#35 - Halloween II (1981)
(dir. Rick Rosenthal)
This sequel picks up immediately where the first film left off. Michael Myers disappears after being shot by Loomis, so the doctor and the police continue to search for him. Laurie is brought to the hospital to recover, where a whole new batch of vict... er, characters are introduced. Of course, Michael follows her there and does his thing.
This one is okay. It's not nearly as good as the first film, but also not nearly as bad as the later sequels. Having watched it back to back with the original, the most immediately noticeable thing is that the cinematography is way worse. Everything just looks so boring and flat. Worst of all, the plot adds some dumb and unnecessary twists, like that Laurie is actually Michael's sister, and also some dumb crap about druids or something.
It's not all bad, though. The music, still by Carpenter, is great. Donald Pleasence is still kind of awesome and ridiculous, and he is given much more to do this time around. Also... um... okay, that's about it. The budget was almost ten times higher than the first, so at least they were able to hire a better supporting cast, but the dialogue is not nearly as good (and excellent dialogue wasn't really a strength of the original) so overall it isn't too much of an improvement. The rest is sort of mediocre. Michael is much more brutal here, but also much less believable. The scares are pretty predictable, either clichés like the old "cat jumping out of nowhere" or just rehashes of moments from the first film.
This isn't an awful film - it's comfortably mediocre and coasts long enough on the strength of the original for it to still be entertaining. Not worth seeking out though.
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