 There are currently three versions of Halloween 2. I say currently because who knows what the future will bring. Perhaps Power Man 5000 will try his hand at directing. Bring back Jimmy Lee Curtis as a ripe 80-year-old to finish the fight again. For now though, let's battle these ones. Including Jimmy Lee Curtis in an expanded role as Laurie Strode. Donald Pleasance as Dr. Sam Loomis and Charles Cypher as Sheriff Brackett continue their pursuit of Myers, now played by Dick Warlock. And might I just say, Dick Warlock is just a phenomenal name. That's awesome. There are plenty of new throwaway characters, mainly consisting of hospital workers, but nothing really noteworthy. Outside of Pamela Susan Shoe as Karen's remarkable breasts. Loomis is still solid this go-around, but his constant hyperbolic statements start to wear thin after a while. We get it. Myers is evil. Let's actually do something now. When it was announced that the 2018 Halloween was going to take place 40 years after the events of the first, I was a bit puzzled as to why. After rewatching the original sequel, I kind of get it. Laurie is honestly annoying in this follow-up flick. Spending most of her time wounded and helpless, slowly moving from room to room. She was far more interesting in H2O and now again in this recent flick. She's completely wrecked from the events of 78. I can understand that. Spending every day since preparing for Michael's inevitable return. Arm to the teeth, hunkered down in a killhouse. She patiently waits, closing off the world around her. Judy Greer plays her daughter, Karen, but has almost completely written her mother off due to the less than conventional way she raised her. She has a family of her own to look after as well, which includes a teen hottie named Allison who has little regard for expensive phones. There are an impressive amount of characters in the 2018 Halloween, most of which are completely likable and could have carried the story in a lot of different directions on their own. The podcast couple, babysitter Vicki and the lovable kid Julian, Dr. Sartain, aka New Loomis, and so on. Nick Castle reprises his original role as Michael Myers, also referred to as The Shape, along with James Jude Courtney. Much like the original though, Jamie Lee Curtis absolutely steals the new one from beginning to end. Meanwhile, in hell, we also have to talk about the 2009 Rob Zombie follow-up. If you thought Scout Taylor Compton was a tad annoying as Laurie the first time around, zombies doubled down on that feeling. Referring to her as a shit show would be a compliment. There's rarely a scene where she's not yelling, crying, or speaking entirely in curse words. The other versions don't bother going into the life of Michael Myers' parents, which is where Zombie really switches things up. I suppose he had to get his wife, Sherry Moon Zombie, back into the mix somehow, might as well hinge the entire story off of her. She's often seen with a white ghost horse by her side, because imagery is a powerful tool. Oh yes, remember how half the last film was focused on the young Mike Myers? We get to see him again, but this time played by an entirely different actor. Mr. Zombie said Dagg went through major growth spurts between films, so bringing him back wouldn't translate well to the audience, because he was unrecognizable from the previous. So instead they casted someone new who's unrecognizable from the previous. Malcolm McDowell for some reason came back as Loomis. He must owe Rob Zombie money or something. My favorite actor to show up though has to be Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer as Doctor who gets stabbed multiple times within two minutes of showing up. Fantastic. Hey, humble beginnings. Weird Al is in this too? Genuinely the only good thing in this picture. Rob Zombie, Ryan Johnson to the fuck out of this sequel. He took the expectations people had and he subverted them. I bet you weren't expecting Halloween 2 to have an almost 30 minute dream sequence to start things out. Well it does. At least most of that was a dream I think. And in this dream we get sort of a hospital recreation from the original second film Slashing. Complete with characters we'll never see again outside of this dream. After the hospital hillbilly deluxe is over, we find out Lori isn't in a good place. Literally her room is a pigsty. It's a disaster. It's the equivalent of the Suicide Squad's Joker. She spends her days talking to the worst psychiatrist on the planet and hanging out with a bunch of garbage pail kids. Overall just kind of being a complete waste of life. Meanwhile, Myers is traversing the countryside trying to find himself. We all are. He makes a pit stop at mom's old strip club to choke a few bitches out before settling down for the night. It was a nice Friday afternoon. The 1981 Halloween is a tad less graphic and awful. This one fires up right where the last one left off. Actually, a couple minutes prior, we get to relive those final magical moments and see that Myers got away. Bottom line, it's still Halloween. Michael's still a dick. Lori has been rushed to the hospital to recover from her attacker. This doesn't go well. The hospital she's brought to, which consists of like six employees, quickly loses power because of a loose wire. And that loose wire is Michael Myers. That wasn't that clever. It's kind of dumb. While things take shape at the hospital, Loomis is still on the lookout for the killer. His adventure takes the audience on one of the funniest moments in Halloween history. One of the officers, I'll refer to him as Private Dipshit, is speeding down the quaint suburban road when he plows into a teenager wearing a mask with his vehicle, smashing him into the side of a van. Kid, Kid is just fucking destroyed as he set a blaze because of the impact of the two cars. They later check the dental records because that's all that's left of his face before they realize this boy is not the right age to be our Michael. There's no repercussion for his actions, not even a slap on the wrist. And no one seems to even give a shit that they just murdered an innocent trick or treater. Billy learned that faithful knight, what it feels like to be a black man. His name wasn't Billy. In death, he's Robert Paulson. Halloween 2018, just called Halloween, even though it's Halloween 2 again, but not called Halloween 2, just Halloween, not Hall 2-ween or Halloween H-4-0. It's Halloween. In this version, Meyers was picked up by the cops shortly after fleeing the yard. Maybe Private Dipshit tagged the right dude with his car this time. He hasn't said a word in 40 years, but he's still got that thick frame and it's now complimented by a nice manly beard, nicely shaved, nicely primmed and proper, unlike Rob Zombie's hobo Meyers. That's just all sorts of nasty. Obviously it doesn't take long for our silent but deadly antagonist to escape. It's debatable, I guess, how the bus crash happened, but I'd like to think that that crazy new Loomis did it. While Meyers is getting his kill on, Laurie is trying to reconnect with her family. The only way she knows how, through paranoia. When Laurie and Michael finally do come into contact again, it's a pretty powerful moment and the slower first act really build momentum into a second and third. Since Rob Zombie is dead set on ruining any good faith he had with one fan, he finally kills Michael off in this one. Not, of course, before letting him speak first. A word that will haunt and puzzle audiences for years to come as they try to dissect and unweave this tapestry of chaos and anarchy and, you know, it's really stupid. He grunts out, die. Laurie also dies in a slow motion to freeze frame as Love Hurts plays loudly on top of it all. I'm not joking. This movie is a car wreck. It's the private dipshit of cinema. Oh, I almost forgot. In both previous versions, we learned that to Laurie is the estranged sister of Michael. It's a plot point that's there, but it never really amounts to anything tangible. Probably why 2018 went ahead and got rid of that idea as well, even through a little shade added to passing. Some may be wondering if Michael died at the end of the 2018 film. It's a pretty easy answer. If a film makes enough money for a studio, nothing is ever truly dead. We'll see him again. 81 spends the majority of its time at a really understaffed hospital, a setting that on paper should have been more interesting than it ended up. Director Rick Rosenthal attempts to mimic the John Carpenter feel complete with the pumpkin opener. I will say it's pretty badass watching that thing split open to reveal a skull. The drawn out shot and dimly lit wards just don't look near as interesting. The only moment of pure joy for me, besides that hit and fun scene, was the orderly slipping on blood and cracking his skull. He shows up later in the car acting like things are all good, but the damage is done. He's completely destroyed. Nurse double D getting her face melted off was pretty solid as well. Zombies film provides plenty of gortastic moments for those that enjoy the finer things in life. The headstomp in the parking lot is a thing of beauty, but 2018 ups the ante and does a single headstop crushing that bitch wide open in one. It's clear that director David Gordon Green wanted to make a sequel worthy of the name finally. That pumpkin reversal to start things up lets the audience know that he's bringing sexy back. The tracking shots, the play on the shadows and lighting, the situation reversals and the general feel are familiar but updated. The podcast crew is a clever introduction to this new Halloween. They may be a new generation, but they still die the same way. John Carpenter once again composes the score for 81's flick and it's once more stellar. There's a sense of uneasiness whenever that theme song fires up. This is carried over and expanded upon in 2018. It's even stronger than ever with those classic synths mixed in with piano and electronic percussion. I know things about music after I look them up online. I'm smart. 2009 sticks with the trash rock along with three borderline mini music videos by Captain Clegg and The Night Creatures. I looked that up too. I have no idea if that's even the band's name. I could have completely botched that but I often make mistakes on this channel because I am a one-man operation. Feel free to call me out when I'm wrong and discredit the entire video and all the work and hours I put into it because of the simple mistake. Let's conclude. I was never a big fan of the 81 sequel. It was alright but it felt like less of the same thing to me. I hated whatever the hell Rob Zombie made. I was still skeptical on 2018's Halloween since we've had such an overwhelming amount of sequels, prequels, side pools, remakes, remixes, reboots and whatnot. I do really think they nailed this though. Have a different opinion? That's perfectly fine. After all, this is more than just reviews. This is Movie Feuds. Oh, and if you are trick-or-treating this year, please be safe out there and use the sidewalk. A lot of crazy drivers. Thanks for watching The Feud. If you want to keep up with the show, make sure to subscribe to Adam Does Movies for all the latest Movie Feuds, Adam Rance and the stupid cringe show that I produce. You can also check out my playlist. I've done a ton of these episodes so there's plenty of hours left to watch. Take care. Just stand here for a little while while you decide your future.