If you remember Halloween as being a gory picture, that's because sequels and countless imitators have wreaked havoc on its reputation. Halloween II's violence was reportedly beefed up by none other than Carpenter himself, after Rosenthal had been a little too faithful to the spirit of what preceded it--bloodless horror couldn't thrive in the eighties marketplace. And I can't tell which was more sloppily conceived: this added grue (about as convincing as an Erik Estrada performance--a victim of a hot tub boil-and-drown, for instance, looks like she's had farfalle noodles glued to her cheeks), or the screenplay, wherein we have a hospital consisting of one overnight patient, one out-patient, one nurse, and a maternity ward.

Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is the overnight patient. She survived the escaped psychotic Michael Myers' (Dick Warlock) homicidal rampage in Halloween and seemed his prime target, so he has altogether dismissed bullet wounds from Loomis' (Donald Pleasance) gun and resumed stalking Laurie in Halloween II. Now, don't get me wrong, I've never been against a sequel to Halloween, whose unsophisticated ending deserves the atonement of a continuation. But did it have to be ninety minutes of empty corridors and Pleasance doing Dr. Harry Callahan? The film's virtues are limited to returning cinematographer Dean Cundey's liquid camerawork and the effective, if cushy, use of The Chordettes' "Mr. Sandman".

The existence for cash-grabbing Halloween II is desperately justified in later entries to the franchise: a twist right out of The Empire Strikes Back has next to no bearing on the film's outcome, a conclusion with a sense of finality about it that couldn't have anticipated numbers four through "H20" (Halloween III: The Season of the Witch is an in-name-only sequel), while the offhand attribution of Michael Myers' homicidal mania to druidical ritual is a narrative cul-de-sac in which the makers of part 6 saw promise. This is the folly of the horror franchise in general: each successive film functions as an unsolicited set-up or punchline or both; bogeymen need to stop asking, "What's my motivation?"

Once available on a non-anamorphic letterboxed DVD from Goodtimes, Halloween II has been re-released to the format in 2.35:1, 16x9-enhanced widescreen by rightful owner Universal. With demand for this title less than pressing, one wonders why the studio went ahead and issued another bare bones version after Rosenthal's work on Halloween: The Homecoming (yep, part eight) delayed the announced Collector's Edition. For what it's worth, the new transfer is at least as remarkable as Anchor Bay's Halloween, which got THX-approved. I was stunned by the mouth-watering hues and minute detail on display. An enthusiastic Dolby 2.0 surround mix (Alan Howarth's electronic re-orchestration of Carpenter's theme is a fan controversy, but it sounds great on DVD!), thorough production notes and bios, and a cropped trailer accompany the lovely image.-Bill Chambers

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