'Halloween II' should be viewed as a direct continuation of the original film, and as such, it works well, if not brilliantly.
There are many effective scares throughout the film, none more so than the heart-pounding chase of Laurie by Michael Myers through the hospital towards the end of the film. Everything in that almost 6 minute scene is perfect - the direction, the acting, and the music!! Where do I start with the music? Alan Howarth took John Carpenter's original score and beefed it up with some then state of the art synthesiser sounds, making it sound more frightening than it did in 'Halloween'.
Dean Cundey's cinematography should also be commended, as should director Rick Rosenthal for sticking so closely to John Carpenter's directorial style in 'Halloween'.
There are a few problems I have with the film, however. The first is the lack of continuity with the original. Laurie's hair looked the same, but everything else seemed slightly different to me. I may be wrong, but when we saw Myers' eyes in the original, weren't they brown, but in 'Halloween II', when we saw them (when he stabs the girl in the throat), they looked distinctly blue to me. But the rest of the film is, if not stunning, then at least arresting visually. The Hospital seemed fairly realistic to me, a lot of people seem to have a problem with it having so few staff, but having spent a night in a very large hospital which covers a whole region and not just a small town like Haddonfield Memorial did, I can testify that at night in hospitals, staff are indeed very few and far between.
I also liked the deaths (rumour has it John Carpenter found the style of the film too old fashioned in comparison with Friday the 13th, and so shot gory inserts for the death scenes behind Rick Rosenthal's back). The deaths involve a hammer to the head, a girl being drowned in a very very hot hydrotherapy pool, a nurse having her blood drained and an assistant getting an anaesthetic injected directly into her brain.
Aside from a few slight problems with continuity, I found 'Halloween II' an interesting and worthy successor to the original 'Halloween' and definitely better than any of the other sequels or 'Halloween' imitators, with the possible exception of 'Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later'.
***1/2 out of *****
There are many effective scares throughout the film, none more so than the heart-pounding chase of Laurie by Michael Myers through the hospital towards the end of the film. Everything in that almost 6 minute scene is perfect - the direction, the acting, and the music!! Where do I start with the music? Alan Howarth took John Carpenter's original score and beefed it up with some then state of the art synthesiser sounds, making it sound more frightening than it did in 'Halloween'.
Dean Cundey's cinematography should also be commended, as should director Rick Rosenthal for sticking so closely to John Carpenter's directorial style in 'Halloween'.
There are a few problems I have with the film, however. The first is the lack of continuity with the original. Laurie's hair looked the same, but everything else seemed slightly different to me. I may be wrong, but when we saw Myers' eyes in the original, weren't they brown, but in 'Halloween II', when we saw them (when he stabs the girl in the throat), they looked distinctly blue to me. But the rest of the film is, if not stunning, then at least arresting visually. The Hospital seemed fairly realistic to me, a lot of people seem to have a problem with it having so few staff, but having spent a night in a very large hospital which covers a whole region and not just a small town like Haddonfield Memorial did, I can testify that at night in hospitals, staff are indeed very few and far between.
I also liked the deaths (rumour has it John Carpenter found the style of the film too old fashioned in comparison with Friday the 13th, and so shot gory inserts for the death scenes behind Rick Rosenthal's back). The deaths involve a hammer to the head, a girl being drowned in a very very hot hydrotherapy pool, a nurse having her blood drained and an assistant getting an anaesthetic injected directly into her brain.
Aside from a few slight problems with continuity, I found 'Halloween II' an interesting and worthy successor to the original 'Halloween' and definitely better than any of the other sequels or 'Halloween' imitators, with the possible exception of 'Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later'.
***1/2 out of *****