Halloween II (1981)

Title: Halloween II

Release Date: October 30th, 1981

Tagline: "From the people who brought you 'Halloween'...More of the night he came home.

Budget: $2.5 Million

Halloween II is a 1981 slasher horror film directed by Rick Rosenthal, and written and produced by John Carpenter and Debra Hill. It is the second installment in the Halloween series and is a direct sequel to Carpenter's Halloween, the hit slasher from the late '70s that was a catalyst for the Slasher craze of the 1980s, immediately picking up where it had left off. Set on the same night of October 31, 1978 as the seemingly unkillable Michael Myers continues to follow Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) to a nearby hospital while Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) is still in pursuit of his patient.

Plot
On October 31, 1978, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is sent to the hospital due to the injuries inflicted by Michael Myers (Dick Warlock), who vanished after being shot six times and falling from a second story balcony. Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) attempts to track down Michael. After escaping, Michael steals a butcher knife from a house and kills a girl named Alice (Anne Bruner) who lives next door as he seeks shelter to recover from his injuries. He later learns of Laurie's location from a radio broadcast and makes his way to Haddonfield Memorial hospital. Laurie begins having flashbacks of being adopted by the Strodes and visiting a young boy in a mental institution. However, her sedation leaves her in a semi-conscious state most of the time. Her friend Jimmy Lloyd (Lance Guest) begins to worry about her, developing romantic feelings for her, despite the chagrin of Mrs. Alves (Gloria Gifford), the head nurse. Dr. Loomis and Sheriff Brackett (Charles Cyphers) continue to search for Michael, only for an oncoming speeding police car to accidentally hit and kill Ben Tramer (who was dressed for Halloween wearing a mask similar to Michael's and was Laurie's crush in the first movie), in the process.

Michael cuts the phone lines and kills security guard Mr. Garrett (Cliff Emmich). He then strangles ambulance driver Budd Scarlotti (Leo Rossi), and drowns nurse Karen Bailey (Pamela Susan Shoop) in a scalding hot tub. Orderly Janet Marshall (Ana Alicia) notices that Laurie is strangely reacting to her medication, and goes to alert the main attendant of the hospital, Dr. Frederick Mixter (Ford Rainey). She rushes through his office, only to find his corpse with a needle sticking out of his eye. Before she can run away, Michael appears behind her and murders her as well by injecting air into her temple. Laurie attempts to flee before Michael can find her.

Meanwhile, Dr. Loomis follows clues connecting Michael to Samhain and the occult, which provides a possible explanation for his seeming indestructibility. Loomis is interrupted by his colleague Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens), a nurse from the mental institution, and a U.S. Marshal, who reveals he has been ordered to have Loomis returned to the hospital under the enforcement. En route, Marion tells Loomis that Laurie Strode is Michael Myers's younger sister. Realizing Laurie is Michael's target, Loomis forcibly orders the Marshal (John Zenda) to turn around and bring him back to Laurie. While searching the hospital, Jimmy eventually discovers Mrs. Alves strapped to a table in one of the surgery rooms, her blood having been drained. While trying to hurry out of the room, Jimmy slips, falls, and gets a concussion which renders him unconscious.

Meanwhile, nurse Jill Franco (Tawny Moyer) is killed while searching for Laurie when Michael stabs her in the back with a scalpel. Laurie manages to barely escape by going through the boiler room and up to the parking lot outside, discovering Mr. Garrett's body along the way. She is unable to start any cars and also notices that all of the tires have been flattened, presumably by Michael who had earlier overheard her and Jimmy discussing one of them driving to the police department to get help. Jimmy eventually makes it out of the hospital and out to his car to seek help, but faints and falls unconscious again from the earlier concussion. Loomis, Marion, and the Marshal arrive and just barely save Laurie from being killed by Michael. Marion goes to the police car to call for help, after which Michael cuts the Marshal's throat. Loomis and Laurie flee into the operating rooms. Michael stabs Loomis in the stomach, wounding him, and Laurie shoots out both of Michael's eyes, causing him to blindly swing at them. Loomis fills the room with ether and oxygen gas using the distraction to allow Laurie to escape. Loomis then ignites the gas, blowing up the surgery room in the process and evidently immolating them both in the fire.

At daybreak, Laurie is loaded onto an ambulance, having visions of Michael's burning body as she is driven off to safety. In the alternate ending, shot for US TV, she sees a familiar shape sit up on the stretcher beside her in the ambulance, which turns out to be Jimmy. The two hold hands and Laurie proclaims "We made it!"

Villain
Michael Myers - The indestructable mass-murderer nicknamed "The Shape". Set on October 31th, 1978, he continues his murder spree around Haddonfield, slicing his way in an attempt to kill Laurie Strode. Who, in the film, is revealed to be his sister.

Supposed Death: During the finale, Dr. Loomis ignites a flammable surgery room resulting in the intended doom of both characters. The filmmakers had intententions of ending the Michael Myers storyline and turn the franchise into an anthology series of different stories set on Halloween Night.

However, due to the disappointing financial performance and slasher audiences being irked by the absence of him in Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), the acme slasher icon was resurrected on film six years later in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988).

Cast & Credits

 * Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode
 * Donald Pleasence as Dr. Sam Loomis
 * Charles Cyphers as Leigh Brackett
 * Lance Guest as Jimmy Lloyd
 * Pamela Susan Shoop as Karen Bailey
 * Hunter von Leer as Gary Hunt
 * Tawny Moyer as Jill Franco
 * Ana Alicia as Janet Marshall
 * Nancy Stephens as Marion Chambers
 * Gloria Gifford as Mrs. Virginia Alves
 * Leo Rossi as Budd Scarlotti
 * Ford Rainey as Dr. Frederick Mixter
 * Jeffrey Kramer as Graham
 * Dick Warlock as The Shape (Michael Myers)
 * Cliff Emmich as Mr. Garrett
 * John Zenda as Marshal
 * Lucille Benson as Mrs Elrod
 * Nancy Loomis as Annie Brackett
 * Anne Bruner as Alice Martin
 * Catherine Bergstrom as Producer
 * Dana Carvey as Assistant