Plot: After six gun shots and a fall out of a second story window, Michael Myers seemed to be dead, but that wasn’t the case. Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance) is certain he was able to land those shots, but how could Myers survive that? As an ambulance takes an injured Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) to the hospital, Loomis is hot on Michael’s trail and the police begin to discover the aftermath of Myers’ Halloween night rampage. After a quick jaunt to add to his body count, Michael stalks toward the hospital to finish what he started. Laurie was his target and now he has a second chance, but the hospital is full of nurses, orderlies, and others. As he carves a path toward Laurie, Loomis is desperate to find him, but faces challenges of his own. Will Michael’s wrath once again be averted or will he finish his pursuit of Laurie? And what makes him so driven to go after Laurie in the first place?

Entertainment Value: This sequel picks up right after the original, in the heat of Michael’s escape and Laurie’s survival. The decision to do this adds instant urgency to the movie and really lets the story kick off at a boil. Aside from Laurie’s awful wig, I think the approach works, but there are some shifts from the original. The rise of the slasher movie impacts Halloween II, as we have more blood and violent, creative deaths, whereas the original was less visceral in that sense. But Loomis is still insane and Michael is still creepily lurking around, so the original still resonates here more often than not. This movie also begins to uncork more of the lore behind Michael’s persona, so we learn more about our favorite masked man. I don’t mind an unstoppable killing machine with minimal backstory, but I am sure some viewers are happy to have more of his lore out in the open. While not the horror master class like the original, Halloween II is a solid sequel that injects a more traditional slasher approach. I think if you’re even a casual horror fan, its worth a look.

Just one set of spectacular breasts on showcase, as well as a guy’s naked, hairy ass. While this movie has more bloodshed than the original, it still isn’t packed with graphic gore by any means. We have some cool stuff though, like a chick dunked into scalding water and a needle to the temple. There’s also other bits of blood here and there, but there’s similar restraint here as in the original, especially compared to other slasher movies. I do love the incredible full body burn though, just an epic scene. Loomis provides most of the wild dialogue, as he is even crazier than before. No real money shot lines though, which is a shame since the original had some great ones. On the crazy scale, Loomis is more off the deep end and Myers really embraces his unstoppable killer status, which yields some fun scenes. But nothing really out of the scope of slasher norms happens, so its pretty in line with similar movies.

Nudity: 1/10

Blood: 5/10

Dialogue: 1/10

Overall Insanity: 2/10

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