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Halloween
2
(1981) |
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Before looking at Halloween 2 let's be absolutely clear about a thing or two. To follow up a film as sublimely brilliant as Halloween is about as hapless and pointless a job as any. It's like asking someone to come up with Psycho 2 (they did, and how atrocious it was when compared to the masterful original). Halloween 2 was always destined to be a serious let down and a failure simply because there was no conceivable way to top the first. As it happens Halloween 2 is a mighty frightening and effective stalker/slasher film, but the fact is that it has absolutely none of the subtlety and finesse or the brilliant characterisation of the first. Rick Rosenthal does an admirable job however in recreating the same liquid motion style and point of view camera that Carpenter used so effectively in the original. However the real difference lies in that while Carpenter's masterpiece never had to resort to shock gore tactics to scare, this one tends to rely on gore as a way of heightening fear. There are several scenes that climax in a brutal piece of violence, something that Halloween never really resorted to. Though there is little of the imagination and style of the original there is still enough that elevates it way above similar scare fare of the 80's. The stalking scenes towards the end are excellent as Myers relentlessly chases down Jamie Lee, who appears to have aged quite a bit overnight! The movie carries on from the point the original ended with Michael Myers having got up once again and supposedly gone home. Well, according to this film, he doesn't go home but continues his murderous spree and pursuit of Jamie Lee who we discover is in fact his sister. Possibly the very worst thing about this film are the two painfully long close up shots of Jamie Lee having a blood test. Why did the director feel the need to show the audience the blood test in close up view? Perhaps he felt it would add to the overall uneasy tone of proceedings. The film is never boring despite the normal transgressions for a bit of nudity and sex here and there, keep in mind that all promiscuous types are reserved the most horrible of deaths in these movies and Halloween 2 is no exception at all. The deaths incidentally are rather hideous and graphic and had the audience we viewed the movie with cheering rapturously. It was after all opening night and there was a tremendous air of expectancy and excitement. After the initial disappointment that Halloween 2 was in no way a match for the original slowly ebbs away one can actually look back at the film and admire it for being a very effective slasher film, albeit with none of the class of Halloween. It is in our opinion one of the best slasher films of all, far superior to the admittedly rousing Friday the 13th for example and it has sequences that are intensely scary. Unfortunately the very last scene manages to detract significantly from what has gone before and the whole movie is undermined and suddenly there doesn't seem to be too much difference between Jason part 5 and the Halloween series. The bit when Michael gets up for the umpteenth time wearing a fire proof space suit is at least one step beyond. Mostly, it's a terrific scare and until H20 arrived in 1998, a number of truly atrocious sequels followed every couple of years. Halloween 3 had nothing to do with the others, Halloween's 4 and 5 featured an irritating brat who was brutally murdered in Urban Legend so many years later! Halloween 6 is one of the worst films ever bar none and Halloween H20 was a fitting finale. Incidentally, for fans of Spinal Tap, isn't the nurse in Halloween 2 the same airport security attendant who had the dubious honour of using the metal detector on our beloved band with hysterical results? We think it's her!
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