While the first Halloween tried to be subtle and low-key, Halloween II sacrificed suspense in favor of gore. John Carpenter, thinking that people were expecting the film to be more like the newly popular slasher movies he helped create, increased the quantity and quality of violence shown on screen, making it more akin to the Friday the 13th franchise than to his original.
There was a lot more nudity added in after filming was completed, ensuring that if the blood and deaths didn't give the film a restricted rating, then the amount of exposed skin would. While there was more gore, the creativity in the deaths was upped as well, leading to some spectacular and horrific kills that effectively advance the film's narrative and add to Michael's reputation as the silver screen's supreme boogeyman.
Alice Martin - Stabbed With A Butcher Knife
Alice is the first kill the audience sees in the film. She is a teenager living just down the street from the Strode house. Michael Myers first sees her in her backyard and then follows her into the house while she's talking on the phone. Over the phone, Alice's friend is relaying the news about the killings when suddenly hearing a sound, Alice walks into the dark living room. As she calls out, Michael jumps up from the floor and stabs her in the chest.
This is a classic horror movie jump scare, with Michael literally jumping into the shot and making the audience scream even when they know it's coming. In the first film, there seemed to be some kind of logic behind Michael's kills, yet Alice's death signals that this Myers is going to be a lot more random and deadly.
U.S. Marshal: Throat Slit With Scalpel
Doctor Loomis has Michael cornered, filling him with bullets. Finally, Michael falls to his knees, then sprawls onto his back, supposedly dead. The marshal starts to bend over him, but Loomis warns him away. The marshal tells Loomis that Michael has stopped breathing and it's okay. Loomis yells a warning but it's too late as Michael sits up and grabs the officer, slicing his throat and killing him instantly.
This is an instance where the audience is yelling right along with Loomis. The marshal is the sole person of authority in the scene and the last line of defense for those still left alive. With his demise, they are now fully on their own to face Michael, who now is seemingly unstoppable.
Mr. Garrett: Hammer Claw To Head
Mr. Garrett is the security guard at the hospital who investigates a breaking and entering on the grounds. He carefully searches the storeroom, closes it up, and then goes to the next one. As he steps back from the last storeroom, standing behind him is Michael, armed with the Halloween franchise's best weapons: the claw end of the hammer, raised over his head. He brings the hammer down on the top of Garrett's head with great force, killing him instantly.
This killing is effective as Mr. Garrett was the only person of authority on the hospital grounds at the time. Feeble as he is, his presence provided the patina of safety. With his grisly demise, Michael is free to finish off the staff without fear of reprisal from any security guard or police officer. This death also begins Michael's pattern of using a different weapon for each of his kills in the remainder of the movie. During each of his kills in the hospital, he'll be using a different weapon instead of keeping his previous one.
Ben Tramer: Hit By A Car And Burned To Death
Ben Tramer was the guy Laurie was interested in from the first Halloween film. Here, he's walking along is a mask similar to the one worn by Michael, with a bag of candy. Dr. Loomis and the police think he's Michael and call out to him, and then start running after the retreating figure. Oblivious to the police, Ben crosses a street, where he's hit by a police car responding to the scene and shoved into the side of a van. Both the van and police car then explodes into a fireball, burning the boy to death.
This death is significant in two ways. First, Ben's demise is a rare death that isn't directly caused by Michael. Instead, it's caused by the police, who are scrambling to chase Michael down and make a grave mistake that costs the young teenager his life. Second, Ben was Laurie's first crush, the boy she wanted to take her to the prom in the first film, and he's dispatched in this over-the-top manner. This shows that, like Michael, the series itself will spare no one in Laurie's life.
Dr. Mixter And Nurse Janet: A Syringe In The Temple
Nurse Janet runs into Dr. Mixter's office seeking help for Laurie Strode. She calls out but gets no response. She finds the doctor sitting with his back to the door, seemingly contemplating the wall. When she reaches out to turn him around, she finds him dead with a syringe sticking out of his eye. As she backs away in horror, She bumps into Michael, who uses another syringe stabbing it into her temple and injecting air into her brain, killing her.
It's one of Michael's most shocking kills in the Halloween franchise, especially as it's shown in close-up in a clever use of reverse cinematography. The progression of Michael's kills throughout the film gets more creative, and more brutal, with each victim. In the original, it was Michael stabbing people with a knife, now he's using anything and everything as a weapon to dispatch the unfortunate humans who stand between him and Laurie.
Nurse Alves & Jimm: Death By Blood Loss And Head Injury
As Jimmy Lloyd looks through the hospital, hoping to find staff -most of whom have been killed by Michael- he finds one of the people he had been looking for, Nurse Alves, dead on a gurney. She had been killed by one of Michael's more creative kills in Halloween. He has shoved an IV into her vein and let it bleed out into the floor, literally draining her of blood. As Jimmy turns to get help, he slips on the massive pool of blood, cracking his skull and losing consciousness. This is one that happens off-screen, but the unexpected scene is still shocking for the amount of blood spilled. There is some debate whether Jimmy survives the theatrical cut, but he does show up alive at the end of the TV version.
Budd: Strangled To Death With Cord
Nurse Karen and her boyfriend Budd are taking a break at the hospital in the hot tub. As Budd is checking on hot tub temperature controls, Michael is waiting for him with a cord. Michael throws the cords around his neck and starts to strangle him. Budd struggles to get away but Michael is too strong and kills him in seconds.
This is the horror trope of someone being killed right behind a character who never catches on and is oblivious to the carnage occurring right behind them. This shows Michael planning ahead, being clever, and more than just a killing machine like Jason in the Friday the 13th movies.
Nurse Karen Bailey: Scalded And Drowned in Hot Tub
This is one of the scariest scenes in the whole Halloween series and the most brutal in the movie. Nurse Karen Bailey is taking a break with her boyfriend Budd in the hospital hot tub. Karen, thinking it's Budd, starts caressing the hand, even nibbling on it at one point. Soon, she sees it's Michael, and he grabs the back of her head, forcing it into the scalding water. She becomes so scalded the skin starts peeling off of her skull and she dies either by drowning or scalding, it's not clear.
Karen's death is extremely shocking with Michael at his most vicious in the movie. With Laurie nowhere in sight, Karen's slaughter is the most unnecessary of all the deaths in the movie. It hints at Michael's innate sadism. He's not killing for practical reasons, he's murdering for the sheer enjoyment of it. This scene is where the Halloween series really decided to increase the gore factor, which would be significantly featured in the numerous sequels throughout the decades.
