Halloween II (2009)

Michael Myers is still at large and no less dangerous than ever. After a failed reunion to reach his baby sister at their old home, Laurie Strode is immediately taken to a hospital to be treated by the wounds that had been afflicted by her brother a few hours ago. However, Michael isn't too far off and will continue his murdering 'Halloween' rampage until he gets his sister all to himself.

Die Handlung setzt an das "Halloween"-Remake aus dem Jahr 2007, und handelt von dem Psychopathen Michael Myers, der nach sechzehn Jahren aus einer psychiatrischen Anstalt kommt und in seine Heimatstadt Haddonfield, Illinois zuruckgekehrt, um seine grausamen Racheplane zu vollenden. Ein Feldzug des Terrors beginnt, bei dem Michael vor nichts Halt machen wird, um die Geheimnisse seiner zerrutteten Vergangenheit zu offenbaren.

I suspect "ruined" is much too harsh a word when describing the changes Carpenter made to the sequel, but Rosenthal had one thing right: Halloween II is carefully paced, regardless of what sequences were added in post-production. Picking up where Halloween left off with Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasance) staring at an empty patch of grass where serial killer Michael Myers' dead body should be lying Rosenthal's sequel hits the ground running. Myers stalks from house to house in Haddonfield, Illinois, stealing knives, stabbing helpless young women… you know, the usual. Amidst all the chaos, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is rushed to the hospital, where she learns Michael was hit by a car, set on fire and charred to a crisp. Oops. Turns out Myers wasn't the poor sap set aflame, as he turns up at the hospital and begins slicing, dicing and, of all things, scalding nurses and staff members, one by one, in true slasher at-times splatter fashion. Meanwhile, a paramedic named Jimmy (Lance Guest) takes a liking to Laurie, the police prove to be no help whatsoever, and dearly devoted Dr. Loomis, ever on the hunt, discovers a shocking secret about the Myers family.

Rosenthal does a fine job replicating the tone and decisiveness of Halloween, and it isn't hard to go from one to the next without so much as a break in stride. At least initially. Setting the sequel in a hospital requires less absurd decision making from its characters, and in some regards I stress some Halloween II is a more sinewy film than its predecessor. That said, removing Laurie from her smalltown life, even with a trip to the local hospital, robs the sequel of some of its this could happen in my neighborhood chill. While we're on it, casting an entire ward of wooden supporting actors takes a toll, dialing up the gore undermines the real horror of the on-screen murders, and turning Myers into a near-inhuman killing machine seems a bit misguided (Carpenter's masked madman takes multiple slugs to the chest, not to mention a few to the brain-pan, and still has enough fight in him to stagger out of an explosion soon after). But these familiar trends, while rather new to budding slasher aficionados in 1981, don't spoil the proceedings as much as they might in a lesser sequel. Curtis and Pleasance's performances are a large part of the film's edge, sure, but Rosenthal does his part too. He not only has a handle on suspense, he has a tight grip on the tension Carpenter infused in Halloween. Don't misunderstand; the original is a more effective slashes and, without a doubt, the only genre classic in the Halloween franchise. That said, Halloween II has a string of devious jolts, gory shocks and creepy encounters tucked up its tattered sleeve; enough to lift it above the horror-sequel muck and, if nothing else, win the critically panned followup some overdue respect.

The devil is the details and, for once, he's welcome there. Michael Myers lingers as a woman looks right past the shadowy killer standing less than twenty yards away; the shoes of a nurse clatter to the floor as the stoic maniac lifts her into the air; a needle slides, oh so slowly, into the temple of another nurse after Myers materializes from the darkness like a demon; childlike moans and wails escape his throat after being blinded. In each case, Rosenthal – or Carpenter, or perhaps both – favor slow, deliberate chills over gotcha scares. There are missteps along the way (a trick-or-treater with a razor blade jammed in his mouth, a victim being severely burned by scalding water while Myer's hand remains unscathed, and Michael's ability to sneak up on anyone and everyone except Laurie), with a different breed of devil presiding over the film's lesser qualities, but it's all in good, schlocky fun and doesn't derail Rosenthal's later-that-same-night extension of Carpenter's original frightfest. And thirty years later, Michael's logic-defying invulnerability doesn't distract as much as it once did. If anything, it should be applauded for inspiring the unstoppable runs and sequel-to-sequel reigns of other horror icons. Jason. Freddy. Pinhead. Killers and otherworldly creatures had been skirting death at the last minute, lunging out of lakes as the credits rolled, and haunting the dreams of lone survivors years before Halloween II shambled onto the scene, but Rosenthal and Carpenter's Michael Myers 2.0, in whole or in part, influenced the genre juggernauts that followed; bullets no longer put down the baddie, blades no longer felled the beast, and the madman would just… keep… coming… no matter what weapon his helpless victims brandished. Michael suddenly didn't seem so human. He had become a true movie monster.

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown (blu-ray.com)