Metacritic Film

Halloween II

Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Charles Cyphers, Tony Moran, Lance Guest, and Nancy Stephens

MPAA RATING: R

Universal Pictures
Horror  |  Suspense/Thriller
92 minutes | Color
USA
Released In Theaters October 30, 1981

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. (Universal)

WRITTEN BY
John Carpenter
Debra Hill

DIRECTED BY
Rick Rosenthal

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

32 / 100

Critic Reviews

50 The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
When it's good, it's because it's imitating its predecessor (but it suffers from tired spilled blood) and when it's bad, it's because it's imitating its own imitators.
50 ReelViews
With Halloween II, it was all about graphic, grisly murders and a high body count - lessons learned at the box office. And that disparity, more than anything else, illustrates why "Halloween" is a classic and its first sequel is a sloppy afterthought.
40 Chicago Reader
The visual style--the orange-and-blue color scheme, the elegant 'Scope compositions, the graceful tracking shots, and the shrewd use of shallow focus--has been reproduced almost perfectly from John Carpenter's original, yet the wit and intelligence are gone.
30 Austin Chronicle Mike Emery
A bad sequel to a good movie...The main concentration is on gross-out effects and lame chase scenes.
30 TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)
A totally unnecessary and extremely poor sequel to the original "Halloween". Although Dean Cundey's photography goes a long way toward recapturing the look of the first film, director Rick Rosenthal is no Carpenter, and the emphasis here is on graphic blood and gore rather than the skillful manipulation of the audience.
10 Variety Staff (Not Credited)
There are incredibly almost never any really terrific scares in 92 minutes - just multiple shots of violence and gore that are more gruesome than anything else.

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