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Halloween II picks up where its predecessor left off - and quickly wanders into a dead end that the franchise would spend decades struggling to find its way out of.
All Critics (38) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (11) | Rotten (27) | DVD (4)
Rick Rosenthal, who directed this 1981 sequel, doesn't have Carpenter's expansive, affectionate way with stereotypical characters, and without it they're empty shells -- bodies waiting for the slaughter. Aug 27, 2007 | Full Review…
Rick Rosenthal, who directed this 1981 sequel, doesn't have Carpenter's expansive, affectionate way with stereotypical characters, and without it they're empty shells -- bodies waiting for the slaughter.
Dave Kehr
This uninspired version amounts to lukewarm sloppy seconds in comparison to the original film that made director John Carpenter a hot property. Aug 27, 2007 | Full Review…
This uninspired version amounts to lukewarm sloppy seconds in comparison to the original film that made director John Carpenter a hot property.
Variety Staff
The result won't make any converts, but Jamie Lee Curtis is as good as ever. Feb 9, 2006 | Full Review…
The result won't make any converts, but Jamie Lee Curtis is as good as ever.
Derek Adams
It's a little sad to witness a fall from greatness, and that's what we get in Halloween II. Oct 23, 2004 | Rating: 2/4 | Full Review…
It's a little sad to witness a fall from greatness, and that's what we get in Halloween II.
Roger Ebert
Halloween II is good enough to deserve a sequel of its own. Aug 30, 2004 | Rating: 3.5/5
Halloween II is good enough to deserve a sequel of its own.
Janet Maslin
Halloween is a classic and its first sequel is a sloppy afterthought. Jan 1, 2000 | Rating: 2/4 | Full Review…
Halloween is a classic and its first sequel is a sloppy afterthought.
James Berardinelli
Far bloodier and sillier than its predecessor, Halloween II is a warmed-over retread of Carpenter's classic original. Oct 21, 2018 | Rating: 2.5/5
Far bloodier and sillier than its predecessor, Halloween II is a warmed-over retread of Carpenter's classic original.
Shaun Munro
As films go, however, Halloween 2 isn't very good. Oct 19, 2018 | Full Review…
As films go, however, Halloween 2 isn't very good.
Aja Romano
Really misses the point of the first film by dropping pretty much all the pretense of build-up and fate... Oct 28, 2013 | Full Review…
Really misses the point of the first film by dropping pretty much all the pretense of build-up and fate...
Felix Vasquez Jr.
The script is fairly routine and Jamie Lee Curtis has too little to do this time around, but the hospital setting proves to be a sound choice for a locale. Oct 13, 2012 | Rating: 2/4 | Full Review…
The script is fairly routine and Jamie Lee Curtis has too little to do this time around, but the hospital setting proves to be a sound choice for a locale.
Matt Brunson
Halloween II isn't a knockout sequel, but it's a solid, if slightly slow, follow-up to the original horror classic. Sep 26, 2012 | Rating: 7/10 | Full Review…
Halloween II isn't a knockout sequel, but it's a solid, if slightly slow, follow-up to the original horror classic.
R.L. Shaffer
It's a rather solid sequel that carries on the legacy of its predecessor well and always delivered the scares for me as a kid. Oct 9, 2011 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review…
It's a rather solid sequel that carries on the legacy of its predecessor well and always delivered the scares for me as a kid.
Heather Wixson
A terrible, useless sequel that invests in mindless gore instead of creating any real tension, and it is ridiculous (and disappointing) how it turns Michael Myers into an indestructible monster and leaves the rest of the cast to be mere bodies for slaughter.
Super Reviewer
Contrary to the critics, I actually quite liked this. No it wasn't as good or well done as the first, however it could have been a lot worse. There was still tension and unpredictability, which is good enough for a sequel.
I love the Halloween films, but my words can't save a failure movie. I think this movie in particular was pretty funny since NO ONE else seemed to be in the hospital as the mayhem was going on! What kind of realism is that?
Of course, 'Halloween' is the forefather of the 70's and 80's slasher genre only because of its inexplicable popularity. To me, it's dull, reductive and hardly worthy of being nominated as innovative (the stalking POV was implemented before and in a superlative manner in the predated masterpiece 'Black Christmas'). The posthaste sequel is immeasurably more claustrophobic mostly due to the hospital environment with its narrow, alabaster hallways and spotless surfaces. Pleasance is more inexorable and obsessive as Loomis who inadvertently causes the death of a trick-or-treater and doesn't hesitate at his task to vanquish Michael once and for all. His monologue about Michael being the "ideal patient" expands on the notion that Michael is completely alien to soulfulness. Unfortunately, the follow-up is still a plodding, slothful mess of gratuitous nudity from a female nurse and wrongheaded creativity in the murders (Michael shouldn't be premeditated in the various ways to kill people via scolding water, scalpels, etc.). The denouement nicely ramps the consternation as Michael thoughtlessly collides through a glass door and Loomis sacrifices himself with flammable oxygen tanks to finally eradicate Michael. Otherwise, this is an altogether superfluous extension of the mythology, but it contains instances of unnerving tension.
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