HALLOWEEN II: THE NIGHTMARE ISN'T OVER

US, 1981, 92 minutes, Colour.
Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Charles Cypher, Lance Guest.
Directed by Rick Rosenthal.

Halloween II begins literally where the original finished. The plot concerns the same evening, Halloween 1978. The sequel was written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill, who were responsible for the original. John Carpenter, a very
interesting director of genre films including Dark Star, Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog, Escape from New York, has written this film but left the direction to Rick Rosenthal. However, as with his other films, Carpenter has produced and written the music.

Halloween started a very popular trend of multiple killing horror thrillers. In retrospect, Halloween still seems the best of these films. The others were derivative - some merely capitalising on the style, others transferring the basic plot to original situations. Halloween II resembles the derivatives in many ways more than it does the original. The many killings are presented in ghastly fashion. However, Carpenter's screenplay still is able to make the audience jumpy, has a lot of scary and suspenseful sequences, sometimes tricking the audience, sometimes shocking them. Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis repeat their roles from the original. Interesting as a postscript to Halloween - and reminding us that it is very difficult to maintain an original's spirit and vitality.

1. The impact of Halloween in itself, its starting a trend, giving style and content to its many derivatives? The relationship of this sequel to the original? Comparisons with the derivatives? How well does it stand within the genre?

2. The film as nightmare and horror? The importance of dreams? Dreams as symbols, facing the symbols of evil? Horror and its reality/unreality? The need for fantasy of horror? The value of this kind of film? Entertaining, exploitive - matters of taste?

3. The setting of Haddon Field, Illinois? An ordinary Middle American town? The atmosphere of the town, the people, the hospital, the police? Halloween evening? The plausibility of the setting - for such horror?

4. The work of John Carpenter, his making the original, his contribution of screenplay, production, music? His focus (in many of his films) on night moving towards dawn? The time of nightmares?

5. The film's continuity with the original? Using the end of the original? The transition to Dr. Loomis and his anxiety, Lori and her going to the hospital, Michael Myers surviving and roaming the town?

6. The presentation of the town alert, the anxiety of the police and their searching the town, the hospital staff and their work, the media covering the killings, the continuation of Halloween evening with its evocation of horror? The victims - the girl on the phone, the hospital staff?

7. Michael Myers as villain, evil? The background story from Part One, his killing his sister. madness, Dr. Loomis saying he was a model patient - especially in his silence, his release, terrorising the town, the seemingly indiscriminate killing, the sadism, the killing of the medical staff - revenge for his years in the institution? The gradual revelation of Lori being his sister? His trying to kill her? An embodiment of evil? His not being destroyed by ordinary means? The final explosion? The visual presentation of his stalking his victims, light and shadow, mask, the resemblance to the Frankenstein monster?

8. Dr. Loomis and his anxiety, sense of guilt, growing hysteria? His urging of the police, the fire accident in the street? The search? His being called back to the institute? Going to the hospital, saving Lori? Sacrificing himself in an apocalyptic explosion to destroy evil? His explanations of the background - madness, psychological evil, fear?

9. Lori as heroine - presence in the hospital, her wondering why she was being victimised, her dream and the explanation of her adoption, her escaping death when Michael axed her bed, her fears, relationship with the staff, the suspense of her being chased around the hospital (with her injury), hiding in the car, the final chase and confrontation, shooting Michael Myers. A satisfactory screaming heroine?

10. The sketch of the staff at the hospital - the girls and their work, their chatter, the strict supervisor, the orderly and the sexual encounter - especially in the bath, the doctors? The imaginative (if ghastly) ideas for the killings? The special effects, to what purpose?

11. Shocks, suspense? Creating an atmosphere of jumpiness - by red herrings, tricking the audience and then frightening them? Audiences enjoying being frightened? The experience of horror?