Reviews: Halloween II (1981) Movie Review
Genres: Horror, Thriller, Serial Killers
Subgenres: Slasher, Cult Classic, Featured Maniac, Halloween - Slasher, Maniac
Our take on Halloween II (1981) explores its plot, scares, and horror highlights to help fans decide if it deserves a place on their watchlist.
Halloween II (1981) is 1h 32-min American slasher horror film that is the second installment in the Halloween film series and is a direct sequel to John Carpenter‘s Halloween (1978). The movie had an estimated budget of $2.5 million and grossed over $25.5 million at the box office. Director Rick Rosenthal (Halloween: Resurrection (2002), Bad Boys (1983), American Dreamer (1984)) did a fantastic job executing John Carpenter and Debra Hill’s tense script/screenplay. Halloween II was not completed as professionally as Halloween (1978) but still does an excellent job capturing long panning shots and the surprise twist was well received and loved.
Halloween II picks up where the original, Halloween (1978) left off on the same night of October 31, 1978, where Dr. Sam Loomis is in pursuit of his patient and Michael Myers is following Laurie Strode to the hospital. Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis - True Lies (1994), Halloween (1978), A Fish Called Wanda (1988), Freaky Friday (2003)) is seen being rushed to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital while bleeding. Michael is injured from being shot six times and seeks shelter but does not stay along after hearing on the radio that Laurie is there. Michael heads to the hospital not knowing that Laurie is in a comatose state and turns the desolate hospital upside down including cutting the phone lines, killing most of the staff, and other terrible things.
Dr. Sam (Donald Pleasence - Halloween (1978), The Great Escape (1963), Escape from New York (1981), Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)) attempted to shoot Ben who was wearing a similar mask to Michael’s and walking towards him. Sheriff Leigh Brackett (Charles Cyphers - Halloween (1978), Escape from New York (1981), The Fog (1980)) tried to stop Dr. Sam. Leigh might have prevented Dr. Sam from killing Ben, but Ben dies seconds later from something else.
Donald Pleasence gave us a flawless performance as he renewed his role as Dr. Sam Loomis. I felt horrible for the fate the nurses received as it was cruel and uncalled for but what is a Halloween movie without gruesome death scenes. The gore scenes were out of this world and was a step up from the previous Halloween movie showing us hammers smashing the cranium, eyes being stabbed with needles, victims left bloodless after their body is completely drained and a bath scene that you cannot miss. Horror gore fans would devour the gore scenes and be satisfied. I love a movie that is suspenseful from the beginning to the end - I was constantly looking to see where Michael Myers will show up next and wondering who will be his next victim. I did not like Michael’s mask as it was dull and did not look (color) like the mask he wore in the original movie.
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Sources Used to Shape This Review
Insights in this review are drawn from director interviews, fan commentary, production notes, and long-form breakdowns across genre-specific platforms. Content is written uniquely and reviewed for accuracy.
- Halloween II Rating Scores
- Our Score: 8/10
- Overall Score: 5.79/10
- IMDB: 6.5/10
- MetaCritic: 4.0/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 3.3/10
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