Forget Bruce, Jaws stars face Michael Myers in Halloween II
First up, why is The Daily Jaws interested in a Halloween film? Easy. Just check out the cast, this has future Mike Brody (Lance Guest), Deputy Hendricks himself (Jeffrey Kramer) and The Shape is played by non other than Dick Warlock, who also played Matt Hooper in the shark cage scene in Jaws. Hell, there is even a nurse named Mrs Alves!
This sequel, released on 1981, is a direct follow on from the events of the first John Carpenter film, it unfolding on the same night of the aftermath of Laurie Strode (once again played by Jamie Lee Curtis) being almost killed by The Shape. It's an interesting concept, and had it have been possible, it would have been equally interesting to see Jaws 2 initially carry on from Brody and Hooper getting to shore.
Lance Guest (Michael Brody in Jaws The Revenge) with Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween II
Like Jaws 2, thanks in large part to the returning music and the same main cast of Curtis and Donald Pleasence, it oozes the same look and feel of the original slasher. And it's great to see Pleasence's Dr Loomis firing on all cylinders.
He's very much like Quint in his obsession with Myers, like Quint had for the shark, which is nice as both Pleasence and Robert Shaw were firm friends and had worked with one another on stage many times.
Of course, events in this film no longer exist if you follow the timeline of the Halloween follow up from 2018, which means that Laurie is no longer Michael's sister in the latest entry of the series (set to be followed up by Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends).
Jaws star Jeffrey Kramer, with Donald Pleasence, on the trail of serial killer Michael Myers
Halloween II film opens with the conclusion of the original, with a few tweaks, such as seeing Michael get shot out of the window of a balcony.
Post titles, which has a cool twist on the pumpkin, we get a largy sreadicam sequence from the pov of Michael as he sneaks round the shadows of the neighbourhood of Haddonfield, including him sneaking into a kitchen for a knife and a couple of kills.
Much of the subsequent action then takes place in Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, which is where Laurie has been taken to recover. Disappointingly at no point does she ask for coffee ice cream or her toy cars. She is given a tetanus shot as soon as she gets there, by a doctor who reminded me of the one out of The Cannonball Run.
One of the ambulance crew is Jimmy, a fresh faced Lance Guest, who would go onto star in The Last Starfighter, which just so happened to be directed by the man who played The Shape in Halloween, Nick Castle. Jimmy crops up now and again throughout the hospital scenes. Checking up on Laurie and later slipping on blood from the body of Nurse Alves, before finally passing out on the steering wheel of a car whilst trying to escape with Laurie.
Early on in the film a young man wearing a Myers style costume is killed by a police car and ends up burning to death - which is ironic as the same character had the hits for Strode in the first film. The local dentist is called to the mortuary, who is none other than Jeffrey Kramer. It's great to see him sharing a scene and dialogue with Pleasence. And you've got to love the irony of a Jaws actor being cast as a dentist.
This sequel - directed by Rick Rosenthal - ups the blood and gore quota, at the cost of some of the original film's suspense, including a particularly naked and nasty hot tub death scene. Perhaps it was inevitable in a world post Friday The 13th.
There's some subtle moments, that echo the first film, such as Michael appearing from the shadows to murder another victim in a doctor's office with a syringe to the temple. Like Jaws 2, the surprise was no more and they had to get more creative with the deaths.
Finally, in the last third of the film, we finally get Laurie up and out of bed and limping round the hospital to escape the clutches of Michael Myers.
It's nice to get Loomis, Strode and the seemingly indestructible Michael together again in the hospital corridors. Cornered by the masked killer, Loomis is stabbed and Myers walks toward Strode.
Laurie shoots him and he is blinded, in a nice touch tears of blood running from his mask. Loomis and Laurie set gas escaping before Loomis strikes his lighter engulfing the hospital in a fiery explosion. An on fire Michael, stumbles from the blaze and dies - much like the electrified shark in Jaws 2.
We are left wondering whether Loomis has perished or survived, an answer we wouldn't get for almost another decade.
Jamie Lee Curtis wears a bad wig and spends much of her time in bed - in fact she only features in the film for around 25 minutes - which is a tad of a shameful waste. She wouldn't return to the franchise until Halloween H20, that's right Halloween Water, in 1998.
Dick Warlock (left) doubled for Richard Dreyfuss as Hooper in the underwater cage sequence.
Pleasence survived the explosion and he made a return, along with Michael in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers in 1988, the third instalment - Season of the Witch - taking a break from the horrors of Haddonfield, much like Jaws 3D took a break from Amity Island. Both were released in 1983.
Check out more Jaws cast and crew related horror films here: Amityville Horror Jaws Horror Alumni
By Dean Newman
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