Post by doomedbloodwork on Jul 23, 2004 7:37:14 GMT -5
The recent prequel trilogy of STAR WARS has effectively become a victim of it's own success and when George Lucas says resignedly that kids want to see the likes of THE MATRIX instead of Luke and Co, it throws up an interesting juxtaposition as to whether we are faithful to the things that got us going to see movies in the first place.
HALLOWEEN II is one such example. Made three years after the original hit and umpteen rip-offs etc, it was clearly having a lot to live up to and in light of VISITING HOURS just being released around the same time, it wasn't an original concept, although it is a good deal better than Boaz Davidson's X-RAY, released also at that point.
The sequel loses ground, as some films like this do, by not really focusing on the facelessness behind the mask of Michael Myers,which made the original film even scarier for all that and proves that the psychology of a horror film can do wonders and pay dividends if assessed more intensely. It worked in PSYCHO in 1960 and there is no reason why such a timeless concept can't work here either.
However, the strength is in some of the key horror moments, especially during the jacuzzi dalliance of two hospital workers, which lend more weight to the argument that these were added on in post-production by Carpenter after director Rick Rosenthal had finished shooting.
Summing up, HALLOWEEN II is an honourable failure and is a bit better than some films around the year of release.
HALLOWEEN II is one such example. Made three years after the original hit and umpteen rip-offs etc, it was clearly having a lot to live up to and in light of VISITING HOURS just being released around the same time, it wasn't an original concept, although it is a good deal better than Boaz Davidson's X-RAY, released also at that point.
The sequel loses ground, as some films like this do, by not really focusing on the facelessness behind the mask of Michael Myers,which made the original film even scarier for all that and proves that the psychology of a horror film can do wonders and pay dividends if assessed more intensely. It worked in PSYCHO in 1960 and there is no reason why such a timeless concept can't work here either.
However, the strength is in some of the key horror moments, especially during the jacuzzi dalliance of two hospital workers, which lend more weight to the argument that these were added on in post-production by Carpenter after director Rick Rosenthal had finished shooting.
Summing up, HALLOWEEN II is an honourable failure and is a bit better than some films around the year of release.
