History Film / HalloweenII1981

* PrecisionFStrike: Budd: "Sorry, guess I just fuck up all the time"
* ThePublicDomainChannel: Every TV is always playing ''Film/{{Night of the Living Dead|1968}}'' on repeat.

-->'''Loomis:''' You don't know what death is!

* IfItBleedsItLeads: Throughout the movie there are occasional local news broadcasts playing on radios and TVs in the background of several scenes detailing Micheal's murders. Marion Chambers mentions offhandedly that the news is now all over the state by the time she's sent to retrieve him from Haddonfield on orders of the State Governor, with the coverage all but certain to be relayed across the country in the aftermath of Micheal's hospital spree.

* DropTheHammer: Michael uses a claw hammer to off the hospital's security guard.

* GrossUpCloseUp: When Michael kills a nurse by repeatedly dunking her head into scalding water, the results are shown up close. The aftermath of Mixter's murder is shown in a similar fashion.

* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: When Michael stabs Nurse Jill in the back with the scalpel and uses it to lift her off the floor, afterwards she drops to the floor and he continues to chase Laurie, so it's assumed she's dead. Getting stabbed by a surgical scalpel would have been no picnic, but immediate death is highly unlikely. Michael had to be holding onto the major portion of it to have the leverage to lift her up, so it wouldn't have penetrated more than 2 or three inches. She's a slender woman but it likely would not have reached any vital organs (and it ''definitely'' would not have reached her heart) it may have punctured her lung given the location, but even that's not an instant kill. It's more likely she fainted from pain, fear, and shock. Michael didn't bother with her after that because he was focused on Laurie.

* CallForward[=/=]MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: In the sole connection between the main continuity and that of ''[[Film/HalloweenIIISeasonOfTheWitch Halloween III]]'', during one scene a Silver Shamrock commercial can be seen airing on a TV in the background. (In ''Halloween III'', however, the first movie appears on TV ''as a movie'', i.e., as fiction.)

* CatScare: A bumbling security guard stumbles around outside the hospital checking for a disturbance. He gets startled by a spring-loaded cat, sighs and relaxes. Three guesses who he encounters next...
** ''Michael'' actually encounters this at the beginning, when a dog suddenly appears to bark at him during his flight from Loomis.

* ChekhovsGunman: The first film mentions Ben Tramer, a boy that Annie sets Laurie up with for a date; [[TheGhost he never shows up on-screen, though]]. In this movie, [[spoiler:Tramer dies as the result of a car accident and subsequent explosion. His Halloween mask bears a resemblance to Michael's, which briefly makes the police and Loomis believe it was Michael who died in the accident]].
** Marion Chambers, who just seemed to be someone who accompanied Loomis at the beginning of the first film. She comes along here and drops a huge revelation.
* ContinuityNod: See ChekhovsGunman.

** A different young man just so happens to wear the same outfit and mask that Michael has on, only with blonde hair instead. It ends up misleading Loomis and the police, and leads to said young man getting killed when he’s distracted (by Loomis shouting and pulling a gun on him) and walks in front of a speeding police car, which plows him into a parked van that explodes and instantly burns him to death.

* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler: Or in this case, co-protagonist. Sheriff Leigh Brackett has lengthy appearance in the first film aiding Dr. Loomis, and since the second film picks up right after the first ended, it leads the audience to believe that Brackett will again play a major part of the sequel in a similar capacity. Cyphers even receives third billing in the opening credits, however, once he discovers Annie is dead in the first act, he angrily blames Loomis and leaves to console his wife over their daughter's death, and is never seen in the film again.]]

* GrossUpCloseUp: When Michael kills a nurse by repeatedly dunking her head into scalding water, the results are shown up close. The aftermath of Mixter's murder is shown in similar fashion.

* ImprobableInfantSurvival: The young boy with the razorblade stuck in his teeth and his mother leave the hospital just before Michael's invasion.

** The scene where Michael Myers steals a knife from Mrs. Elrod happens later, and is edited to suggest he kills the old woman instead of Alice, the girl down the street.

** The Marshal gets stupidly close to a seemingly dead or unconcious Michael, ignoring the warnings of Loomis, leading to his death.

** Sheriff Brackett is last seen leaving the scene of his daughter's slaying in order to tell his wife what happened. After that he simply disappears from the film (and the franchise), despite his actor being billed third in the credits.

* DullSurprise: Laurie has a very muted reaction to [[spoiler:seeing Michael murder a nurse]]. The camera effects imply that she's in a state of shock, which she snaps out of [[spoiler:when Michael drops the nurse and starts advancing on her.]]

* HeroicSacrifice: Dr. Loomis blows up the room he and Michael are in in order to stop him once and for all.

* TwoPersonPoolParty: Nurse Karen and Budd get busy in the hospital's hydrotherapy pool before Michael [[DeathBySex strangles Budd with a length of cord, and drowns and boils Nurse Karen after dunking her face into scalding water]].

** Alice somehow manages to not see Michael standing perfectly visible just twenty feet in front of her outside her house, and most egregiously, she ''again'' somehow doesn't see him on the floor of her brightly lit living room before she walks right past him and he jumps up to kill her.

** The Marshal gets stupidly close to Michael, leading to his death.

* {{Determinator}}: Despite having taken six gunshots in the previous film, and five more during the climax, Michael keeps coming after Laurie. Even when rendered blind, he just keeps slashing in front of him, determined to hit something, [[spoiler:and even while ''on fire'' (the thing that ultimately defeats him), Michael manages to keep walking for a moment before his strength finally fails.]]

* {{Fanservice}}: Nurse Karen gets a rather gratuitous topless scene. Of course, by the time Michael is finished with her, it quickly becomes a case of FanDisservice, as Karen's face is hideously burned by Michael drowning her in scalding water.

* RetCon: Retcons plague the entire series, and it all begins here. Michael and Laurie being siblings was a huge retcon that forever changed the direction of the series post-''Halloween III''. In the original film, Michael only starts stalking Laurie because she comes onto the Myers property with him inside, stirring his twisted fascination. Carpenter considered the story finished at the end of the first film. When Yablans demanded a sequel be made against Carpenter's wishes due to the first film's immense success, Carpenter had a hell of a time trying to find a way to force more out of a story that had nowhere else to go. Drunk and desperate, he came up with the idea of Michael and Laurie being siblings and threw that subplot into the film in order to have some story to tell beyond Michael simply killing more people for no reason. Became OldShame for Carpenter, who forever regretted this plot contrivance and refused to work on any more Michael Myers films until ''Film/Halloween2018'', when the sibling relationship was officially written out of canonicity.

* VillainDecay: In the original film, Michael would occasionally move with some hustle, such as when he descends the stairs after Laurie falls over the banister; in fact, even his standard walk when chasing a victim was a fairly brisk pace. In this film he moves comically slow, never moving any faster than a braindead zombie. Sadly set a precedent for the series for a time going forward, as Michael wouldn't regain his more frightening stride for a while.

--> '''Chambers''': That girl, that Strode girl, [[spoiler:that's Michael Myers's ''sister''.]]

* AdaptedOut: In the original film, Michael would occasionally move with some hustle, such as when he descends the stairs after Laurie falls over the banister; in fact, even his standard walk when chasing a victim was a fairly brisk pace. In this film he moves comically slow, never moving any faster than a braindead zombie. Sadly set a precedent for the series for a time going forward, as Michael wouldn't regain his more frightening stride for a while.

* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: Downplayed; out of five returning characters, [[spoiler:only two, Dr. Loomis and Michael Myers, die in this film, and even then, they aren't killed until the end of the film.]]

While it didn't enjoy the first film's critical success, ''Halloween II'' was still very well-received by fans and was a box office success. Carpenter initially felt the story was over after the first film, but when pressured by producers to make a second installment, he intended for this film to mark the end of the Michael Myers story for good, and [[Film/HalloweenIIISeasonOfTheWitch the next film]] in the franchise did something completely different altogether. Two of the ''Halloween'' sequels pick up after the events of this film: ''Film/Halloween4TheReturnOfMichaelMyers'' serves as a direct sequel to the events of this film with a new protagonist, while ''Film/HalloweenH20TwentyYearsLater'' ignores ''Halloween 4'' (and its two sequels) to continue the story of Laurie Strode. ''Film/Halloween2018'', on the other hand, supplants this film as the direct sequel to the original, retconning this film’s PlotTwist in the process.

While it didn't enjoy the first film's critical success, ''Halloween II'' was still very well-received by fans and was a box office success. Carpenter initially felt the story was over after the first film, but when pressured by producers to make a second installment, he intended for this film to mark the end of the Michael Myers story for good, and [[Film/HalloweenIIISeasonOfTheWitch the next film]] in the franchise did something completely different altogether. Two of the ''Halloween'' sequels pick up after the events of this film: ''Film/Halloween4TheReturnOfMichaelMyers'' serves as a direct sequel to the events of this film with a new protagonist, while ''Film/HalloweenH20TwentyYearsLater'' ignores ''Halloween 4'' (and its two sequels) to continue the story of Laurie Strode.

** Michael himself gets shot in both eyes by Laurie.

* FailedASpotCheck: Michael is seen within visual range ''several times'', but nobody ever sees him. The worst example is Alice somehow managing to not see Michael standing perfectly visible just twenty feet in front of her just outside of her house, and most mind-numbingly, she ''again'' somehow doesn't see him on the floor of her brightly lit living room before she walks right past him and he proceeds to jump up and kill her. Amazingly, Carpenter himself directed the latter scene.

* MadeOfIron: Despite the serious injuries she suffered from the previous film, Laurie is still running from Michael and makes it out alive again.
** Michael himself, as usual.

* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: [[spoiler:Dr. Loomis and Michael Meyers.]]

--> '''Chambers''': That Strode girl, [[spoiler:that's Michael Myers's ''sister''.]]

* AdaptationDecay: Although written by the same team, said team was under pressure from ExecutiveMeddling, and the director and Michael Myers actor were different people trying to adapt their own sequel to [[Film/Halloween1978 Carpenter's original masterpiece]]. In that film, Michael was a mysterious, motiveless, psychopathic, and potentially supernatural murderer. Here he's given a sister and a familial motive.

* AmbiguousSituation: Does Jimmy survive the film or succumb to death from his head injury? The theatrical cut leaves it unclear, but the TV version's ending has him survive.

* AdaptationDecay: Although written by the same team, said team was under pressure from ExecutiveMeddling, and the director and Michael Myers actor were different people trying to adapt their own sequel to [[Film/Halloween1978 Carpenter's original masterpiece]]. In that film, Michael was a mysterious, motiveless psychopathic and potentially supernatural murderer. Here he's given a sister and a familial motive.

* AdaptationDecay: Although written by the same team, said team was under pressure from ExecutiveMeddling, and the director and Michael Myers actor were different people trying to adapt their own sequel to Carpenter's original masterpiece. First Michael was a mysterious, motiveless psychopathic and potentially supernatural murderer. Here he's given a sister and a familial motive.