Synopsis:
Two years after her encounter with Michael Myers, Laurie Strode struggle to get past the events of that fateful Halloween Night. Following a tragic accident on the way to the morgue, Michael's body is missing. The quiet town of Haddonfield, Ill. has convinced itself that he's long dead. Very much alive, Michael is coming home. Will he find Laurie and will she be able to survive another Halloween night massacre?
Intentions:
As a fan of the Michael Myers character, it was disheartening to me that I found so many of the Halloween sequels unwatchable. Halloween II (2009) was very much a Halloween movie in name only. Characters we should root for were insufferable, both the gore and language were beyond excessive, the dialogue was poorly written and delivered, and nepotism led to the return of a previously deceased character that felt very much shoehorned in. My intentions here were to make this movie feel like a part of the Halloween saga. Laurie and Loomis have been made a bit more likable while still maintaining their original character arcs. The gore, language, trashy characters, and white horse angle have all been significantly trimmed. Replaced some scenes with more traditional Halloween themes although some original cues have been kept. True to the pure evil and enigma of the original character, Michael Myers never speaks in both his child and adult forms in this cut. I wanted to make a movie for myself that I could sit next to the other sequels I enjoy. I hope you can do the same!
Change List:
1) Created a new prologue using footage from Halloween (07) and using The Shape Stalks Laurie by Tyler Bates. 2) Converted Halloween 07 footage to 16:9. 3) Cut opening flashback of Michael as a child at Smith's Grove. 4) Cut Laurie walking down the empty street. 5) Cut Laurie screaming on the stretcher. 6) Cut doctor's scrubbing up to do surgery. 7) Trimmed paramedics speaking to Brackett. 8) Cut paramedics talking about necrophilia. 9) Cut number of times paramedic yells "fuck" after car accident. 10) Paramedic's death happens off screen. 11) Cut Michael walking towards the white horse. 12) Rescored Michael chasing Laurie through the hospital with Halloween 2007 by Tyler Bates. 13) Cut down the number of times Michael stabs the nurse to four. 14) Cut grunting sound Michael makes while stabbing the nurse. 15) Cut Laurie seeing dead body in the stairwell. 16) Cut Laurie having to crawl over dead bodies in the dumpster. 17) Cut out the security guard that Laurie runs into. 18) Shortened Michael breaking through the security station. 19) Rescored Laurie waking up from nightmare with Laurie's Theme from Halloween (78). 20) Cut Laurie yelling at Annie during breakfast. 21) Shortened Laurie's counseling session. 22) Cut Loomis and his assistant walking through hotel lobby. 23) Trimmed Laurie talking to her friends at the record store. 24) Trimmed Loomis speaking to audience about his book. 25) Cut scene with adult Michael meeting with child Michael and his mother in a barn. 26) Trimmed rednecks attacking Michael in the field. 27) Rescored Michael attacking the rednecks with Chase Laurie from Halloween: Resurrection. 28) Michael doesn't impale the first redneck. 29) Michael stabs second redneck only once. 30) Cut Michael dragging woman from truck and repeatedly stabbing her. 31) Cut Michael speaking to his mother in Laurie's dream. 32) Rescored Laurie's dream with The Ceremony from Halloween: Resurrection. 33) Cut any instances of young Michael speaking. 34) Cut Laurie dreaming about killing Annie. 35) Trimmed Laurie's second counseling appointment. 36) Cut parts of Loomis talking to the reporter. 37) Cut entire Rabbit in Red lounge scene. 38) Cut Michael's mother talking to him about Loomis next to a billboard. 39) Trimmed Loomis's book signing. 40) Trimmed Loomis talking to his assistant in the limo. 41) Cut Laurie screaming at another car while driving. 42) Cut Weird Al segment. 43) Trimmed parts of the girls at the Halloween festival. 44) Trimmed Annie berating the deputy at her house. 45) Trimmed Harley walking with the Wolfman to his van. 46) Cut Laurie having a vision of her mother standing next to child Michael. 47) Cut Michael's mother telling Michael to "go have some fun" while attacking Annie. 48) Trimmed Mya's death. Michael only stabs her once. 49) Recut/Rescored Brackett finding Annie's body with Dumbledore's Farewell from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. 50) Cut VHS footage of Danielle Harris as a child. 51) Rescored Michael throwing man through the windshield with the Shape Stalks Laurie by Tyler Bates. 52) Ending from Theatrical cut used. 53) Trimmed Michael killing Loomis. Scene now scored with Halloween 2007 by Tyler Bates. 54) Rescored Laurie in insane asylum with Halloween 1963 from John Carpenter's Halloween. 55) Removed still images from murders from the credits. 56) Rescored credits with Main Titles from Halloween: Resurrection.
Additional Notes:
Luckily Halloween II is one of those amazing movies that has a clear center channel allowing me to remove all background music cleanly. This very much helped me make the edit that I wanted.
Other Sources:
Special Thanks:
Thanks to TinyBreadMouse for very good feedback that has me now confidently releasing this here!