Halloween II is a 1981 horror film produced by Dino De Laurentiis and is set in the fictional Midwest town of Haddonfield, Illinois, on Halloween night, 1978. It is the sequel to the influential film, Halloween (1978). While other films in the Halloween series follow, this is the last one written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill. The film immediately follows the events of the first film, and centers on Myers's attempts to find and kill Laurie Strode and Samuel J. Loomis's efforts to track and kill Myers. Stylistically, the sequel reproduces certain key elements that made the original Halloween a success such as first-person camera perspectives and unexceptional settings. The film, however, departs significantly from the original by incorporating more graphic violence and gore, making it imitate more closely other films in the emerging splatter film sub-genre. Still, Halloween II was not as successful as the original, even though it grossed $25.5 million at the box office in the United States despite its $2.5 million budget. Halloween II was intended to be the last chapter of the Halloween series to revolve around Michael Myers and the Haddonfield setting, but after the lacklustre reaction to Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), Myers returned in the film Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988).
Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_II
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1517: According to traditional accounts, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses onto the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany, marking the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_95_Theses)
1863: The New Zealand land wars resumed as British forces in New Zealand led by General Duncan Cameron began their Invasion of Waikato along the Waikato River. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Waikato)
1922: Benito Mussolini became Prime Minister of Italy at the age of 39, establishing a coalition government composed of fascists, nationalists, and liberals during his first years in office. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini)
1941: Gutzon Borglum and 400 workers completed the colossal busts of U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln at Mount Rushmore. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore)
1984: Indira Gandhi, India's first and to date only female prime minister, was assassinated by two of her own bodyguards after Operation Blue Star on the holy Sikh temple in Amritsar. Riots soon broke out in New Delhi and several other cities throughout the country. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indira_Gandhi)
_____________________ Wiktionary's Word of the day:
jack-o'-lantern: A carved pumpkin whose top and stem have been cut out and interior removed, leaving a hollow shell that is then decorated to represent a face, illuminated from within by a candle. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jack-o%27-lantern)
_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:
There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt. Love is the law, love under will. -- Aleister Crowley -- (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley)