Halloween II (1981)

Halloween II (1981) picks up the same night as Halloween (1978) and moves the rest of it into Haddonfield Memorial Hospital. Rick Rosenthal directed. John Carpenter and Debra Hill wrote it, and Carpenter produced and scored it with Alan Howarth. Universal Pictures released the film in the United States on October 30, 1981. Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Laurie Strode, Donald Pleasence as Dr. Sam Loomis, and Dick Warlock plays Michael Myers. It was a solid hit, and it is the film that made Laurie Michael’s sister.

At a glance

Release date	October 30, 1981 (United States)
Director	Rick Rosenthal
Writers	John Carpenter and Debra Hill
Starring	Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Charles Cyphers, Lance Guest, Pamela Susan Shoop
Runtime	92 minutes
Rating	R
Genre	Slasher
Box office	About $25.5 million domestic

Plot summary

The night of October 31, 1978, is not over. Laurie is taken to the hospital with a shoulder wound. Loomis is still in the street with a gun, convinced the shape he shot is walking. The police, including Sheriff Brackett, treat the rest of the town as a crime scene. Michael is already moving toward the hospital, killing anyone who gets between him and the girl from the first film. The hospital is understaffed for a holiday night. That is the whole geography of the sequel: corridors, an elevator, a therapy tub, and a parking lot.

Loomis learns something from a file that the first film never stated. Laurie was adopted. Her name at birth connects her to the Myers house. He treats that as the reason Michael is still coming. A marshal is assigned to keep Loomis from burning the town down himself. Inside the hospital, a paramedic named Jimmy tries to keep Laurie awake and talking. Most of the staff do not believe there is anything in the building but a bad night and a power problem.

Spoiler section: the ending

Michael reaches Laurie in the operating corridor. Loomis gets there in time to shoot him again, then opens the oxygen tanks and lights them. The explosion takes Loomis and, the film implies, Michael. Laurie is loaded into an ambulance. A later television cut added a scene of Michael’s body being loaded as well, which the theatrical ending does not show.

Production and behind the scenes

Carpenter did not want to direct a sequel. The 1978 film had been an independent hit for Compass International, and Universal wanted a follow-up in time for Halloween 1981. Carpenter and Hill wrote a script that stays on the same night, so the story would not have to invent a new town or a new year. Rosenthal, a young director Carpenter knew from film school circles, was hired to shoot it. Carpenter was unhappy with the first cut, which he thought played too much like a television episode, and he shot additional violence himself before release. Rosenthal has said those inserts changed the tone of a film he had wanted quieter.

The hospital was a converted residential block in Pasadena, not a working ward. Dean Cundey returned as cinematographer, which is why the empty corridors still look like the first film. Warlock, a stunt performer, replaced Nick Castle as Michael. The mask was the original, recast and aged, and it reads differently on Warlock’s face. The sister revelation was Carpenter and Hill’s way of giving Michael a motive. Carpenter later called it a mistake. The sequels through Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) inherited it. The 2018 film throws it out.

Release and reception

Universal opened the film on October 30, 1981. It made about $7.4 million in its first weekend and about $25.5 million in the United States and Canada, enough for the studio and well short of the first film’s multiple. Reviews were cooler than they had been in 1978. The hospital setting and the gore divided people who had liked the empty streets of the original. It remains the only sequel set on the same night, until later timelines started over.

Cast

Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode
Donald Pleasence as Dr. Sam Loomis
Charles Cyphers as Sheriff Leigh Brackett
Lance Guest as Jimmy
Pamela Susan Shoop as Karen
Hunter von Leer as Marshal Gary Hunt
Dick Warlock as Michael Myers

Trivia

Curtis shot her hospital scenes early, then left to make Prom Night pickups and other work. Many of Laurie’s later shots are doubles.
The theatrical cut does not show Michael surviving the fire. Television added a body-bag tag.
Carpenter’s additional gore included the hypodermic scene and a hotter explosion.
The sister twist is not in the 1978 film. Loomis never calls Laurie family there.
“Mr. Sandman” over the credits was Hill’s pick, a grim joke about the night not ending.
Rosenthal returned to the series for Halloween: Resurrection (2002).