After being shot 6 times you wouldn’t think that any man would be able to get up and run away, yet that’s just what crazed Michael Myers did on Halloween of 1978, after trying to kill teenager Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) he seemingly met his end after being shot by his doctor (Donald Pleasance).

Halloween II is a direct sequel to 1978’s Halloween. Halloween II was released in 1981 but was set on the same night back in 1978 straight after Michael is shot. You’d think that three years on there might be some continuity issues but it seemed to me as though Rick Rosenthal had got everything right in this film, even it’s star Jamie Lee Curtis didn’t look as though she’d aged more than a day. If you’re planning on watching Halloween II then it would probably be a good idea if you viewed the first film prior to watching this as it is an exact continuation however if for whatever you haven’t seen the first film it wouldn’t be the end of the world. You are still able to enjoy this film and at the very beginning it even gives a replay of what happened at the end of the previous film, this doesn’t look cheesy though as it runs parallel with the second part.

Unlike the first film, Michael Myer’s presence is felt much more throughout the duration of the film, in the first film he was barely seen, choosing to hide in the shadows and we would see glimpses of him lurking behind his future victims but apart from that we didn’t really see him. In this film we see him on a regular basis, we see him walking up and down the street and lurking in the strangest places. In the first film Michael would kill his victims in very generic ways, in this film he seems to find more elaborate ways of killing people, utilising objects in and around the hospital in particular. There’s one scene in the hospital where a boiling hot jacuzzi comes into play, why this is in a hospital I have no idea but this scene alone is very gory compared to the entire first film alone. Another noticeable thing about Halloween II compared with it’s predecessor is the nudity and language differences, it seems that Halloween II is more about shocking people, therefore they’ve given us a lot of strong language and some nudity to crank up the volume, not that it helps much because this film was already a disappointment, even giving guys a fake pair of boobs to look at wouldn’t do this film any favours.

Another disadvantage when it comes to this film is the way that Michael’s psychotic nature is explained in a way, the fact that in the first film it seems that Michael has simply returned to his old neighbourhood to kill anyone around makes his character seem a lot more harrowing simply down to the fact that it’s a lot more frightening if there is no motive. Halloween II attempts to give Michael a motive, further humanising him. Michael was great in the first film when he was just pegged as pure evil with no human emotion but this film tries to give him aspects of humanity which makes him less fearsome.

The eerie music played throughout the first film fortunately is still there and notifies us when Michael is around, unfortunately they seem to have changed the music slightly which in turn has ruined one of the best parts from the first film for me. Out of everything I don’t see why they felt the need to alter the music.