A Nightmare from Friday to Halloween - Halloween II (1981)

The three most prominent American horror franchises (Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street) have influenced American cinema even beyond the horror genre. As of 2021, there are exactly 31 movies across all three franchises, and I am going to attempt to watch all of them, for this Halloween, one per day.

Apparently, John Carpenter wasn’t really into the sequel thing, especially for his own films. However, he and Debra Hill did write this direct sequel to their Halloween and for the most part, it works as a narrative. Setting it mostly at a hospital presents a bigger and definitely unfamiliar location for Michael Myers to wreak terror. But other than the creative setting, the script feels predictable and uninspired. Carpenter has said as much himself. The only really surprising thing is the reveal of Laurie’s and Michael’s relationship and even that feels tacked on, as if the creators knew that the script wasn’t working, and they needed something to juice it up. I think there are some decent setup for Michael’s mayhem such as the shower scene, but Carpenter’s specific touch, which is a lot more than the obvious tension, fake scare, real scare, is sorely missing here. I think I want to write about this film as much as Carpenter wanted to crank out this script, which is pretty much not at all. I’m ready for the wacky nonsense that Haloween III is supposed to be.