It’s widely known among fans that John Carpenter did a few pick up shots for Halloween 2 after being concerned about the film’s first cut. Word is Carpenter added a few kill shots with added gore to bring the film more in line with where the marketplace was at the time.
What’s interesting about this rare series of photos is A) that any even exist at all of Carpenter directing any of Halloween 2, and B) that it isn’t a kill scene - but is instead the boom box street scare with Dick Warlock’s son. Enjoy.
John wrote and shot this scene since he thought it didn’t make sense that Myers knew where to find Laurie. The radio says exactly where she is as soon as Lance bumps into Myers. Cool pictures.
These photos rock! The rare ones too. Does anyone know at what point Carpenter stepped in do these reshoots? Obviously after principle photography, but was it weeks later?
This is one of my all time favourite scenes in the franchise. It rocks.
I’d say at least 2 months…maybe a month and a half after Halloween II was finished filming Carpenter took over Halloween II. (However long it took for Rosenthal to make 2 rough cuts.) Also, Carpenter was knee deep in pre-production for The Thing for Universal; Carpenter took 2 months off of that schedule to fix Halloween II.
All of Carpenters re-shoots happened after 2 of the rough cuts Rosenthal submitted. After Carpenter saw the first cut, he sat down with Rosenthal and showed him the problem areas and basically told him the movie lingered too long and the movie has to be faster and scarier. After Carpenter saw the second rough cut Rosenthal submitted, Carpenter took over the movie from Rosenthal.
Carpenter’s re-edit of Halloween II is completely different than what was originally written. I see why Carpenter spent 2 months changing it because Halloween II really had to be tricked with. The connecting shots, the scares and some added gore are what was added to Halloween II, all shot by Carpenter and was a complete after thought.
I feel for Rosenthal, he only filmed what was written by Carpenter/Hill. The original shooting script I have, Jamie Lee’s copy, is a really, really good script. It’s very character driven and, basically…just like Halloween. Sadly, the climate changed so much from when Halloween was in theaters, because of all of the imitators that spawned off the success of Halloween, that Halloween II became exactly was it fought so hard to be against…bloody.
Thanks for the info Billy
Do you think because Carpenter’s name was all over it that Dino De Laurentiis was pressuring Carpenter to take over and move the film into the kind of climate that was happening in ‘81? I always wondered how much power ol’ Dino had over that movie. I would love to have seen Rosenthal’s cut, just out of pure curiosity, I assume it was more like the TV cut with the extra character development. Regardless, I still love Halloween II !!
Carpenter states that he took over Halloween II because of several reasons; no one liked Rosenthal’s cut and he felt obligated to the people who put up the money. Carpenter didn’t like doing what he did and he would have never wanted it done to him. (Taking over someone else’s movie.) Carpenter stated he thought it was a evil thing to do and he didn’t enjoy doing any of it.
Awesome pics. Is that you with the at-at Slave1 and such I had the death star play set a few years ago in the box.It still had the foam trash blocks in a baggie LOL Very cool pictures
All I can say is that H2 is and always will be my favorite. It brought the franchise to a whole new level. Michael became something more and in my opinion it was a turn for the better. To me H2 was the scariest and best of all of them…
