Taglines: The nightmare has only just begun.
Halloween II movie storyline. On October 31, 1978, Michael Myers is shot and falls off a balcony. Taking shelter to recover from his injuries, Michael steals a kitchen knife from the home of an elderly couple, and kills a teenage girl living next door. Laurie Strode, who narrowly avoided being killed by Michael earlier in the night, is taken to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, while Michael’s psychiatrist, Dr. Sam Loomis, continues his pursuit of his patient.
Accompanied by Sheriff Leigh Brackett, Loomis mistakes teenager Ben Tramer for Michael, when Ben gets hit by a squad car which pins him to another vehicle that bursts into flames, killing him. Upon learning his daughter Annie was killed by Michael, Sheriff Brackett goes off duty to inform his wife, leaving Deputy Gary Hunt in charge to help Loomis.
At the hospital, paramedic Jimmy becomes attracted to Laurie. Michael discovers Laurie’s location after overhearing a news broadcast and makes his way to the hospital. Upon arrival, he cuts the phone lines and disables the cars. He wanders the halls in search of Laurie, killing security guards, doctors, and nurses that get in his way. Jimmy and nurse Jill Franco search the hospital for Laurie, who is trying to evade Michael. Jimmy finds the corpse of head nurse Virginia Alves and slips in a pool of blood on the floor, hitting his head and passing out.
While Laurie wanders the hospital, she has a few dreams in which she recalls learning that she was adopted and had been with a pre-teen Michael. Meanwhile, Loomis is informed that Michael had broken into the local elementary school. As he investigates, he discovers clues connecting Michael to Samhain and the occult which might explain his apparent indestructibility, but his colleague, Marion Chambers, arrives to escort him back to Smith’s Grove on the governor’s orders under the enforcement of a US Marshal.
Along the way, Marion tells Loomis that Laurie is Michael’s sister; Laurie was put up for adoption after the death of Michael’s parents, with the records sealed to protect the family. With the realization that Michael is after Laurie and being told that she was taken to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, Loomis forces the Marshal to drive back to Haddonfield.
Halloween II is a 1981 American slasher film directed by Rick Rosenthal in his directorial debut, written and produced by John Carpenter and Debra Hill, and starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence who reprise their respective roles as Laurie Strode and Dr. Sam Loomis. It is the second installment in the Halloween film series and originally served as a direct sequel to Halloween (1978), until it was retconned by the 2018 film serving as a direct sequel to the 1978 film. The plot picks up directly after the first film, with Michael Myers following survivor Laurie Strode to the local hospital, while his psychiatrist Dr. Loomis continues his pursuit of him.
Though Carpenter and Hill co-wrote the screenplay to the sequel, Carpenter was reluctant to extend his involvement and refused to direct, instead appointing the direction to Rosenthal. Stylistically, Halloween II reproduces certain key elements that made the original Halloween a success, such as first-person camera perspectives, and the film picks up right at the end of the cliffhanger ending of the original film and was intended to finish the story of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode.
It also introduces the plot twist of Laurie Strode being the sister of Michael Myers, a feature that would form the narrative arc of the series in subsequent films, including Rob Zombie’s remake and its sequel, but was dropped from the 2018 film trilogy. Filming took place in the spring of 1981, primarily at Morningside Hospital in Los Angeles, California, on a budget of $2.5 million.
Halloween II was distributed by Universal Pictures, and premiered in the United States on October 30, 1981. The film was a box office success, grossing over $25 million domestically, though it received mixed reviews, with praise for its performances and atmosphere, but drew significant attention from film critics who criticized its overt violence and gore comparative to the original film.
Years later, it has been considered one of the series’ best films, usually only behind the 1978 original film. Originally, Halloween II was intended to be the last chapter of the Halloween series to revolve around Michael Myers and the town of Haddonfield,[4] but after the lackluster reaction to Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), Michael Myers was brought back six years later in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988).
Halloween II (1981)
Directed by: Rick Rosenthal
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Charles Cyphers, Jeffrey Kramer, Lance Guest, Pamela Susan Shoop, Hunter von Leer, Gloria Gifford, Ana Alicia, Nancy Stephens, Cliff Emmich
Screenplay by: John Carpenter, Debra Hill
Production Design by: J. Michael Riva
Cinematography by: Dean Cundey
Film Editing by: Mark Goldblatt. Skip Schoolnik
Set Decoration by: Peg Cummings
Music by: John Carpenter. Alan Howarth
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: October 30, 1981
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