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No other genre pumps out sequels like horror.  One can really only thank the supernatural uncertainties used in these films for the killer rising from the dead so many, many, many, many times. 
Jason has macheted his way through 10 films (Jason X is on it's way soon), well okay so the Friday the 13th aficionados will know he's not in all 10, but whatever!  :) Freddy at least has clawed his way through 7 now, and Michael Myers is about to take a stab at the 8th in the never-ending series.

Way back in 1981, the first Halloween sequel was unleashed.  H2 takes place the SAME night as Halloween, right after the Michael Myer's killing spree, with Halloween having ended atop the myer's house balcony with Dr Loomis (Donald Pleasance) having fired 7 bullets into The Shape (though  the great Doc himself says "I shot him 6 times!!")...  So while all of Laurie's (Jamie Lee) friends were killed by The Shape, she managed to escape, barely, and is rushed to the hospital, and with Michael having "mysteriously" disappeared, Dr Loomis is on the hunt. 
Even with John Carpenter and Debra Hill scribing Michael's second outing it doesn't seem to have too much thought put into it other than to make a slasher flick for the 80's audience (click here for some dirt on the H2 reshoot), as Michael quite graphically butchers a few unsuspecting souls (there's a few juicy moments, so it's not a total loss as a horror film :). While the illustrious Dr Loomis is out hunting for The Shape, the one place he HASN'T bothered looking is the hospital where Laurie is!  (no wonder some people find Horror films idiotic when things like this go on...jeez :)

Anyway, it's not a patch on the original but does have a few good moments amongst it's mostly cliche' ridden storyline, and did remain very faithful to the original.  Incidentally Halloween 2 director Rick Rosenthal is slated to direct Halloween 8 with Jamie Lee again playing Laurie Strode for the Fourth time.

So how does this transfer hold up?

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VIDEO
Infogrames releases of Halloween and Halloween 3, in Anamorphic Widescreen and it's a damn shame number 2 is merely 4x3 Letterboxed, but thankfully it does maintain it's original theatrical aspect ratio.
Taken from a Release Print (you'll see reel changes in the top right, but I can't say their distracting) the image isn't too bad.  Though overall there is a bit too much dirt flecking going on, and the black level a bit on the low side so shadow detail looses some depth, but with the level of sharpness being surprisingly good, (with a drop only here and there) and in incredibly low level of grain and noise, so is a pleasing image to watch, and Michael seems to pop out of the shadows just at the right time :)
Fleshtones aren't perfect, and are a tad heavy looking from the lower black level, but this is consistent throughout the film.  A slightly higher level of saturation would have looked better, but it's certainly hasn't been completely drained of colour.

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AUDIO
Theatrically H2 was released with a Dolby Stereo track, but it's anything but.  It's very mono sounding from start to finish, but has been encoded with a Dolby 2.0 Surround audio track.
On occasions sounds did come from the Left and Right channels, which i did not think it was "stereo imaging" but rather a slight phase shift..it just didn't sound quite right.
There's a bit more noise/hiss than I expected and a few moments of peak distortion, but for the most part it's not overly distracting,and dialogue is pretty much intelligible all the way through.
The dynamic range is rather limited but this is a near 20 year old horror film that hasn't been fiddled with too much, or at all.  (after listening to the audio track on the menus, and the remixed original it's quite disappointing and goes to show you how much of an improvement there is when an old soundtrack is cleaned up and remixed)

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EXTRAS
Ah yes, well, not much here, it's a trailer and some production notes (the latter is actually quite informative)

The similarly themed animated menus for all 3 Halloween DVDs are also a nice touch.

It's not a patch on the original, but has it's moments, and has scrubbed up okay on DVD.   Strictly for the Fans only.

Review Equipment
TV: Pioneer SD-T50W1 (16:9 RPTV)
DVD: Pioneer DV717  (using RGB outputs)
Receiver : Denon AVC-A1SE THX Ultra (Dolby Surround EX, DTS-ES Discrete)
Speakers:-
     Mains: Quadral Phonolgue Gold Amun
     Centre: B&W CDMC-SE
     Surrounds Left/Right: B&W 602 (Direct Radiating)
     Surrounds Back : M&K SS500 (THX Diplole)
     Subby: M&K V125 

- Reviewed 17th May 2001

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