Halloween 2, the first sequel to John Carpenter's 1978 horror classic, greatly ramped up the franchise's levels of blood and gore, and here's why. While the original Halloween served as the impetus for what Friday the 13th would turn into the 1980s slasher boom, it's important to remember that Carpenter's film really wasn't that violent. Sure, it was rated R, but it was far form a hard-R. In fact, younger horror fans may well be surprised just how tame Halloween is when they see it for the first time, at least when it comes to things like gore, language, and nudity. Even without those things though, Halloween is still a terrific, highly frightening and suspenseful movie.
Of course, Halloween ended up being one of the only major slasher movies ever made that skimped on bloody kills and sexual content. From Friday the 13th on, slashers continued to up the ante when it came to both things, especially gore. This got to the point where the MPAA ratings board started actively cracking down, waging back and forth battles against horror filmmakers and studios over the amount of violence that could be included in a film while maintaining an R rating.
When Halloween 2 came out in 1981, things with the MPAA hadn't quite heated up yet, and there was still lots of gory murders to go around onscreen. The sequel, which picks up almost immediately after the original, is much, much gorier than its predecessor. However, that wasn't always the plan.
Why Halloween 2 Is Much Gorier Than John Carpenter's Original
While John Carpenter returned to co-write and co-produce Halloween 2, he actually didn't direct the sequel. That job went to Rick Rosenthal, who would later return to helm the widely maligned Halloween: Resurrection. Rosenthal actually wanted to keep Halloween 2 close to the original's tone, opting for suspense instead of explicit gore. Somewhat amusingly, it was Carpenter himself who decided to add the gory kills that can now be seen in the released cut of Halloween 2.
Upon viewing Rosenthal's first cut of the sequel, Carpenter didn't find the film scary. What's more, he had been paying attention to how the slasher craze had led audiences to want more and more gore in their horror. After re-editing Rosenthal's initial cut, Carpenter found it scarier, but still thought moviegoers of the time would be disappointed at the lack of onscreen carnage. Carpenter opted to shoot new gorier Michael Myers kill scenes to spice things up, directing them himself, against Rosenthal's objections. He also greatly sped up the pace of the final cut, further annoying Rosenthal. However, Halloween 2 went on to be a box office success, and is today regarded as one of the best Halloween sequels, so maybe Carpenter was right in his assessment of the situation.
