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daily nebraskan
Wednesday, november4, 1981
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Film has more tricks, less treats than original
By Chuck Lieurance
As far as sequels go, Halloween II is average to
above average, ranking far below Godfather, Part II
and far above Jaws II. The film's major fault is the
popularity of the initial Halloween bloodbath, which
gave creator John Carpenter more money for the
sequel.
With more money, Halloween II is much too slick,
losing the rough edges that made the original such
terrifying fare. The interesting errors are missing from
Halloween II. The idiosyncracies that would plague
any other film are the very things we miss from this
one.
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As Hitchcock once said, the anticipation of horror
is much more frightening than the resulting "Boo!"
and this theory was followed in Halloween Part I.
In the sequel, the act of bloodletting seems to have
taken on more importance than the set-up. If nothing
else, Halloween II is proof that most film artists
are sadists with a perfect means of release. The murders
in this film are methodically planned, almost to the
level of strangeness the old Vincent Price)-. Phibes
films reached in the early 70s. The film staff can al
most be seen sitting around saying, "What if we took
surgical instruments and found various bodily parts
to destoy them with?"
Killings come quickly
These sometimes humorous killings come much
too quickly for there to be much anticipation, and thus
the capacity for suspense is limited. This makes this
year's model of Halloween too similar to all of the
other slash ax horror films, such as Friday the 13th,
Happy Birthday to Me, Prom Night, Hell Night, and
He Knows You 're Alone.
These films are very structured and too similar
for there to be much bite left in the formula. In the
beginning comes the set-up, then the mass bloodletting,
usually of decadent teenagers in the act of taking drugs
or having sex. Then, when there is one traumatized
teenager left, she (in Halloween II it is once again
Jamie Lee Curtis, who by this time has had quite an
evening) stumbles about wounded and panting with
fear, discovering body after body. This body count
of course, leads to confrontation. This structure is
not as overdone in Halloween I as it is in Halloween
II.
Interesting theory in movie
There was also an interesting theory at play in
Halloween I this is missing here. In the first, the plot
rejects the idea that the killer needs psychological
motivation. This idea became very popular in the
'50s and '60s with films like Psycho, in which Norman
was psychologically analyzed at the end of the story.
The killer in Halloween is defined as 4,pure evil,"
just a re-incarnation of the forces of darkness and
psychology is left severely wanting for an explanat
ion. This idea of slasher as devoid of conscience, as
somehow metaphysically evil, instead of being a vict
im of society, a broken home or some childhood mal
formation of personality, is a fairly new development
in the genre.
In Halloween II this rejection of psychological
theory is not well done. Donald Pleasance's soliloquy
in the first film is not elaborated upon enough in the
second to raise it above the level of, say, Friday the
13th.
Structurally, the film did benefit in a few ways
from the increase in available capital, especially in the
area of cinematogrophy. There are some very effective
devices implemented, such as the slow emergence
of the slashers stark iron-grey mask from the shadows.
The face seems to just fade in, as if one's eyes
were naturally adjusting to the darkness. There are
also some very well done tracking shots that turn hos
pital corridors (where most of the main slaughter
occurs) into complex, inescapable mazes. But if this
made the film more attractive and convincing structur
ally, severely drained the plotline, or bloodline in this
case.
Programmers ring out the new, ring in the old
(The Scene: The corporate offices
of the North American Broadcasting
System. A highly-sensitive, top-level board
meeting is taking place.)
"Ladies and gentelmen," begins the
president of the corporation, a portly,
balding man named Ratliff, "we have to
decide which new hit series for this fall
will be replaced by another new hit series
in January."
"Already?" says one of the lower
echelon executives, a ferret-like man
named Stewart. "The new hit series for
this fall have been hits for only a week."
"Well, some of them have been more
popular new hits than others," says Rat
liff. "On the other hand, some of our new
hits are not being watched by anyone.
That doesn't mean they're not hits, of
course, it just means the audience is not
participating in the growth of certain
programs on a primary viewer level."
A woman named Whitefield takes the
floor. "Cut the crap, folks. We're not
stupid, and neither are the viewers. The
reason we are here is that we finally have
put together a tall lineup so bad that
people won't watch it. They are staying
away in droves. Television has gotten so
bad that America has even taken up ex
ercising in the last few years. Hard telling
what we've driven them to now. They may
even be reading, for all we know. We just
know they aren't watching television."
"You're absolutely right," says Ratliff.
"Now what do you suggest we do about
it?"
"We've got to stop copying what
the other networks are doing," says White
field. "NBC does a miniseries, we do a
miniseries. ABC does a detective drama
that pulls in the ratings, we do the same
drama. There are only so many people
who want to watch a detective drama,
and if ABC already has one, they've got
that audience. What we need to do is
create a new audience with shows nobody
else is doing."
"Well now, your advice is well taken,"
says Ratliff. "But what kinds of shows
are the other networks doing now?"
"Nobody is doing Leave it to Beaver or
My Mother the Car or Dennis the Menace.
We could try these again, " Stewart says.
"Nali, too obvious," says Ratliff.
"We need people to think we just made
these shows up."
"How about if we put new titles on
them?" says Stewart, over the sound of
Whitefield slapping her hand against her
forehead. "It's different from what we
have now, and more importantly, we
can make a king's ransom from advertisers
because we don't have to pay to make new
shows."
"Sounds perfect," says Ratliff, lighting
a cigar. "I'm glad to see we have taken a
new approach to rid television of the bland
drivel we see today. I'm looking forward
to several new hits appearing on our net
work in January."
Lincoln bar turns N. Y. disco
as English import 45s spin
O.G. Kelly's will be turned into a
Lincoln version of a New York rock disco
tonight by record collector John Baker and
associates. The music that will be played is
chiefly English import 45s.
"We're going to play records that are
difficult to come by. It will be the exact
opposite of what you hear on the radio,"
Baker said. 'This is an educational attempt
to expose people to new music."
Groups that will be played include Soft
Sell, Depeche Mode and Slight Second, all
part of the English post -punk experimental
electronic music with political overtones.
"Before I worked at Dirt Cheap, I was
into Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Then I went
into music that makes you move and think.
The Snakefinger show at the Drumstick
(Restaurant) was a perfect example of new
music because you could dance, drink or
watch the visuals. It's not head-banging
music anymore," Baker said.
O.G. Kelly's has played the new music
once previously, and it was accepted well,
he said.
"O.G. was pleased that they made more
money than they normally do on an open
stage night. We'll be back here again on the
18th this month," Baker said.
During the new music night, some
people complained about the lack of infor
mation on groups being played, but Baker
plans on correcting that difficulty.
"We don't want to go into any big DJ
trips, but we will tell everybody what is
being played this time," Baker said. "We'll
play a lot of things from the Rough Trade
label, or the weird San Francisco bands like
the Residents."
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