Here's the main problem with Rick Rosenthal's Halloween II: it tries to replicate the speed of John Carpenter's original without any understanding of his use of pacing. It's mind-numbingly slow and bereft of tension. Even when Michael Myers kills a half-naked nurse by repeatedly dunking her into a vat of boiling water, I couldn't help feeling bored and tired. There are all of the drawn out silences and stillness of a great thriller, but no understanding of how to weave them together to create something interesting. The whole plot twist of Laurie Strode being Myers' sister didn't really piss me off. I guess you had to have been alive to see the first one in the theaters to feel properly betrayed. The one bright spot in the film is Donald Pleasence as Dr. Sam Loomis: he's a maniacal, Captain Ahab-like figure nonplussed by accidentally killing an underage teenager in the opening 20 minutes of the movie if it means he gets closer to stopping Michael. Delightful!
5/10
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