MORE OF THE NIGHT HE CAME HOME
1981 | 92 MINUTES | 2.35:1
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PLOT | CAST | CREW | GOOFS | TRIVIA | RELEASE & RECEPTION | HOME VIDEO | SCRIPTS | ALTERNATE VERSIONS | MEDIA
Plot
Picking up precisely where its predecessor left off, Halloween II follows the same ill-fated characters as they encounter the knife-wielding maniac they left for dead in the first Halloween. It seems the inhuman Michael Myers is still very much alive and out for more revenge as he stalks the deserted halls of the hospital where his sister lays waiting. As he gets closer and closer to his terrified target, Dr. Loomis discovers the chilling mystery behind the crazed psychopath’s savage actions.
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Cast & Characters
- Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode
- Donald Pleasence as Dr. Sam Loomis
- Charles Cyphers as Sheriff Leigh Brackett
- Jeffrey Kramer as Officer Graham
- Lance Guest as Jimmy
- Pamela Susan Shoop as Karen Bailey
- Hunter von Leer as Deputy Gary Hunt
- Dick Warlock as The Shape / Patrolman #3
- Leo Rossi as Budd Scarlotti
- Gloria Giffords as Virginia Alves
- Tawny Moyer as Jill Franco
- Ana Alicia as Janet Marshall
- Ford Rainey as Dr. Frederick Mixter
- Cliff Emmich as Bernard Garrett
- Nancy Stephens as Marion Chambers
- John Zenda as Marshall Terrence Gummell
- Catherine Bergstrom as Debra Lane (News Producer)
- Alan Haufrect as Robert Mundy
- Lucille Benson as Mrs. Elrod
- Howard Culver as Man in Pajamas
- Dana Carvey as Barry McNichol (News Assistant)
- Bill Warlock as Craig Levant
- Jonathan Price as Randy Lohnner
- Leigh French as Gary’s Mother
- Ty Mitchell as Gary
- Nancy Loomis as Annie Brackett
- Pamela McMyler as Mrs. Strode
- Dennis Holohan as Morgan Strode
- Nichole Drucker as Young Laurie
- Ken Smolka as 1st Patrolman
- Adam Gunn as Young Michael Myers
- Roger Hampton as Patrolman #2
- Robin Coleman as Medic
- Jack Verbois as Ben Tramer
- Tony Moran as Michael Myers, unmasked (archival footage)
- Kyle Richards as Lindsey Wallace (archival footage)
- Brian Andrews as Tommy Doyle (archival footage)
- Anne Bruner as Alice Martin
Crew
- Directed by Rick Rosenthal and John Carpenter (Reshoots only, uncredited)
- Written by John Carpenter & Debra Hill
- Executive Produced by Moustapha Akkad, Dino Di Laurentiis, Joseph Wolf and Irwin Yablans
- Produced by John Carpenter & Debra Hill
- Associate Producer: Barry Bernardi
- Composed by John Carpenter & Alan Howarth
- Edited by Mark Goldblatt & Skip Schoolnik
- Cinematography by Dean Cundey
Goofs
There are several inconsistencies with Laurie’s appearance between the first film and the sequel. The first film had her wearing denim bell-bottoms, but the sequel has her in tight blue jeans; her silver ring moves from her left hand in the original to her right hand in the sequel; and her injury goes from being on her upper arm to being higher on her shoulder.
Michael watches Jimmy and Karen have a conversation from the baby ward before going down the stairs. Later on, he watches Karen from the same baby ward before going into hospital room that he had already exited earlier.
While Jimmy tells Laurie that they’re taking her to the clinic and the news continues to refer to it as a clinic, the uniforms everyone wears and all the signs refer to it as Haddonfield Memorial Hospital.
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Trivia
John Carpenter later said he wrote the film with the help of a six-pack of Budweiser a day and has come to see the film as an abomination compared to the original.He particularly hated the retconning that made Michael and Laurie related, as he felt it humanized Michael too much.
While the first film saw Donald Pleasance receive top billing with less screen time than Jamie Lee Curtis, the sequel has the opposite – Jamie Lee Curtis is only in the film for 25 minutes of screen time, but receives top billing.
The end of the film was intended to have Michael die, as was treated as such. Coincidentally, the end of Rob Zombie’s Halloween II also had Michael dying, and they’re the only two films in the franchise to treat Michael as such.
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Release & Reception
as of February 2023
Release Date: October 30, 1981
Budget: $2,500,00 ($8,890,908.53 in 2023)
Box Office: $25,533,818
IMDb: 6.5/10
MetaCritic: 87 (MetaScore); 8.8/10 (User Score)
Rotten Tomatoes: 32% (Critics); 63% (Audience)
Home Video
curious about all the film’s home video history? click here.
Scripts
Alternate Versions
Halloween II only has one official alternate version. Similar to the original film, a network television version was produced for broadcast in the 1980s. It featured nearly twenty minutes of deleted and alternate footage, and many of the scenes in the beginning of the film are organized in a different order than the theatrical cut.
A fan edit called The Ultimate Cut later surfaced. It was a composite cut editing the additional television scenes and takes into the theatrical cut, though no official version of this has been produced.
Though home video releases of Halloween II were scarce in bonus features, 2011 saw a Blu-Ray release of the film that offered, for the first time, bonus features. Among them were deleted scenes and the alternate ending, all sourced from the broadcast master as the original negatives are long thought to be gone.
Media
