove his own cloths)
Deaths:
Alice (Anne Bruner) - Stabbed
Bennett Tramer (Jack Verbois) - Hit By Car a police car and burned to death in the resulting fire
Mr. Garrett (Cliff 'Fatty' Emmich) - Claw hammer to the forehead
Budd (Leo Rossi) - Strangled
Karen (Pamela Susan Shoop) - Repeatedly dunked into boiling water
Dr. Mixter (Ford Rainey) - Syringe to the eye
Janet (Ana Alicia) - Syringe to the temple
Mrs. Alves (Gloria Gifford) - Blood drained with an IV needle
Jill (Tawny Moyer) - Scapel to the back
The Marshall (John Zenda) - Throat slip with a scapel
Sex/Nudity:
Karen (Pamela Susan Shoop) - While fooling around in a hydrotherapy pool with Budd she shows her perky breasts several times. As she gets out of the water their are some side views of her fully nude body. Than as
she is killed those perfect breasts are shown a few more times.
Budd (Leo Rossi) - Shows his ass as he gets out of the hydrotherapy pool to adjust the temperature.
Alternate versions:
Several small bits of dialog were cut from the film before it was released to keep the running time down. When the movie was shown in the dreaded "edited for television" version these bits were put back in to fill the running time.
A small online video store called Orange Grove Video will sell you a decent bootleg of it. It's probably the best copy you will find.
When Laurie first arrives at the hospital after Dr. Mixter (Ford Rainey) sedates her the nurses start to undress her. Budd (Leo Rossi) & Jimmy (Lance Guest) watch until the nurse orders them to leave.
Following the scene where Loomis and Brackett (Charles Cyphers) are told that Annie's been found dead, the scene where some of the hospital staff watches a news report about the murders is longer. Mr. Garrett (Cliff 'Fatty' Emmich) says that drugs must have been involved in the killings. Than Budd (Leo Rossi) mocks him saying "Drugs, that's what's wrong with society." Then Jimmy (Lance Guest) asks Janet (Ana Alicia) how Laurie is doing, and Janet tells him about her injuries. Than Dr. Mixter (Ford Rainey) sits in Laurie's room and frets over weather he did the best he could on her, because he was drunk at the time. The Mrs. Alves (Gloria Gifford) tells Jill (Tawny Moyer) to find Janet and have her call the Strotes. They leave Laurie's room just before Jimmy comes in.
When Karen (Pamela Susan Shoop) arrives at the hospital Mr. Garrett (Cliff 'Fatty' Emmich) lets her in and asks her if she's heard about the killings and says that he's sure it was "teenage punks on drugs".
After Budd tells Jimmy not to get involved with a patient Jimmy talks to a nurse and tells her that he heard that Michael is dead. Than Mrs. Alves (Gloria Gifford) tries to call the Strodes but can't get a hold of them. She chastises Janet (Ana Alicia) for not trying to call them earlier. Than she sees Jimmy sneaking into Laurie's room and tells him that he can have 2 minutes with her.
The scene where Jimmy tells Laurie that Michael Myers is the one who tried to kill her is longer. It opens with him coming into her room and giving her a soda. Than he asks her how she is doing, after which it plays out like the theatrical version.
After Mr. Garrett's death Jimmy goes into Laurie's room and tells her that he talked to a reporter who says that Michael is dead and the police have the body. Laurie starts screaming that he is still alive and he will come for her. Jimmy calls for help and Dr. Mixter sedates Laurie. Than the power goes out and the backup generator comes on but
leaves the hospital darker than it was.
At the end of the Bennett Tramer autopsy Loomis and the deputy Hunt (Hunter von Leer) talk about where
Michael might be. Loomis says that if Michael is injured he may go back to his old house, which is why Loomis and the scarf go to the Myers house in the next scene.
Just before Budd and Karen have sex Janet and Karen talk about weather Michael is still alive. Janet says that Mr. Garrett told her someone broke into the supply room. Janet mentions how creepy seeing Laurie screaming about Michael was.
When Budd talks Karen into going to the hydrotherapy pool to fool around she resists the idea a bit more and he has some more lines to convince he to do it.
During Laurie's dream about Michael when she sees Michael as a little boy she says "Please Don't be mad at me. I'm your sister."
The hydrotherapy scene begins with Karen walking into the room and Budd telling her to hurry up. She says the she doesn't want to get her uniform messed up and goes behind the glass to undress.
Their is a bit of Jill (Tawny Moyer) examining Laurie before Jimmy runs to find Mrs. Alves (Gloria Gifford) and discovers that she is dead.
The scene where Laurie tries to make a phone call (the phones are dead) is longer. She starts deliriously crying and mumbling "mommy; he won't die".
When Jimmy and Jill (Tawny Moyer) try to figure out why they can't find anyone else there are a few more lines and the nurse asks Jimmy if he thinks that someone else could be in the hospital with them.
The Marshall (John Zenda) dies a less gruesome death. Michael stands completely up and slashes him from the front while his back is to the camera.
After Laurie is put in the ambulance Jimmy (Lance Guest) is in their with her and she holds his hand and tearfully says "We made it." This proves that Jimmy did not die in that car with Laurie, he simply passed out because of the concussion he sustained when he hit his head.