History YMMV / HalloweenII1981

* FridgeBrilliance:
** Why are Michael's kills more violent in this film? [[spoiler: Well, he got stabbed in the neck with a knitting needle, got poked in the eye with a hanger, got stabbed with his own knife, got shot SIX times with a revolver, and fell of a balcony. Also, he's probably tired from chasing Laurie.]] So frankly, he's a little pissed.
** Building off what was previously established above, [[TheOtherDarrin due to Michael being played by a different actor in this movie]], his movements are noticeably stiffer and much slower compared to how he moved in the first film. [[spoiler:That’s because he previously just had his neck and eye punctured by Laurie, and was shot six times and fell off a balcony]]. He’s still trying to recover from the injuries he endured just a couple hours ago and is probably still in pain.
** How was Michael able to see in subsequent sequels if his eyes were shot out? Simple, Laurie didn’t shoot him in the eyes. If you look closely after he moves his hand away from his face, you can see his eyes are perfectly intact. She shot above the eyes.

* AssPull: Creator/JohnCarpenter himself admits that while writing ''Halloween II'', the idea of [[spoiler:Laurie being Michael's sister]] came to him "at 2:00 in the morning in front of a typewriter with a six pack of beer" while desperately trying to force a way for the story to continue when he felt the story had nowhere else to go after the first film, all due to the producers refusing to let the Myers story die after the success of the original film despite Carpenter wanting it to be an anthology series.

** Why are Michael's kills more violent in this film? [[spoiler: Well, he got stabbed in the neck with a knitting needle, got poked in the eye with a hanger, got shot SIX times with a revolver, and fell of a balcony. Also, he's probably tired from chasing Laurie.]] So frankly, he's a little pissed.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Budd. Fans can't agree if he's an annoying AssholeVictim who couldn't die soon enough (especially when he's played the actor who [[RetroactiveRecognition would seven years later play]] an equally loathsome and annoying role as the rapists' cheerer in the Academy Award-winning courtroom drama ''Film/TheAccused'') or a hilarious {{Jerkass}} CasanovaWannaBe who brought a lot of laughs to the film.

** ''Baywatch'' actor and future soap star Billy Warlock (the son of Dick Warlock, this film's Michael Myers), briefly appears as Craig, one of the local teens looking for Ben Tramer.

* ItWasHisSled: The reason behind Michael's killings in this film is rather well-known, to the point every film in the series afterwards (except for the 2018 sequel which treats this film as [[CanonDiscontinuity non-canonical]]) references it.

** While [[spoiler:Jill]] is SparedByTheCut in the TV cut of the film, many fans think she could have survived her stab wound in the theatrical cut too.

* TheScrappy: Karen not only arrives late for work but almost immediately leaves her post to fool around with her boyfriend. She's the nurse on a maternity ward! It's hard to see her death as anything other than LaserGuidedKarma.

* {{Tearjerker}}: Sheriff Brackett's reaction to seeing his daughter's corpse. Charles Cyphers does a magnificent job selling his shock and devastation, as well as his rage at Loomis. Loomis himself can only quietly reply that he didn't let Michael loose, knowing that he can't do anything to ease Brackett's pain.

** One of the biggest in the franchise, being the twist that [[spoiler: Laurie is Michael's sister,]] a twist that was carried in every following film except for the third one (which follows a separate cast) and the 2018 and onward installments (which ignore every previous film but the first one). Some didn't mind, arguing that most of Michael still remained a mystery and it did not change too much about his character. Others criticize it for being an AssPull that did not contribute to the plot and for [[VillainDecay demystfying Michael for giving a motive, thus reducing his intimidation as a villain]]. Rather tellingly, the 2018 film dropped this as a means of appealing to all bases.
** The theatrical cut vs the television one. The TV cut inserts some deleted scenes and eliminates some unnecessary gore - with some of the restored scenes explaining a lot of FridgeLogic from the original. But it also re-orders some scenes around - often clumsily - and fans can't agree on which version is better.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: [[spoiler: Laurie's adoptive mother]] is shown for only a short moment, and in a dream sequence, but she seems to act rather cold to Laurie when she tells her [[spoiler: "I'm not your mother."]] It's difficult to determine if her entire relationship with Laurie has always been that cold and distant or if Laurie's traumatized mind has depicted her through that particular unpleasant memory.

** One of the biggest in the franchise, being the twist that [[spoiler: Laurie is Michael's sister,]] a twist that was carried in every following film except for the third one (which follows a totally separate cast) and the 2018 and onward installments (which ignore every previous film but the first one). Some didn't mind, arguing that most of Michael still remained a mystery and it did not change too much about his character. Others criticize it for being an AssPull that did not contribute to the plot and for [[VillainDecay demystfying Michael for giving a motive, thus reducing his intimidation as a villain]]. Rather tellingly, the 2018 film dropped this as a means of appealing to all bases.

* VindicatedByHistory: To a lesser extent than the original film or some of John Carpenter's other works, but the hit-and-miss quality of subsequent sequels led to this film getting a warmer reception from audiences and critics since its initial release. It's still considered lesser than the original film, but it's commonly regarded as one of the better sequels for at the very least attempting to provide a definitive end to the Michael Myers story and relaunch the franchise as an anthology series with Halloween III: Season of the Witch.

* TooCoolToLive: Dr. Loomis. That is, if you follow the filmmakers' original intention as well as the H20 timeline, rather than the 4-6 one.