THE REWATCHABLES · October 27, 2025
A 1981 horror / slasher movie directed by Rick Rosenthal—and decision no. 79 in the Hanks–Cruise tape.
ON THIS EPISODE
FROM THE CONVERSATION
WHY IT WORKS
WHAT DID NOT WORK
SCENES THEY KEPT COMING BACK TO
The opening picks up directly after the first film, and the hosts love how quickly it re-ignites the story.
About 40 minA bystander is mistaken for Myers, hit, dragged, crushed, and burned in a sequence the hosts find absurdly tragic and funny.
About 40 minMyers quietly cuts phone lines, kills lights, and moves through the hospital with eerie efficiency.
About 1:12The hot-tub seduction leads to a scalding murder that the hosts call one of the movie’s best kills.
About 1:04Loomis’s insistence that Myers is still alive and the sheriff’s grief create one of the film’s funniest exchanges.
About 40 minLori shoots Myers in the eyes, Loomis keeps firing, and the chaos escalates into blind stabbing and gas explosion logic.
About 1:28WHERE THEY DISAGREED
Van LathanFreddy has the most personality and is the scariest because he attacks in dreams.
Bill SimmonsMyers is more realistic, original, and funnier than Jason.
Chris RyanMyers is the best sequel slasher because he is relentless and iconic.
Bill SimmonsIt is one of the worst sequel ideas ever and makes the story worse.
Van LathanThe franchise is better when Myers has no purpose or family motivation.
Bill SimmonsThe hospital is the right setting but the movie probably spends too much time there.
Van LathanThe enclosed hospital is the distinctive sequel move and helps separate it from the first film.
Bill SimmonsA one-town-over or high-rise sequel would have been a stronger idea.
Chris RyanKeeping the night in Haddonfield is part of the film’s appeal, though the hospital gives it distinction.
He says it is the best Halloween sequel and likes how it preserves the first movie’s pressure by taking place the same night.
Opening minutesHe argues Freddy is the slasher with the most personality and the strongest pure fear factor.
Opening minutesHe prefers Myers as a realistic, original, funny, purpose-driven killer who is relentless in motion.
Opening minutesHe says this is one of the worst sequel ideas ever and argues it harms the franchise.
About 8 minHe treats the accidental death as one of the movie’s funniest and most absurd recurring talking points.
About 48 minHe likes the enclosed hospital version of the sequel, though he thinks the story could have used less hospital and more wandering Haddonfield.
About 40 minHe enjoys Loomis as a detached, obsessive comic figure with a handful of repeat lines and total certainty.
About 1:20He prefers the first movie’s score but likes the sequel’s willingness to mix things up and mimic remix culture.
About 1:04He thinks the hot-tub sequence is one of the best 1980s horror murders, despite its ridiculous setup.
About 1:04He says the movie is now hilarious and that its best feature is the accumulation of inexplicable choices.
Opening minutesHe says the false-Michael car accident sequence is one of the funniest scenes and barely treated as tragedy.
About 40 minHe likes Myers most when he has no motivation and is just a killing machine, rather than being tied to family lore.
About 16 minThe film’s biggest strength, in their view, is that it extends the first movie’s night rather than resetting the story.
Opening minutesThey place the movie inside the early-80s boom of cheap, profitable horror sequels.
About 8 minDonald Pleasence’s Dr. Loomis is treated as a hilarious, unhinged monomaniac who never stops insisting Myers is not human.
About 32 minThe nearly empty hospital is framed as creepy, realistic, and ideal for escalating the sequel.
About 48 minMichael is admired as a killer who walks, persists, and knows the town, even if the movie sometimes makes him oddly selective.
About 8 minCarpenter co-wrote the screenplay but did not direct the film.
About 40 minThe movie was partly reshot / adjusted in post to add more horror material.
About 40 minThe film was originally intended to support an anthology approach to the Halloween brand.
About 40 minThe Morningside Hospital exterior/interior locations were later torn down and replaced by senior living.
About 1:12Pamela Susan Shoop said the hot-tub scene’s water was cold and dirty.
About 1:12Dick Warlock also played the patrol officer who hits Ben Tramer.
About 1:12Dana Carvey is credited in the film despite a tiny part.
About 1:12The hosts say the film’s TV cut gives Jimmy a survivable ending.
About 1:12Used as a Halloween sequel that one host likes as a weird favorite.
Opening minutesMentioned as another Halloween sequel one host likes.
Opening minutesUsed as the main comparison point for Jason versus Myers.
Opening minutesMentioned as one of the early-80s slasher-era titles.
About 8 minHeld up as a strong horror premise that was not executed especially well.
About 8 minUsed as a model for the sequel’s same-night, same-story compression.
About 8 minUsed as another example of a sequel idea that the hosts hate.
About 8 minCited as another sequel retcon that changes how the original plays.
About 16 minUsed to describe modern viewers’ habit of over-reading continuity and clues.
About 16 minSeen playing in an old couple’s home during one of the kills.
About 40 minReferenced because Leo Rossi played one of the rapists in that later film.
About 1:04Mentioned because Carpenter instead directed that film.
About 40 minLoomis is compared to a losing football coach as part of the hosts’ running gag.
About 32 min · medium confidenceReferenced via the value of a prop Bible in the collector market.
About 1:28Held up as a favorite hospital horror movie.
About 1:12The hosts repeatedly treat Loomis’s lines as if he has a recurring comedy bit about Myers not being human.
About 32 minThey joke that residents keep doors open, ignore warnings, and fail to react to an active serial killer.
About 48 minThe panel fixates on how gross and impractical the hospital hot tub is for romance.
About 1:04They use football metaphors to describe Myers’s durability, home-field advantage, and movement.
About 8 minThey repeatedly mock the outdated revolver and Loomis’s inability to stop Myers with it.
About 24 min“Hail Satan.”Opening minutes
“You don't know what death is!”About 40 min
“This is their wake.”About 48 min
“I'm taking you hostage, Marshall.”About 1:28
“Big step now.”About 1:12
MAKE IT A MOVIE NIGHT
WHAT TO WATCH NEXT
Three movies to watch before Halloween II, and three to watch next.
ON THE MIC
Bill Simmons125 tracked appearances · 56 H / 64 C / 5 ties
Chris Ryan77 tracked appearances · 36 H / 38 C / 3 ties
Van Lathan36 tracked appearances · 11 H / 23 C / 2 tiesCATEGORY CONTEXT
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