Halloween II (1981)
Halloween had become the
most profitable independent
movie ever so it didn’t take a
psychic to see a sequel would
be on the way. Compared to
today, when we get a new Paranormal Activity movie every October, a three year gap seems
like an age. In the intervening
years, Carpenter’s original had
spawned dozens of imitations,
most of them frankly unwatchable. Thanks to the success of
Friday the 13th, the elements
NewJerseyStage.com
that made Carpenter’s film so
effective (suspense, mood, tension and atmosphere) had been
replaced with gore and over
the top death scenes. Each new
slasher flick attempted to outdo
the competition by giving us
increasingly inventive death
scenes. The simple act of stabbing a victim with a kitchen knife
had become passe; audiences
now wanted to see killings that
utilized every household implement possible.
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