Aside from the scene with Alice in the beginning, and Michael walking through town, running into Boom Box boy, and following the sign to HMH, does anyone know any other scenes Carpenter shot?
I might be wrong, but I seem to recall hearing that Carpenter wanted H2 to have more blood and gore, and was therefore brought in to direct such scenes.
I believe he also directed the scene near the beginning with the girl on the phone to her friend just after he comes out of the Elrod house.
Yea that’s Alice …
I’ve heard something similar. When listening to the commentary, Rosenthal never mentions anything about when John reshot a scene. During the Alice scene, I recall he stayed pretty quiet.
I’ve heard that John shot the majority of the opening scene, from the credits until Michael kills Alice. He also shot the scene where Michael hears where Laurie is on the radio then proceeds to walk to HMH. He shot the entire end sequence, the blood tears scene and the explosion with the shape walking out of the flames and succumbing to his wounds. He also ramped up the blood and gore in some of the kills but I’m unsure which. If you go back and watch there’s a different feel to these scenes because Carpenter is behind the camera. My opinion at least
- The town square, bumping into boom-box boy…aka, Lance Warlock
- Extra TV scenes for H1
I think the shopping plaza scene.
If you read the Halloween II novel, that is basically what the original script was; it’s a completely different story and movie. After the movie was filmed, John Carpenter looked at the movie and did not like what he saw. He had Rick Rosenthal re-cut the movie because Carpenter felt the movie was very slow and too talky. After a screening at UCLA, Carpenter was brought in by Universal and he took over control of the movie.
After Halloween came out, the gore and blood content in horror movies kept going up. Carpenter wrote Halloween II to be like Halloween…no blood, no gore and more suspense but the times changed from 1978. I think John was making movies and didn’t see that times changed. After the screening at UCLA, that’s when the blood was really brought in. When Dennis was working on the book for Halloween II, that’s when all of the re-shoots were going on so that’s why the book and movie are completely different.
It would have been really interesting to see TLW do this film. He obviously hated the script and turned it down but that would have been wild if he took the reigns for H2🎃
Carpenter shot three major sequences over a period of three days.
- Alice’s death and the lead up to it.
- Everything in the town square (including the quick shot of the marshal’s car passing the hospital sign).
- Mr. Garrett handing the radio to Janet and his subsequent death in the storeroom. I know that Rosenthal originally intended for this death to occur off-screen. He had Mr. Garrett walk up to the storeroom but cut it there. Carpenter saw an opportunity to film the death to further up the gore.
I believe he also shot the close up insert of the needle entering Janet’s temple, and whilst I don’t know I suspect some of the other insert shots could have been his.
I’ve never actually been able to work out when he shot this stuff though. I think he re-edited the film first so it could have been late June? Does anyone know?
Agree. I get major H1 vibes from the street/boombox kid scene
Since I own Jamie Lee’'s actual script, let’s see. The original script is dated March 12, 1981. Revisions are 3/20 and 3/24. Mr. Garrett’s death happens off camera but we do see him while Laurie’s is running from the Shape near the end, Janet’s death is exactly as described in the original script. The main thing that is stated thru the script is the the Hospital is in the middle of no where, way outside town, not in walking distance. Carpenter wrote that for isolation purposes.
The UCLA cut happened in June sometime. The reshoots happened in either late June or July. Dick Warlock said it was extremely hot when the reshoots happened.
Hey brother your knowledge on this is off the charts 
And how did you get JLC’s script? That’s awesome!
I got it from a set painter on Halloween II. I bought his Halloween II Crew Jacket from him off eBay an asked if he had anything else, he said that he had Jamie’s script and also a painters cap. He then listed the script and I bought Jamie’s script…sadly, not the hat, dammit, and had Jamie authenticate it at Horrorhound years ago in front of Sean Clark. It has Jamie’s hand writing in it so she looked at it and and said that it was her’s. I thought Sean’s eyes were gonna bulge out of his head. 
Hey can we see a pic of your crew jacket? 
Here is an image from 4 or 5 years ago of Nancy Stephen’s signing it. I provided some pictures to Sean Clark for Ana Alicia’s first con visit so he got my Jacket signed by several he brought to that convention. The jacket is packed up and stored for safe keeping.
Dude that is so awesome!!! You seriously rule !
Hey thanks a bunch for all that info! And that is amazing you have those sweet items! Incredible!