Halloween 2 Review (1981) Worth Watching?

It's about the hunt for Michael Myers on Halloween night.

Halloween 2 was directed by Rick Rosenthal (who also directed The Birds II: Land's End and Halloween: Resurrection) and stars Jamie Lee Curtis (from Halloween Kills and Halloween: Resurrection), Donald Pleasence (from Halloween 6: The Curse Of Michael Myers and Halloween 6: The Curse Of Michael Myers) and Charles Cyphers (from The Fog and Someone's Watching Me!).

The nightmare isn't over!

The previous, original, Halloween ended with Michael Myers being poked in the eye, stabbed, shot 6 times and thrown out of a second story window. Halloween 2 picks up seamlessly where it left off. Loomis is running around looking for Myers and Myers is just walking around town like he doesn't have 6 bullets in his chest, calm as can be. And instead of looking for a way to not die, Myers just continues on looking for his next kill. The first Halloween took over an hour before giving us a kill, this one took all of 12 minutes.

Halloween 2 is a fantastic sequel because it gives fans of the original Halloween exactly what they want, a continuation of the cult classic. It's like watching episode 2 of a Halloween mini series. Very cool format, especially considering other slashers of the time all went in a completely different direction. Friday the 13th 2 gave you an entire new cast of campers. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 completely changed the concept of Freddy. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 went full on comedy. Even Sleepaway Camp 2 changed the villain completely. But fans of Myers were given more Myers. Granted, Halloween completely flipped the script in part 3, but that's for another review.

This sequel starts off strong, but honestly starts to drag halfway through. Myers slowly walks around offing people en route to his goal of offing Laurie, who is recovering in the hospital after Myers' first attempt to off her. The hospital she's in is also mostly deserted and quiet. So there's a lot of slow walking down empty halls while listening to the same iconic score... which starts to feel less iconic after hearing it loop 147 times.

Of course, despite the slowing pace and repetitiveness, it still has style and atmosphere. For example, there's classic horror movies playing on TV's in several scenes which is a cool touch and the kills are definitely more creative this time around. Overall, Halloween 2 was a perfect followup to the original cult classic.

Worth Watching?

Yep. Another no brainer.

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Halloween franchise ranked Worst to First

"I met him, 15 years ago; I was told there was nothing left; no reason, no conscience, no understanding in even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this… six-year-old child with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and… the blackest eyes – the Devil’s eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up, because I realised that what was living behind that boy’s eyes was purely and simply… evil."

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