Day 29 HALLOWEEN and HALLOWEEN 2

Any self respecting online reviewer/blogger/vlogger/filmwhore would have this likely at the top of their list. But I have no self respect. I also am not really ranking these in any particular order.

Honestly I’m more surprised by the fact I knew so many damn sequels existed, enough to fill up the entire month! Which we’re almost to the finish line of.

So again, everyone living and near the end of their life has likely seen John Carpenter’s Halloween, or at least knows of it. So it’ll be really quick to talk about and get through. But it still does warrant the tiring respect it deserves. Where Psycho was hailed as a successful horror film, Halloween earned the right of being the first slasher. It set the formula and roadwork for many masked killers in film. The movie itself may not be as scary as when it first was released. But it also stands to reason, that most finding it boring, or not scary at all? Is because hundreds upon thousands of slashers have been made using the formula this came up with and setup. Much like most Scifi and fantasy films come off as rip offs of Star Wars and Lord of The Rings.

Sadly though, this film suffers from something most successful franchise films do. Most people don’t know, or can’t tell you the story to the sequel. They either remember the one they first saw and likely was the more recent when it came out, or they skip over it. Which one should not. It’s a solid sequel and, as far as Carpenter was concerned. Ended Michael Myers. Then he decided to hammer this point home by giving us Halloween 3 Season of the Witch, which had nothing to do with Michael by design.

Hell he didn’t even want to make a sequel. Again it wasn’t really heard of to do sequels, it was sort of a novelty. Even Charleton Heston didn’t want a sequel to Planet of The Apes. Which is why he had a stipulation put into his contract that he’d do the sequel but only if they blew up his character and the entire planet. It was the only way to make sure. Which kept HIM out of the film, but made it a fun puzzle for writers to come up with new sequels. Carpenter felt the same about Myers.

He saw him as the literal Boogeyman, that’s why he called him a shape. He was the wind, just some figure that was evil itself and therefor could never truly be stopped. He actually had the idea when they asked him and Debra Hill about a sequel, that the movie wouldn’t be about Michael and Laurie at all. He posed the idea that Halloween would be about different forces of Evil, so that way each film after could be about a new terrifying idea, person, or ghost. But the studio said NO, they want Michael and Laurie. So Carpenter shrugged, took the job and they found a way to get what he wanted. Then people hated him for GETTING what he wanted with Halloween 3.

You can’t please everyone.

So let us begin.

HALLOWEEN

While taking a fun tour of a mental asylum during his college days. John Carpenter got to interact with a child patient. He tried talking to them and the kid only ever stared at him, never speaking, and he said it terrified him because their eyes were just lifeless, and the only thing he felt reflected back was evil. So this gave birth to our films jump suit wearing murderer, Michael Myers.

The film tells us the town this takes place in and the year, 1963. Michael was a special boy that, for reasons we don’t know, are never told, and by right shouldn’t know. Goes a little crazy on Halloween night. He dresses up in his clown costume while his sister commits the first son of horror films. FORNICATION!!! Michael watches her boyfriend leave, visits the kitchen to pick himself up a large Kitchen knife and visits his sister, in a shot that looks almost like a single take. And was well setup to be just like that. But they switched cameras from one in the hallway leading to the stairs, to another the moment Michael put on his clown mask and the camera blacks out for a moment. He heads off to his sisters room and Stabs her in a sadly somewhat comical way. The music is very intense. The sister is not shrieking in terror so much as playfully moaning, and as a bonus? The murderers hands stabbing her is actually Debra Hill doing so while holding the camera as well. It’s a bit silly now but back then it was pretty intense.

Little Michael leaves the house, his job for the night done, and greets mom and dad after they return from who knows where. They discover him staring off cold and vacant, while holding the murder weapon.

We flash forward past his trial. Michael was to spend his life in prison. Being kept in an asylum as a youth until he was of age to be placed in another facility. The movie tells us it is now October 30th 1978. Michael was 6 years old when he killed his sister. 16 years later he’s being transferred against the wishes of his Dr. The role of Dr. Loomis was actually offered to Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. But they both turned it down and gave us Donald Pleasance. A victory for us I say.

On the night Michael is being transferred they discover the lunatics have literally taken over the asylum. People are roaming the grounds in ther hospital garb in the rain and Dr. Loomis is not having it. He goes out to investigate leaving his nurse companion behind. Which unfortunately for her leads to her getting NO NOT KILLED! But scared enough to flee the car. Giving a faceless Michael the chance to slide into the car and take off in it. Leaving the two behind to deal with the carnage he left behind.

Dr. Loomis was assigned to Michael as a kid and stayed with him through adulthood. He was the reason Michael would never be moved and warned constantly against his being transferred as he knew Michael was pure evil. Never having said a word. Just constantly staring out in hate. But no one ever seems to listen to reason. But Loomis is fed up and sure as can be that Michael is headed back to his home of Haddonfield. If anyone ask how Michael knew how to drive?  It’s hinted at that one of the orderlies likely taught him in an attempt to be his friend and get him to open up. Which only aided in his escape.

And sure enough he has returned to his home town, as our leading lady Laurie is introduced to us and helps escort to school a boy she regularly babysits for. His friends dared him to go up to the Myers house and she gets him to back off. But not before WE get to see Michael staring out at them from inside the home.

It introduces a fun dynamic they used with Jaws in that, everyime the shark was on screen, you’d hear the shark’s theme play. Any time Michael is on screen we hear a man breathing steadily through a mask. It’s still pretty creepy.

Poor little Tommy is being bullied at school and for those music savvy we get to hear dialog that later Rob Zombie would use in his second White Zombie album for the song “Boogeyman”,as the kids taunt him about the boogeyman chanting “He’s gonna get you!”

Michael appears at the school and he is not amused with these kids and their bullying. But he doesn’t kill anyone. He just…silently stalks Tommy for a while. We learn he has acquired a jumpsuit and a new set of wheels! Which he took from an unfortunate person on the side of the road as Dr. Loomis discovers.

A fun little building of tension. Loomis chasing a trail of bodies on his way to Haddonfield, and Michael stalking around, following and creeping out the people he will murder Halloween night.

Another interesting bit worth bringing up with this movie. Originally it was called “The Babysitter Murders” and took place over 4 or 5 days. But Carpenter refined his story and turned it into a single night. Which would’ve been interesting seeing spread out like later films would do. And Black Christmas certainly did as well.

Something else that was a bit fun on the movies was that Michael is doing very little in the way of hiding. He’s hide and seek master. Laurie see’s him several times, her friends only once. It’s a nice subtle build up for what’s to eventually come.

What absolutely SHOULD be cleared up, because it does come up a lot, and Carpenter wasn’t a fan of the idea. No one really was. But Michael isn’t stalking Laurie because she’s his baby sister. They aren’t related what so ever. She just had the unfortunate luck of him spotting her and deciding she was who he’d kill. Same as her friends unfortunately.

But Michael’s new life isn’t all about stalking. NO! He has task he wants to complete. Work to be done. He has plans tonight, BIG plans. As we discover while Loomis is touring around spots he felt Michael might visit. Discovering he visited the grave of his sister Judith. He didn’t have any flowers to place at the grave, so he decided to take her stone grave marker. The entire thing. He strong.

So a lot of build up, stalking, Some innocent teen pot smoking, and a bit of sex later, we’re FINALLY at the killing zone!

In fact it’s a bit funny that one of the girls father’s is a sheriff and he informs them ‘some kids’ broke into the hardware store stealing a Halloween mask. Some rope. Also a couple of knifes. It’s a fun scene because if you’ve been paying attention, Michael has been driving behind Laurie and her friend the whole time, and even passes an unaware Dr. Loomis in front of the broken into store.

It’s Halloween night, and the time is right. As Michael steps out in his fresh off the rack whited out William Shatner mask, which for the record is a pretty creepy thing to see, even without being painted white. Dr. Loomis finds Michaels home, and signs he had also revisited the home. Not only that but, he actually killed a dog, and apparently ate part of it. He gives a bit more backstory into his care for Michael and further assuring us “This dude is totes evil, and will ignore any and all #Hopes&Prayers tweets.

Which he does, starting with Lauries friend Annie. This poor lady has had a hell of a babysitting night. She has her clothes ruined by a food accident, her very nice panty covered butt stuck in a window, babysitting a sassy girl, and pawns off said sassy girl on Laurie to watch as she takes off for a booty call with her boyfriend Paul. But Michael, having written up a bad yelp review for Annie’s care of the child has deemed she has to go. So as she gets in a car to take off for said booty pounding. Michael chokes her out with the stolen rope from the store.

Meanwhile Tommy and Lindsey(sassy girl) are chilling out with Laurie watching ‘The Thing From Another World’. Which again, NO. It was not a prelude to Carpenter remaking it. He just liked the movie, it was cheap and they used it.

It’s also a cute scene because Tommy likes Lindsey, So this means he has to scare her and act kinda dumb. So he tries spooking her and ends up getting scared himself when he see’s Michael outside. He bumps into Lindsey scaring the life out of her. Laurie shuns him for this as he tries telling everyone he saw the REAL boogeyman. Laurie tells him to cool his tits, which saddens him and he slumps on the sofa “Nobody believes me”, but Lindsey, having already forgiven him cuz she also likes him tells him she believes him. Which leaves Laurie dumbstruck and amused how quickly the two went from screaming and fearful to being chill and cool.

BUT NO MORE OF THAT!! Back to the slaughter! It’s why we’re here damnit!

So next up is Lauries totally fun, totally cool, totally saying totally all the time. She looks for any excuse to say it, to a point you’d swear it was a strange Californian thing. Even though this ISN’T California. Trust me we have weird things that only make sense in California.

So her totally cool friend Lynda bops along into the house with her boyfriend and the two quickly get down to making out and the sexy time. Because it’s Halloween night. They’re teenagers, it’s time to bang. They even call Laurie to ask where Annie is and taunt her with the biblical proportions of sex they’re going to have.

So 10 minutes of humping later Lynda decides she could use an after sex beer. So she sneds out her boyfriend on beer patrol after lighting them both up an after sex smoke. Giving us a few iconic moments.

Firstly the amazing kitten painting in the families hallway toward the kitchen. But I GUESS more well known is Michael one hand power lifting her boyfriend by his throat and jamming a kitchen knife through his chest. Leaving him suspended against the cabinets, and Michael gives a slow tilt of his head as he takes in the scene he just created. If you listen closely too, you can hear his steady breathing as he hides in the pantry closet before killing him.

And a very well liked and known moment. Lynda sees a man in a white sheet appear in the room wearing a sheet with two eye holes and her boyfriends glasses. She sits up in bed, revealing her rather nice breast to him and saying “See anything you like?” After he doesn’t sprout a smaller ghost she determines he’s being a dick and calls Laurie. Because why not. Michael takes this time to strangle Lynda and Laurie takes it as a joke hearing her friend moaning and gasping for breath. Until she hears silent breathing on the phone, and its hung up.

It’s time to investigate. I mean the kids are asleep so she should be alright leaving them real quick to check on her friend.

Meanwhile Dr. Loomis the evil sniffing bloodhound spots the missing car from earlier. Now fully on alart and howling down the streets as he takes off on all fours, on full alert that Michael is close by and that means somewhere, there is a body to be discovered, if not multiple bodies.

Speaking of bodies, Laurie begins her investigation, Starting with the house of Annie. It’s oddly dark and quiet, no sign of her. Until she makes way for the bedroom and two mysteries are solved for us!. The first being, what did Michael do with his sister’s headstone. He placed it on Annie’s bed. The second being, where’s Annie? Well she’s on the bed posed in her panties and shirt naturally.

The house becomes Michaels version of a Haunted house as Laurie gives her best scream at the bodies discover, goes to run out of the room, only to find the dead boyfriend hanging in her way. She backs away to a corner closet and…discovers Lynda totally dead and boobs hanging out.

She decides things are not right at all anymore.

She FINALLY managed to relax against a doorframe. Which we soon see looming in the darkness, Michaels white mask comes into view. But he waits, patiently. Letting her have a moment to take this all in. But as she makes her way to the stairs he stabs out at her, slashing her back, sending Laurie tumbling down the stairs, giving her a limp which honestly, when wearing bell bottom pants and those shoes. Has got to be the third most uncomfortable experience so far.

Laurie makes her way back to the kids as quickly as she can. Waking little Tommy from his sleep. Tommy tries assessing the situation and it’s likelihood to be Boogeyman related. But Laurie is fed up with his shit and screams at him to grab his little girlfriend, nut up and protect her.

Which seems to be a good time for doing so, as Michael invited himself inside. He tries to say hi to Laurie but ends up stabbing her couch instead. Frightening Laurie and causing her to stab Michael in the eye with a knitting needle. Putting him down for the moment. She runs upstairs and checks on the kids. She is SERIOUSLY earning the 20 bucks for babysitting tonight. She tells the kids she killed the boogeyman and it’s alright, but they need to get out. As she’s telling them this, Michael is walking up the steps ready to debate with Laurie the status of his well being and health.

As the two carry this discussion to another room, Laurie hides herself in a closet which Michael doesn’t appreciate. No closed doors in conversations, open doors invite conversation. So he breaks the door down and Laurie stabs at him again. This time with a wire hangar. Michael is definitely having a night himself. As she put him down once more. Laurie tells the kids it’s time to blow this joint. So she sends them out to calmly find help and get far away. Tommy nods and begins screaming with the force of a thousand suns down the street.

Meanwhile the Bloodhound Dr. Loomis is desperately searching for Michael, tongue hanging out running beside the Sheriffs car on their way to a disturbance. Hearing the kids screaming his floppy ears perk up and he sprints off to Laurie’s place. Just in time for us to see Michael being unmasked by laurie as he YET AGAIN comes after her. It’s an interesting scene because. His face is, well. No one. He’s no one the film setup. He’s not scarred or a monster. He’s just. Anyone. He slips the mask back on and as he’s about to take another stab at Laurie. Dr Loomis borks rapidly at him and shoots off a few rounds from his .357. Sending the body flying out the window to the ground below.

A freshly traumatized laurie then poses the later to become iconic question, “Was that the boogeyman?” To which Loomis tells her “Yes, as a matter of fact that was.” She begins crying. Loomis now is grumbled that he wasn’t called a good boy for having saved her. He ventures to the window to look on Michael’s corpse. Only to see he’s gone! Cue music, and Dr. Loomis giving a look that says, this night is far from over.

Another fun thing to note about that too, originally Carpenter wanted him to be shocked by this, which he felt would add weight to the whole, quick shot of locations after and hearing Michael’s breathing, telling us he could be anywhere. But Donald thought it might be a better scene of Dr. Loomis looked almost like he knew it would happen. Expected it even, since he always talked about Michael being more human than human and just raw evil. So they shot it both ways and Carpenter saw what Donald meant and went with it.

Like I said this was never intended to be a series of films, Carpenter made this for roughly $300k, which well over half of that went to buying the film student crew some actual good cameras to make it look cinematic. There’s very little gore, and they couldn’t afford much else for the film really. Carpenter even had to provide the music because well, the budget was shit. His father was a musician and teacher, so he grew up knowing a bit about music and came up with the score on his own piano over a few days. He wanted the film to be as I said earlier. About a killer that was more than human. They could be any of us, He called him The Shape because that’s what it was to him. But we demanded more and we liked Michael enough to remember his damn name.

So what do you get when you’re told to make a sequel you didn’t really want to do? But you are able to get the leading lady from your first film back on board to do? You get a solid sequel set in a hospital with two different ultimately great versions, of one story.

Halloween 2

After a short recap from the first film, showcasing Laurie’s fight with Michael and his being gunned down by Loomis. The movie immediately picks up after this, and we see Laurie being driven in an Ambulance to Haddonfield Hospital.

Dr. Loomis meanwhile is raving about having shot Michael and the sheriff needing to hear about it. He desperately wants his good boy head pat and a treat.

The police are busy however actively investigating the carnage of the murders and displayed bodies, while a traumatized Laurie is wheeled out on a stretcher for her ride to safety. The only concern she has, is not to be put to sleep. Worrying Michael will still try to get her.

During this ride we learn the paramedic caring for her is the older brother of one of Laurie’s friends in High School, I’d almost say it’s the older brother of a boy she mentioned having a crush on.

By now the radios have been going on about the murders and Laurie’s horrific night, and everyone at the hospital seems well aware of who she is and what happened to her.

Elsewhere Loomis and the sheriff are riding around on Michael patrol. Arguing what kind of person could take 6 shots and still keep walking. A valid conversation, as the Sheriff reasons that likely he missed a few times. But before they can get bogged down in this conversation, the bloodhound Loomis thinks he spots Michael. Bringing about a logic question I hope anyone watching would ask themselves.

The spot a teenager, wearing a jumpsuit and white mask, with wild white hair. Walking slowly, almost like Michael. My question here is this. If you are dressed this way, or any costume for that matter. You hear police behind you, and a voice ordering you to stop! Shouting it as loud as they can. Shouting out a name as well at you. You then hear a man shout “Don’t SHOOT HIM!” Do you feel it’s wise, to continue on your marry way without acknowledging this? To keep walking, occasionally look back. Say NOTHING, and keep walking? Well apparently this dipshit felt it was the right thing to do. So they end up hit by a truck which soon burst into flames.

Seriously, if someone is shouting STOP!! DON’T SHOOT THEM! You either stop, and put your hands up. Or shout back you are unarmed, stopping and await the police. YOU DON’T CARRY ON ALL WILLIE NILLIE BEING SILENT!!!

Anyway they’re dead and not Michael. The sheriff doesn’t even have time to get upset and Loomis as he’s informed his daughter is among one of the dead. So they take off for his house so he can identify her body. This is a very delicate time for the sheriff, so he calmly lets Loomis know his thoughts on Michael and what’s been happening that night. Loomis thinks this is a good time to be calm, polite, then begin his talk about evil incarnate further freaking out everyone nearby. He’s still confident that Michael survived those 6 well placed bullets, that the burning dumbass in the car crash was some kid in a mask, and more people will die this night.

Michael isn’t happy still with the news he was killed. He also doesn’t like that there are already stories saying it was a druggie fueled rampage. People are even spreading rumors already about seeing Michael around town before it happened. It’s pretty funny, even when Michal discovers the hospital they took Laurie too. His entering is played off almost like an old monster movie. As one plays in the background of a security officer, and the radio announces in a very old news style report that the killer is believed to have been killed, and people are urged to stay in doors. As we see Michael making his way into the hospital.

The hospital also grants us some terrible humor. Mostly in the shape of an overly horny male nurse, as he treats us to his own freestyled(yes he made it up instead of what was in the script) version of Amazing Grace, singing “Amazing Grace, come sit on my face. Don’t make me cry, I need your pie.”

Greatly upsetting the EMT but he’s proud of himself and his work.

In her room, still putting her life together, Laurie is visited by the paramedic, who comes baring the gift of a soda. Where the two discuss what’s happened. It’s a scene that plays differently depending the version you watch. In the television cut Laurie is told who the killer was. Posing her the question of, why me? Chilled further that the man who she grew up hearing as an urban legend that killed his sister actually was real, and lived in the house they all claimed was haunted. She also learns in this version that Michael was killed.

Which she isn’t buying. Not because she’s stubborn. But because she’s seen some shit tonight. But also because the phones in the hospital aren’t working for some reason. This has her spider senses tingling. So she’s on guard.

Michael feeling a bit out of the loop, spots a security guard outside doing a quick walk around. So he decides to ask him about the situation inside. Which starts off pleasantly enough until the guard realizes this masked bleeding multiple gun shot man is Michael Myers and he gets killed.

Out in Loomis land, we discover the body wasn’t Michael and was indeed a 17 year old who was drunk and wearing a mask. It fills in a bit of backstory as the deputy tells him he was a teen when Michael killed his sister, remembering the night it happened. But things are cut a bit short as an angry mom is forming outside filled with angry parents and people wanting Michael to know they hope he is really for real dead.

Meanwhile the nurses are offering exposition and informing us how creepy it must be for Laurie and being Laurie right now, as well as the whole is he or isn’t he dead. The news that dead security officer told them someone broke into the storage shed before he died. It’s all creepy indeed

This time around Michael is a bit more reserved. I mean he did get shot 6 times, so the man has to take some time to himself to heal and find his bearings. The only one seeming to work on scaring the pants off peopleis the horny male nurse. He poses as a patient in a bed to get one of the nurses alone for some make out and possible salami slapping.

But the nurse is trying to be reasonable and tells him, you are a bag of dicks, but I like you so we can mess around later. AFTER I DO MY WORK! THE THING WE ARE BOTH HERE TO TRY AND DO!!

So he talks her into using the physical therapy tub as it works as a heated bubble bath. So she agrees and forgets she’s a maternity nurse in charge of watching babies and keeping them safe, so she can get naked and jump in the tub with horny pants McNurse.

Unfortunately the water is getting super hot as Michael decided to ‘heat things up’ ha ha ha. So the nurse ask horny pants to go check the temperature which he is grumpy about “But its cold out there!” she sassily turns to him and says “Well it can get REALLY cold in here!” mic drop, score one for the team. Horny pants is out of the tub. Sadly however the nurse is shown just how hot the water has gotten as Michael shoves her head into the water and her face boils up and blisters. Ending the horny adventures of maternity nurse and horny pants.

Meanwhile Loomis is offering up some MORE backstory on Michael for us. Introducing a new female character. His replacement. He is being ordered by the governor to return to his clinic. Dr Rogers his superior is afraid how this will look having someone from the mental health ward there. So whether he wants it or not. He’s being escorted out of town. By a trooper no less. But not before we learn Michael earlier that night broke into the local school. Michaels elementary school. On the blackboard a word was written in blood. Samhain. He tells us it is a pagan word. As he’s whisked off by his comrad and the trooper he tells us that the message on the blackboard, in order to appease the gods, a druid priest would make sacrificed, by observing how they died, they believed they could see into the future. Proclaiming Samhain to be an evil spirit. But for him the mind is far more evil. More importantly though. Lady Doctor informs us that there was a secret file on Michael. Something kept from even HIM, the head doctor in charge of Michael.  Wasn’t shown a super duper secret file on Michael which states that Laurie Strode was his sister, kept hidden from him to keep her safe. Something again Carpenter never liked or cared for having added to the film. He felt it just killed the whole idea she was randomly picked. But there it is, and now Loomis is pulling a gun on this duo and demanding they take him to the hospital.

Which is good because Laurie has decided to save herself. Especially with the power MYSTERIOUSLY going out, and somebody stalking the hospital killing people. Which happens just in time as Dr Michael discovers her room and pays a visit, playing an innocent game of stab the body. But he gets upset when he discovers he turned Laurie’s pillow into a pin cushion.

Laurie is dealing with things the best she can. Since it was revealed she’s Michaels sister, she begins having hallucinations and flashbacks. Having quivering conversations with a mother not there about how he won’t die, she keeps trying but he won’t die. It’s not flattering and a bad look for her sanity.

For a majority of the film, once we get to the hospital that is. Laurie is mostly on her own separate from Michael. We follow the staff through most of these events. Whether by design or choice it’s what we get and it works out to an extent. Though I know people were wanting more of the action they had in Hallween. But this film follows nearly the same build up and it’s for our benefit. We get a lot more background. We get to know the characters, and they aren’t one offs written to be killed. Well a few are. But it’s an interesting play and once we reach the last 30 minutes or so. That’s when things pay off, just like the first film.

So stop complaining!

We are getting to the good stuff.

Including my favorite moment when Laurie and Michael are reintroduced to one another and she learns he isn’t dead. A nurse see’s her trying to escape the hospital and begins calling out to her. Laurie turns around just in time to see Michael, with a scalep stab the nurse in the back. Then lift her off the ground and hold her up. It’s pretty impressive and damn creepy.

Laurie barely manages to escape Michael and finds herself finally at her destination. The outside world! Freedom!!

She’s crawling around outside, unable to start a car that could help her. The battery is dead so she can’t honk for help. She see’s Dr. Loomis and his hostages enter the hospital. But struggles to find her voice. Having spent all of the movie up to this point whispering. But just as the doors shut and the party enter. She finds her voice. She also manages to find her feet and gets up off the road. The hospital door is secured to keep Michael from getting out. But Laurie finds he’s already outside and with her. She pounds on the doors and they thankfully hear it, letting her in. But Michael son joins them. This time Dr Loomis is carefully aiming. Remembering how the sheriff bitched about how he likely missed. So he takes aim and fires, hitting Michael in the eye. He falls to the ground and the state trooper is all but cheering his pants off. Ding Dong the dildo’s dead! But Dr. Loomis is assuring him that’s bullshit and Michael is Still alive. But the trooper fails to listen and Michael informs him ‘Dude yeah I’m fine, thank you for your concern” and kill him.

Loomis decides a traumatized, shocked drugged out Laurie Strode is who he should give a gun too, so she takes the spare pistol and the pair ready for a last stand against Michael. Loomis attemps shooting him but is out of ammo. Dude never reloaded. So Michael stabs him for having shot him earlier. Michael with his one good eye sets it on Laurie. Ready to end his newly discovered sisters life. Laurie takes aim from the ground and fires twice. One shot hitting Michael.

IN HIS OTHER EYE!

The man has lost his vision. But it doesn’t stop Michael from playing the age old game of “I’m going to swing my arms around and walk forward. If you get sliced up it’s not my fault. But during this Dr. Loomis is losing his mind and begins opening up the many cannisters of flammable gas around them. He shouts for Laurie to get out of their and run. Which seems a good idea, But laurie is already gone by the time he recommends it. He tells Michael to kiss his ass and ask if he’s got a light. Then lights up the place with his lighter. BOOM!

But Michael is not in dozens of pieces. Instead  he’s a walking fireball. Stalking down the hallway until he drops down and stops moving at long last.

Laurie, having continued her streak of the worst luck ever. Finds her new morning beginning with another ride in an ambulance. But this time with the older brother paramedic, as he somehow survived with just a head wound. The two ride off together into deep Trauma and apparently Silent Hill given the thick dense layers of Fog they drive off into as the movies credits roll.

The sequel gets over looked a lot because it just doesn’t have that extra kick most slashers had. In a way it’s sort of like a junkies fix. Once you’ve been scared out of your wits with a movie, you want more. But it can’t be more the same or you’ll find it less effective. And with the slashers that sprung up after the first Halloween. Well. It was like trying to watch a Marvel movie after Avengers End Game. You got so used to a grand spectacle that going back to a single character story seems to be missing something. You want that rush. But the movie was concentrated on story. It didn’t want a high kill count. Carpenter back in the day was more story driven, if it sounded good to him, he’d run with it, but he didn’t want to just produce bodies and gore for the sake of. That’s just not scary.

Then thankfully Halloween 3 came around and people hated on that thing for decades until Part 4 came out and REALLY began to see maybe the first two were a gift and best left as they were.

Carpenter also did the score on this film as well, it’s a pretty nifty redo on his own theme and owning them all on vinyl, it is a fun listen honestly.

Having all the movies in a set now, and streaming services. Everyone can rediscover the sequel, and they’re finding it wasn’t as bad as folks initially thought. It was a good enough story and follow up to the original to wrap things up nicely. There was no ‘Is he or isn’t he dead’, there was never even a hint he could or WOULD be back. Carpenter fulfilled his wish to stop focusing on Michael and move onward and upward. He even killed Loomis off. It was sort of a homage to Frankenstein where the monster and his creator die together in a fire. Much like his homage to Psycho by casting the daughter of the leading lady who was killed off in Psycho.

These two are well worth the watch, both versions of either in fact. There’s an unrated cut of the original, and the sequel is available in both its unrated theatrical cut AND television cut. Which yes that means some gore is removed, cursing too. But they are told entirely different from each other. Scenes are moved around to different spots and help with the pacing, telling a better constructed narrative. There’s additional dialog and scenes that fill in some blanks. It’s a real treat and you can’t go wrong with either one.

In fact according to Carpenter the only way you can go wrong with these films is to watch the piece of shit Rob Zombie versions.

So check them out!