Halloween producer Irwin Yablans quickly secured a verbal agreement from Carpenter to make The Fog and Halloween II. On a flight home from Cannes, France, he made the mistake of discussing his plans with Bob Rehme, head of AVCO Embassy Pictures. Yablans was later furious to learn that Carpenter had also struck a two-picture deal with AVCO to make The Fog and Escape from New York. He subsequently sued both Rehme and Carpenter, the settlement of which was that AVCO could proceed with The Fog so long as Carpenter committed to writing Halloween II immediately after. With this agreement in place, the sequel was officially announced to the public. Yablans was soon contacted by Italian movie mogul Dino De Laurentiis, who admired the original Halloween very much. Laurentiis was hoping to convince Yablans to sell him the rights to make Halloween II, which – amazingly – Yablans actually agreed to do. This lucrative deal allowed Laurentiis to make the second Halloween with a contractual option for a third film, which he exercised. Distribution was secured through Universal Pictures after an initial deal with Filmways Pictures fell through.
“I have made some big mistakes in my life but that one was a whopper,” Yablans wrote in his autobiography. “True, we made a lot of money on the deal, but we temporarily lost control of a franchise that could have propelled Compass to unimaginable growth. The decision to take the Laurentiis deal was influenced in part by a very busy schedule at Compass. We were about to put two pictures into production in rapid succession.” The terms of the Laurentiis agreement were such that Yablans would have no influence over the sequel despite having had significant input on the first. This may have been for the best as his relationship with Halloween’s filmmakers had since soured considerably. Of Halloween’s first sequel, Hill later touted to Fangoria: “Irwin Yablans is not allowed on set, not allowed to see dailies, and has no control whatsoever.”
Tensions would soon begin to boil amongst Halloween’s stakeholders as Yablans severed business ties with Moustapha Akkad. Despite a few successes on the midnight market, Yablans’ Compass International Pictures, which included producer Joseph Wolf, would disband altogether. This would effectively leave all rights holders to Halloween on opposite fences.
THE NIGHTMARE NEVER ENDS
Given the original film’s ending, you would be forgiven for thinking Halloween’s filmmakers had planned on a sequel from the start – but they truly hadn’t. Carpenter has often likened the first film’s finale to an “O. Henry ending” in reference to the eponymous author known for such last-minute surprises. The director has further lamented that he told his entire story within the first film, a conclusion he reached again while trying to write Halloween II. We should also note just how uncommon such sequels were in ‘70’s. Three of the decade’s biggest horror sequels – Exorcist II, Omen II, and Jaws 2, were all released the same year Halloween hit theaters.
In developing a sequel to Halloween, Debra Hill told Cinefantastique, “We wondered whether the characters of Laurie Strode and Sam Loomis had run their course, really. At one point, John and I thought of starting the picture with Laurie dead and then, like Psycho, introduce a new set of characters. One of the motivations for trying that approach was Jamie Lee Curtis. She’s matured and developed so much in that last three years that we wondered whether the audience would still believe her as a high schooler.”
In the wake of Halloween’s release, Curtis had made a name for herself as a “scream queen,” or, as Yablans would have it, “the queen of the creepies.” Despite not being a fan of the genre, she would appear in a string of low-budget genre flicks consisting of Carpenter’s The Fog, Prom Night, Terror Train and Road Games. The actress was initially hesitant to sign on for a sequel, but did so as a favor to Carpenter and Hill for launching her career. Looking to pursue other opportunities, Curtis would publicly announce Halloween II as her genre swan song.
Having secured the return of Curtis and co-star Donald Pleasence, the producers toyed with several different concepts. The first, as Yablans relayed to the Los Angeles Times, would’ve seen Laurie pursued by the Shape whilst attending college. “Imagine the possibilities,” he joked, “a whole dorm filled with juicy coeds.” Another direction would have picked up several years later with Laurie now living in a high-rise apartment far from Haddonfield. The Shape would have somehow tracked her down with Dr. Loomis not far behind. This killer-in-a-high-rise approach was strikingly similar to 1978’s Somebody’s Watching Me, a made-for-television thriller Carpenter helmed just prior to Halloween. The filmmakers also considered shooting the sequel in 3-D, though the technology of the day was deemed incompatible with the script’s many nighttime scenes.
“John and I had a few meetings about what direction the sequel should take,” Pleasence told Fangoria. “I made some real insane suggestions. True to what you’d expect, he ignored them all and just picked up where the original left off. Ultimately, Halloween II was a little too violent for my tastes. It didn’t have the intelligent quality and bloodless suspense of the original.”
Halloween II begins where the original ended with the Shape disappearing into the night. A frantic Dr. Loomis reteams with Sheriff Brackett to continue their search as Laurie Strode is taken to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital. Badly wounded, the Shape avoids police by lurking in Haddonfield’s back alleys. Stealing a knife, he murders a teenage girl listening to a news report about his ghastly crimes. Loomis mistakes a trick-or-treater in a white mask as his patient, whom police accidentally kill in a fiery auto-accident. Brackett is devastated to learn his own daughter is among the slaughtered and heads home to tell his wife, but not before blaming Loomis for letting his patient escape. Brackett leaves Deputy Gary Hunt in charge, who insists the charred trick-or-treater was indeed Michael Myers. Loomis remains unconvinced and demands positive identification from the local coroner.
Hospital staff find Laurie emotionally unstable following her encounter with the Shape and sedate her against her wishes. Having tracked her to Haddonfield Memorial, the Shape systemically isolates the hospital from the outside world by cutting phone lines and slashing the tires of cars in the parking lot. He then moves in on the staff, first killing the night watchman with a claw hammer before strangling an ambulance driver and drowning a nurse. He next murders the shift supervisor by inserting an I.V. drip into her arm, which drains her of blood. He then kills both a doctor and nurse via air embolism by injecting them with empty hypodermics. Michael kills yet another nurse with a scalpel directly in front of Laurie, who barely manages to escape her attacker on foot and takes refuge inside a car parked outside.
Meanwhile, Loomis and Hunt investigate a break-in at Haddonfield Elementary. Inside, they find the word “Samhain” scrawled in blood on a chalkboard and a butcher knife stabbed into a child’s drawing of a family. Loomis explains that Samhain refers to the Celtic lord of the dead. (Authors’ note: A fallacy according to many scholars.) He is immediately pulled away by Marion Chambers, the nurse who accompanied him in Halloween to transfer Michael on the night of his escape, which is still technically yesterday. She has been sent along with a federal marshal to take Loomis back to Smith’s Grove to report to the governor about the unfolding situation. En route, Marion reveals a long-buried family secret: Laurie Strode is the younger biological sister of Michael Myers. Loomis now realizes what his patient is after and forces the marshal at gunpoint to drive to Haddonfield Memorial instead of Smith’s Grove.
Upon arrival, they find Laurie being stalked by the Shape, whom Loomis fires upon with his revolver. The slasher drops motionless to the ground, but reawakens to kill the naive marshal a moment later. The chase resumes as Laurie and Loomis hide in a darkened surgical room, which the Shape forces his way into. Taking Loomis’ gun, Laurie fires two shots into her brother’s eyes, blinding him. Even so, the visionless Shape flails a scalpel around in an attempt to strike someone. An injured Loomis begins to fill the room with oxygen gas, which he ignites a moment later as Laurie escapes. Both doctor and patient are engulfed in a fiery explosion, ending the night’s
horror.
One of Halloween II’s more interesting touches involves pulling back the narrative focus to see how Haddonfield responds to tragedy. Not surprisingly, small town hysteria ensues. The local news media broadcasts continuously. An angry mob gathers outside the Myers house. One character has a friend who swears they saw Michael about town the previous day. (“Julie is full of shit. He didn’t escape until last night.”) A newscaster later prematurely broadcasts that police have killed Michael Myers. This gives residents a dangerous false sense of security. Haddonfield is depicted as the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else, which means no one is left untouched by Michael’s carnage. As Loomis says, “Don’t feel sorry for me. Feel sorry for that little town back there. It’ll be years before they forget this.”
Speaking of Loomis, the character becomes doubly interesting in Halloween II for just how desperate he becomes to stop his patient. In the first Halloween, Loomis was gravely concerned that Michael’s escape would lead to bloodshed. With Halloween II, those fears have become grim reality as bodies start to turn up. Loomis grows so desperate that he kidnaps a state marshal at gunpoint to get to where he rightly suspects his patient is heading – Haddonfield Memorial. What could lead him to such drastic action? Concern for public safety? Partly, yes. But the much bigger reason is that this is all so deeply personal for him. While he twice deflects Brackett’s charge that he let Michael escape, it’s quite obvious Loomis feels responsible for what is happening. He does blame himself and, moreover, feels obligated to stop the killing.
While Loomis has much to do in the sequel, Laurie Strode does not. Curious is the decision to relegate her to such a small role in the story. The returning heroine barely features into Halloween II despite gaining new relevance to the plot. Gone is the resourceful fighter from the first film as Laurie spends most of this entry in a hospital bed. When she does finally get to her feet, she scampers helplessly from the Shape until once again saved by Dr. Loomis.
Laurie’s lack of a role is all the stranger given what she endured just hours before in the previous film. She never once mentions her two best friends whose bodies she discovered in the Wallace house. She also never asks if Tommy or Lindsey made it out okay. The sequel’s opening scene shows Dr. Loomis rushing off into the night after his patient. Might Laurie be wondering who the strange bearded man was that just shot the boogeyman off the balcony? Apparently not, but she would like a Coke, please. Her role is so insignificant that, ignoring the opening flashback, she actually has more dialogue in Halloween: Resurrection than she does in Halloween II. And let’s not forget that she dies fifteen minutes into that sequel. The only character with less dialogue here seems to be the Shape. One of Laurie’s few new developments in Halloween II involves an ongoing flirtation with an EMT named Jimmy.
“It was so strange to have so little to do and so little to say in [Halloween II] because Laurie had been such a big part of the first film.” - Jamie Lee Curtis, David Grove’s Jamie Lee Curtis: Scream Queen
In addition to Laurie, Loomis, and the Shape, Halloween II brings back Sheriff Brackett for several scenes. Whereas Brackett spent most of Halloween doubting Loomis’ claims, he is now a true believer in the sequel. For Brackett, the situation in Haddonfield is nowhere more real or personal than when he learns his own daughter is among the dead. That Brackett exits the film so early on represents a missed opportunity. What pained thoughts might have been passing through the grieving sheriff’s mind? Vengeance? Remorse? Could Brackett have taken the threat of Michael’s return more seriously the previous day and, if so, might this have spared Annie’s life? The regret of a lifetime, no doubt.
The sequel also brings back Nurse Marion Chambers from the first film, whom the Shape assaulted during his escape from Smith’s Grove. She intercepts Loomis at Haddonfield Elementary with orders from the governor to bring him in. Loomis initially fails to recognize his colleague (just as audiences might have) and understandably so. No longer in nursing attire as we last saw her, Marion arrives at the school wearing street clothes and with her hair down. The filmmakers use this familiar face to deliver a bombshell twist – that Laurie Strode is actually Michael Myers’ younger sister.
In making Laurie and Michael siblings, the filmmakers assign the Shape a clear motive. In doing so, Halloween II outright betrays the original film. The Shape is no longer the quintessential boogeyman but a mere slasher with a sister complex. The entire idea of the first Halloween is that Michael is not a character but the absence of character. He is a void, a shape. The bizarre part of this is that Halloween II wasn’t outsourced to second-rate screenwriters. This was John Carpenter breaking one of his own rules. In his defense, Carpenter has steadfastly bemoaned co-writing Halloween II as a laborious chore that so often involved late nights and lots of beer. “I sat down to write the sequel and I realized there was no story here,” he recalls on the first film’s commentary. “We’d already done this story. All we’re doing now is Xeroxing. It’s hard when people expect you to repeat the same thing over and over again.”
With respect to Halloween II’s script, Carpenter does not mince words: He detests his own work, particularly the newfound familial connection between Michael and Laurie. Speaking to the Halloween Daily News site in 2014, Carpenter took full responsibility for the film’s shortcomings: “The sequel had its problems, and probably all due to me because I didn’t write a very good script.” His negative opinion is likely exacerbated by the fact that the next seven Halloween films (excepting Season of the Witch) seized upon this entry’s twist as a vital plot point. Carpenter’s biggest regret on Halloween II would become seared into the franchise’s very identity going forward.
CHANGING DIRECTIONS
While John Carpenter and Debra Hill begrudgingly returned to write Halloween II, neither were willing to fill the director’s chair. Carpenter was adamant about not wanting to repeat himself. While Hill harbored directorial aspirations, she did not wish to make her debut on a sequel. Another obvious choice to direct was Halloween production designer Tommy Lee Wallace. He declined, however, upon reading the script and finding it to be awful. Even Yablans himself, who was most eager to make a sequel, disliked what the writers had come up with.
The Los Angeles Times reported that one early contender to helm the sequel was none other than filmmaker David Lynch! This was years before he would perfect his surrealistic imagery with the likes of Twin Peaks. At this point in his career, Lynch was still a fresh commodity in Hollywood, having only helmed the bizarre midnight movie Eraserhead and unsettling biopic The Elephant Man. The degree to which Lynch was connected to Halloween II remains a mystery. Carpenter would ultimately choose Harvard grad Rick Rosenthal to direct the film. This was to be his first feature directing experience.
Coming onto the production, Rosenthal’s task was no easy feat. He was bound to a script to which few were happy with – not the Halloween crew, not Jamie Lee Curtis and not even Carpenter himself. To compliment the first film’s style, much of that same team would be brought back, most notably director of photography Dean Cundey. Feeling out of place among the veterans, Rosenthal cast a few of his old acting school peers in the roles of the hospital staff. These included Gloria Gifford as the stern Head Nurse Mrs. Alves, Ana Alicia as the interning Nurse Janet, and Leo Rossi as Budd, the wise-cracking EMT. The casting of Gifford and Rossi in particular led to some controversy behind the scenes. As writer and producer, Hill was concerned that their casting did not reflect the characters as written into the script. Gifford was a youthful black actress whereas Mrs. Alves was originally envisioned as an elderly white woman. Rossi’s New York-Italian accent also clashed considerably with the film’s midwestern setting. Hill would eventually relent and allow Rosenthal to cast against the script’s direction.
In discussing his work on the sequel, Rosenthal has confessed to having felt both an obligation and expectation to continue in the style of Halloween as much as possible. This was due largely to the fact that Hallowee
n II was a direct continuation of the night depicted in the first film. Adding his own personal flair to the sequel would prove to be a struggle. Rosenthal does manage to infuse several scenes with what he identifies as German expressionism, particularly within the framing of empty hospital corridors and the deaths of Janet and Dr. Mixter. Later on, paramedic Jimmy discovers the lifeless body of Mrs. Alves in a darkened operating room. She has been thoroughly drained of blood, which now covers the entire floor. Jimmy slips in the crimson pool in one of the film’s most striking visuals and suffers a concussion. “The image is so powerful,” Rosenthal told the Los Angeles Times. “The pool of blood, the color of it, the bodies [...] it goes beyond reality and becomes surreal. Pictorially, the actual shot is a very exciting shot, like a still photograph or a painting.”
TRIMMING THE FAT
It’s no secret that Rick Rosenthal’s first cut of Halloween II was not well received – not by test audiences and not by producers. John Carpenter’s chief criticism was that it simply wasn’t scary, likening it to an episode of the medical drama Quincy. He offered Rosenthal extensive notes on how to improve the film through editing. Despite this, Rosenthal’s second cut also failed to impress the powers that be. Carpenter then stepped up his involvement in an effort to salvage the project. The Halloween director nixed ineffective scenes while re-editing others. He also spearheaded an additional three days of filming to increase the sequel’s gore and suspense.
One odd complaint from the test screenings was that nowhere in Halloween II did the Shape kill a teenager, which by then had become a staple of the slasher genre. In response, Carpenter shot an additional scene that would serve as Halloween II’s first kill; a short but grisly stabbing of a teenage girl named Alice in her home. This random murder follows the scene in which the Shape steals a knife from Mrs. Elrod’s cutting board. While Rosenthal initially justified the scene’s inclusion to the Los Angeles Times for “making the film more commercial,” he later voiced his disapproval of it for violating the story’s internal logic. Speaking to Fangoria: “You can argue that Michael only kills people who get between him and Laurie, except for her. I didn’t have much to say about it. They just wanted to have more shocker moments.”
Taking Shape Page 4
