This film is stylishly written by Debra Hill and director, John Carpenter, with a great cast! "Halloween" spawned many repeats and sequels, but none were better made than this one! 

Rated R by the MPAA - Contains violence, minor adult language, and nudity.
 

This film, like the original, is written by Debra Hill and John Carpenter, and it shows. Though the film is gore filled and quality lacking, it’s still a respectable follow-up. 

Rated R by the MPAA - Contains gory violence, adult language, and nudity.

John Carpenter wanted to leave Michael Myers to ashes and push on into a new endeavour.  He wanted to make a new series of Halloween-related films, but cohesively, would have no connection to one another.  Simply put, individual & separate stories centering around the ghoulish holiday.  This would be Carpenter's first AND last attempt at that idea.  The non-sequel was panned by critics & fans alike, and there is true reason to that.  But, before I go further, let's layout the plot first.

Dr. Daniel Challis (Tom Atkins) is a physician at a northern California hospital.  One October night, a man named Harry Cambridge is carted into the emergency room in hysterics.  Grasping a Silver Shamrock Halloween mask and screaming "They're going to kill us all".  Naturally, he seems to have lost his sanity, but when Harry is murdered in his hospital bed later that night by a mysterious man (Dick Warlock) who shortly thereafter enters into a car & blows himself sky high, Dr. Challis becomes very curious as to Harry's claims.  His interest is furthered when Harry's daughter, Ellie, tells Challis what drove her father into hysterics.  Harry Cambridge was investigating the origins of the Silver Shamrock masks, and to why no orders were being taken for the following year.  Daniel & Ellie trek to Santa Mira (the home of the Silver Shamrock Company) to find the answers they seek.  They are horrified when they discover that the company owner, Conal Cochrane (Dan O'Herlihy), has implanted microchips, partially made from mysterious Stonehenge rocks, into the masks, and when the Silver Shamrock commercial plays with its special jingle, it will kill countless numbers of children across the country in a horrific manner.  As the night goes on, time draws short, and Daniel Challis must attempt to thrawt Cochrane's evil, sinister, dreadful plan.  Through relentless android assassins (who all look like Dick Warlock), a treacherous factory, and more, Dr. Challis desparately races against time to stop this living nightmare from happening.

This film is good, but not great.  Points & counterpoints.  It has a tense & suspenseful story that plays out with some shocking visuals & lots of android gore (they ooze yellow fluid).  Though, the score by Carpenter & Alan Howarth isn't one to remember, and the endless & prominent usage of the Silver Shamrock jingle is more annoying than any commercial you may ever encounter.  Director Tommy Lee Wallace doesn't have much personal style, and certainly makes the visuals feel very dull.  Also, several of the sets & props seem budget-starved. and the $2.5 million budget re-enforces that statement.  If the film had double that budget, perhaps such things would've looked better.  Though, it wouldn't have saved the film.

Now, Tom Atkins puts in a strong, well-rounded performance here.  He shows the desparation of Challis well, and even more so, the intense fear at the film's finale.  It's a good performance, but at times, you may feel as though he's out-of-place here.  I don't know, it's difficult to explain.  Also, Dan O'Herlihy does a decent job as the insidious & sadistic Cochrane, but it's not a great performance.  Granted, he's convincingly evil, but barely more than that.  We are given a preview of Cochrane's intended fate for the youth of the country, and is truly shocking & horrifying, but that alone doesn't amplify the character of Cochrane.  He needed to be more devilish, more demonic, more purely evil, but O'Herlihy's performance does not reflect that.

So, in the end, we are left with an intensly fearful cliffhanger as Challis screams at the television station over the phone to shut off the final commercial.  Thrilling & suspenseful finale, and it should stick with you for sometime.  So, what we have is that mixed bag.  The story worked, and the film had it's frightening & thrilling moments, but the production faultered.  Tommy Lee Wallace isn't much of a visionary director, the score was truly subpar for both Carpenter & Howarth (who would do great scores for the next three "HalloweeN" films), and perhaps, this film was done at the wrong time.  If it had been made a decade later, they'd have a bigger budget with better effects, and a higher production quality.  But, as this film is, the quality is low & the effects are quite poor.  So, it's a toss-up.  It's a decent watch, but most any other "HalloweeN" film would be more worth your time.

Rated R by the MPAA - Contains some violence, gore, disturbing imagery, and brief language.

In this story, Jamie, Laurie’s daughter, dreams that her uncle, Michael Myers will return and stalk her. Jamie’s parents, unfortunately had just died in a car crash and she ends up living with foster parents. Meanwhile, Myers, who was dead-asleep in a ten year coma, is being scheduled to return to The Smith’s Grove Sanitarium. Like always, Loomis tries to stop it and sure enough the ambulance full of doctors get killed on the transferring trip. When Loomis finds this out, he goes straight on to what he does best, stopping Michael! 

Other than the horrible Myers mask, this film still provides descent chills! Director Dwight H. Little provides the atmosphere of the original and really has a fun time! 

Rated R by the MPAA - Contains violence, adult language, nudity, and mild sexual situations.

Rated R by the MPAA - Contains gory violence, adult language, and sexual content.
 
 
 
 
 

Rated R by the MPAA - Contains strong horror violence, and some sexuality.
 
 
 

1) One of todays best music composers did the film, John Ottman (You’ll understand why this is a problem soon) 
2) It’s the 90’s! Most teens want something like "Party Of Five" not like "Friday The 13th"! 
3) Steve Miner, one who likes to cover up his former films directs it. 
4) It throws away the plots of 4 through 6. 

Okay, this might not look like a huge problem, but it slowly makes the film fall apart. 

Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Laurie Strode, under the identity of a "Ms. Tate". She now works at a private school that her son goes to. As Halloween approaches, she finds that pills and booze are the only way out of the visions of her brother, Michael Myers. Her son senses something is wrong and knows the truth about the killings. He tries to convince her that she watched him burn, but that doesn’t help. While all the students go on a camping trip, four of them shack up in there rooms(one being John, Laurie’s son). Meanwhile, Myers had found Nurse Marion Whittington(Chambers) house and found Loomis’ files on Laurie. He found where she was and set off stealing cars and getting closer as Halloween approached. When Michael got to the school, all that was blocking him from his sister was a security guard (LL Cool J.) 

To fit in all the stupid little sub-plots would have taken too long for this review. Now, to explain all the effects of the problems:

1) Ottman’s great music(I have it) was replaced halfway by music from "Scream". Dimension’s executive producer, Bob Weinstein, wanted a more "hip" score, which sounded terrible. Throughout the film, kids were saying that music is from "Scream"! 
2) We get too many little sub-plots with problems about boyfriends and girlfriends(who cares!). We also get a bunch of television actors/actresses that we’re sick of watching! 
3) Soon Miner will complain that this film is horrible. 
4) In one scene, we see pictures of dead people that were killed in 4-6 and we also see something in a newspaper article about Jaime Lloyd! We all think that the story didn’t happen, now we are confused! 

There are a few good things, though. The first scene, amazingly, has the EXACT feeling of the original. Also, the death scenes were quite creative. I had trouble guessing what Michael would do! The actors were great, but Jamie Lee's Laurie is totally dead. I don't feel bad for her character. I just want to say "Stop Yelling!"

Rated R by the MPAA - Contains terror violence, gore, and adult language.

THIS REVIEW IS COMING SOMETIME SOON.