Halloween II (1981) [DVD]

Universals HALLOWEEN 2 was the conclusion to the original John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN in the Fall of 1978 even though this sequel wasn't even released in theatres till the Fall of 1981 along with the fact that HALLOWEEN II was quite a phenomenal sequel and was just as shocking and heart-pounding as the original, especially Michael Myers(Dick Warlock) with his heavy-breathing, except in this horror flick you wouldn't see the relentless Michael Myers(Nick Castle)someplace one second & then vanish in the thin air the next like you did in HALLOWEEN I even though the ghoulish Michael Myers was still just as creepy and scary as he was in the original along with the fact that HALLOWEEN 2 was still a very successful shocker as well as a successful sequel and was probably the best sequel of all times, especially since they obviously don't make sequels as good as they used to anymore.Additionally, HALLOWEEN II leaves off of from the cliffhangers end of its predecessor HALLOWEEN pointing out that the most brutal mass murderer in Midwest history is still alive and still on the loose in a fictional small remote Midwestern town called Haddonfield, Illinois with the obsessed overzealous Dr. Sam Loomis(Donald Pleasance)still hot on Michael's trail as he continues to stalk the hapless victim Laurie Strode(Jamie-Lee Curtis)killing everyone else who gets in his way leaving a much higher death toll than the original did making HALLOWEEN 2 a little more sophisticated and a tad more upgraded than the original HALLOWEEN was with even more blood and even more violence than HALLOWEEN I had, since the body count in HALLOWEEN II was much higher than the body count in the original was.In addition to that, HALLOWEEN 2 reveals to us that Laurie is Michael Myers's orphaned kid sister, which was never mentioned in this films predecessor explaining Michael's desperate motive for wanting to kill Laurie in the first place since Michael had already maliciously killed his big sister(Judith Myers)at the beginning of HALLOWEEN I in 1963 like they indicated at the beginning of HALLOWEEN 2 by showing us scenes from the shocking cliffhangers end of the original HALLOWEEN when Michael wanders off unexpectedly after being shot 6 times by Loomis and then starts off the continuation at the very beginning of HALLOWEEN 2 when Loomis finds blood on the Doyle's lawn and tells the Doyle's next-door neighbor to call the police to alert all local authorities that the relentless Michael Myers is still on the loose, which simply indicated and proved to us that the nightmare and horrific ordeal of Halloween night of 1978 in Haddonfield simply and obviously wasn't over yet and that it was simply more of the night Michael Myers came home just like the motto or slogan for HALLOWEEN II was "More Of The Night He Came Home", just like the motto for the original HALLOWEEN was "The Night He Came Home" as opposed to HALLOWEEN III-THE SEASON OF THE WITCH with Tom Atkins(Dr. Challis) which used the slogan of "The Night Nobody Comes Home" since it had absolutely nothing to do with Michael Myers, Dr. Loomis, Laurie, or the concerned but skeptical Sheriff Brackett(Charles Cyphers), or even with Haddonfield either since John Carpenter & Debra Hill only agreed to produce HALLOWEEN 3 if it was unrelated to its predecessors HALLOWEEN I and II, but after HALLOWEEN 3's theatrical release on Friday October 22, 1982; the producers finally decided to make a 4th sequel 6 years later and had changed the story around a little bit about what really happened to Myers and Loomis at the end of HALLOWEEN 2 on Halloween night of 1978 when they released HALLOWEEN IV-THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS in the Fall of 1988 since they decided to bring Michael Myers back in a big way after HALLOWEEN 3: THE SEASON OF THE WITCH tanked at the box office in the Fall of 1982.Therefore, when HALLOWEEN 4 was released on Friday October 21, 1988; the conclusion to what supposedly happened on Tuesday October 31, 1978 after the firey explosion at the Haddonfield Memorial Hospital was that Dr. Loomis and Michael Myers presumably didn't die in that fire after all, but had nearly burned to death instead and that Michael had supposedly been in a coma in an institution for 10 years ever since the aftermath of the horrific ordeal on Halloween night of 1978, but had suddenly awakened to relive his trecherous killing-spree in Haddonfield on Halloween night of 1988 with Loomis back on his trail again, except in HALLOWEEN IV, Michael Myers(George Wilbur)goes after his orphaned niece Jamie(Danielle Harris)instead of Laurie who presumably died in a car accident in 1987.I also liked the Halloween theme music and music score that they used in HALLOWEEN II also, which was mostly like HALLOWEEN I, except HALLOWEEN 2 used a more sophisticated variation of the kind of creepy music scoring that was used in the original HALLOWEEN with the help of music associate(Alan Howarth)since HALLOWEEN II used a sinthesizer instead of a piano which was used in the original HALLOWEEN along with the fact that both HALLOWEEN I and II scared the witts out of me when I saw both of them for the very first time, except I noticed that HALLOWEEN 2 didn't seem to have as much creepy music scoring as the original did although HALLOWEEN II seemed just as suspenseful as the first one even though I noticed that in this movie you wouldn't see Michael Myers one second and not there the next like you did in the original, which was something else that made HALLOWEEN I such a successful shocker of a movie.I also like the way they showed the movie trailer of the previews shown of HALLOWEEN II like they were shown before it's theatrical release back in the Autumn of 1981 just like the John Carpenters HALLOWEEN DVD had a movie trailer of its previews shown before HALLOWEEN 1's theatrical release in the Autumn of 1978.The truth is most sequels nowadays are cheesy, but you could say that HALLOWEEN 2 was one of the few sequels that was extraordinary, since you could say HALLOWEEN II was almost as successful as John Carpenters original Halloween that was released back in October of 1978, which was actually made 3 years before HALLOWEEN 2 was, even though Laurie, Dr. Loomis, and Michael Myers were so-called still dealing with the same gruesome ordeal on Halloween night of 1978 in HALLOWEEN 2, since HALLOWEEN II was simply just the conclusion to HALLOWEEN I.Unfortunately, they don't make sequels like they used to and the last spectacular sequel to any movie that I can recall at the moment was PSYCHO 2 back in the Summer of 1983 along with the fact that FRIDAY THE 13TH-PART 2 made an excellent sequel as well back in the Spring of 1981 during the same year HALLOWEEN 2 was released along with the fact that HALLOWEEN II was definitley one of the most phenomenal sequels of all times.So director(Rick Rosenthal)certainly knew what he was doing when he made this sequel to John Carpenters original HALLOWEEN and I give Rick Rosenthal just as much credit for his film making of HALLOWEEN 2 as I do for John Carpenter's film making of HALLOWEEN I, but John Carpenter had declined to direct this sequel even though it was offered to him since Carpenter didn't want to do a sequel, so the directors job was given to Rick Rosenthal instead, so John Carpenter only co-wrote and co-produced this sequel with his now late-great ex-girlfriend(Debra Hill).In addition to that made this HALLOWEEN II DVD so cool, I also liked the movie trailer the HALLOWEEN II DVD provided of it's previews that were shown before HALLOWEEN 2's theatrical release back in October of 1981 too, which was mighty cool, which takes me back to memory lane to when we had all those budgets cuts going on from the recession we had back in 1981-1982 when Ronald Reagan was president along with the fact that I was 9 years old in the 3rd grade and living in my hometown(El Centro, CA)at the time as well since I was an Imperial County resident for 21 years.Even though HALLOWEEN 2 was an awesome sequel as well as a wonderful horror film, I have to admit that the original HALLOWEEN is still the best of them to this very day, especially since John Carpenter's 1978 horror film of HALLOWEEN is what started the Halloween phenomenon in the first place.So if you loved John Carpenters original masterpiece HALLOWEEN, you'll like HALLOWEEN 2.

Scream factory has released a 2 Disc Collector's edition which is the best version you'll ever get, it's about time aswell,Blu-ray+DVD which has the now official TV versionScream factory made lots of effort with this classic Horror filmfor the first time ever new special features, can you believe itDisc 1has the Theatrical version in a new 2:35:1 1080p HD transfer with new 5.1 master mixthe new extras areTHE NIGHTMARE IS NOT OVER- a new 45mins retrospective Documentarywith Director Rick rosenthal, Producer Irwin Yablans, writer/Director Tommy lee wallaceplus new interviews with Actors Lance Guest, Leo rossi, Tawny moyer, Ana Alicia, Nancy stephens, Dick warlockHORRORS HALLOWED GROUNDS- the Locations of Halloween II Hosted by sean Clark-13minsDELETED SCENES with optional Rick rosenthal commentary- 8mins of Deleted scenesnew ALTERNATE ENDING-2minsAUDIO COMMENTARIES- 2 newly recorded for this blu-ray1st one is with Director Rick rosenthal & Actor Leo rossiwhich i found pointless listening to actually waste of time, there's lots of pauses through out the filmwhere Rick & Leo don't talk at all mainly cause Rick has some memory problems filming some of the sceneshe simple can't remember or does not recall so Leo rossi steps in to help him Jog his memorywhich tells me that Rick is not really interested otherwise he would make an effort to try rememberRick rosenthal gives more recollections making the film in the new retrospect Doco for this blu-raythan he does for the Audio commentary, that's how much waste of time the commentary isthe 2nd commentary is by Dick warlock who gives more informative commentaryDick really does seem interested talking about the filmthere's also THEATRICAL TRAILER, TV SPOTS, RADIO SPOTS, PHOTO GALLERY aswellDisc 2 is a DVDthe Television version in 1:33:1 ratio which has been formatted to fit your Widescreen TVso there's no black bars on either side of the screenthis TV version has the 8mins of Deleted scenes mixed in with some of the Theatrical version scenesplus the Alternate ending replaces the Theatrical version ending just before the credits come upthe Deleted scenes shown on Disc 1 replace the Graphic kill scenes cause it was a TV broadcastso the TV version would be the PG-13 version based more on Character scenes, than the Graphic slasher kill sceneslike many fans i've owned a bootleg dvd copy of this TV version for many years which i'd rate 4/10 for picture qualityplus the sound quality is only Monowell Scream factory have given lots of effort cleaning up this TV version of the filmwith a new Digitally remastered transfer from the original master tape which does look excellent close to 10/10plus SF have also boosted the sound quality with a new 2.0 stereo mixso the picture & sound quality does look excellent not much Grain or dirtdefinitely more inviting to watch more than once which i have i enjoy watching both versions actuallyso scrap the old 2003 DVD version which has no extras at all except for trailer and productions notesand upgrade to this new 2 Disc collectors set from Scream factory worth the money for sure5 stars for the film,5 stars for this new Blu-ray collectors edition time to upgrade

Movie is Great ★★★★★ 👍. I bought Halloween I & II, But they didn't Come With Slip Covers. Very Disappointed 👎 For That Reason 😕

We've started a tradition of going to our oldest son's house over Halloween, and always watch the original with him and our daughter-in-law. This past Halloween, we were there a couple extra days, and decided to watch Halloween II also. It's a fun thing to do, and the movies are good, for horror movies.

I took a chance and ordered this Scream Factory Halloween II 4K version hoping it would include the hard slipcover? Well, I’m here to pleasantly say that it did! As far as picture quality is concerned, I have not watched the 4K disc yet so I cannot comment on this. However, once I do watch it I will add an update to this review.01/22 UPDATE: I watched the 4K disc on my new LG OLED TV and it looks fantastic! Nice clean/sharp image and the HDR (High Dynamic Range) looks great giving nice inky blacks during the dark scenes and vivid colors as well. The Dolby Atmos soundtrack also sounds great!