Bounding Into Halloween Returns To Carve A Bloody Path Of Retribution On Night 1 With ‘Halloween II’ (1981) And ‘Demons’ (1971)
A chill blows through the trees, leaving their bare limbs trembling in its wake. The fall season has finally arrived. It is the purgatorial barrier that separates the warm golden embrace of summer from the deathly cold grasp of winter. The smell of burning leaves fills the air, a murder of crows sings their bitter songs to the pale grey sky, and the blessed children of the night howl in morbid ecstasy. Double, double toil and trouble. The fires burn, and cauldrons bubble. By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes. My name is Dante Aaricks, and we are once again Bounding Into Halloween.
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Welcome back, freaks! It has been a long, interesting year, but the season of the pumpkin is upon us once again. It’s that magical time when masks are donned, Jack-O’-Lanterns populate doorways with their eerie orange glow, and it is also the time when the killers come home. The first movie of the month picks up where we left off last year, and the second half of Laurie Strode’s long Halloween.
Halloween II (1981)
It is still Halloween night in 1978, and Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) has been taken to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital after barely surviving her encounter with Smith’s Grove Sanitarium escapee, Michael Myers (Dick Warlock), and his homecoming killing spree.
After getting shot “SIX TIMES!!!” by Dr. Samuel Loomis (Donald Pleasence), and walking away from a two-story drop out of a window, the seemingly indestructible Michael decides to go give Laurie a wellness check, but he’ll have to cut his way through the hospital staff before doing so.
Most horror fans enjoy this slasher sequel, and a few of the kill scenes justify that, but many Halloween purists refuse to acknowledge it as canon. This entry is where Laurie gets retconned as Michael’s younger sister (which was erased in the 2018 reboot), and the motives behind his rampage become clearer.
John Carpenter wrote the screenplay with Debra Hill, but he refused to direct. Having felt like he wasn’t paid enough for the first film, Carpenter accepted the writing gig in the hopes of some kind of financial restitution. He may have walked away with a trick-or-treat bag full of cash, but the writing process was a different horror story altogether.
“I will say that what got me through writing that script was… Budweiser,” Carpenter confessed in a 2003 documentary. “Six pack of beer a night, sitting in front of the typewriter saying, ‘What in the hell can I put down?’ I had no idea. We’re remaking the same film, only not as good.”
Whether you think Halloween II is good, bad, or mid, it’s available to rent on PRIME. Here’s the trailer:
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Demons (1971)
The revenge continues with our next feature of the evening. It takes us from the streets of Haddonfield to Japan during the Edo Period: the setting of the nihilistic 1971 classic, Demons (aka Shura/修羅) by director Toshio Matsumoto (Funeral Parade of Roses). This stark black-and-white fable tells of a disgraced samurai who finds out firsthand the type of horrific things that can happen when you simp for the wrong person.
After falling out of favor with his feudal lord, Gengobei (Katsuo Nakamura) needed to raise 100 ryō (or 100 gold coins, for all you gaijin out there) to buy his way back into the clan, but that goes awry when he falls head over waraji for a money-grubbing geisha named Koman (Yasuko Sanjo).
When his obnoxious, perpetually groveling servant, Hachiemon, gathers the exact amount for him to pay his debt, Koman hatches a successful scheme with her husband (Jûrô Kara), and her family to sucker Gengobei out of the money.
Betrayed, broke, and feeling played like a shamisen, Gengobei sets out into the night for some payback. He hacks and slashes his way through everyone who had a hand in the hoodwink, and finds himself descending deeper into madness with every swing of the blade, but it doesn’t help things when someone like Hachiemon is added to the equation.
At an unnecessary runtime of 134 minutes, Demons could’ve benefited from a 15-20 minute shaving. Also, the branching narratives harken back to the “Dangers Of Drunk Driving” or the equally effective “Prom Night Pregnancy” videos that most people had to endure (and mock) during high school.
Still, it’s a slow-burning meditation on how bloodthirsty revenge can take a lot more than 100 ryō from a person. It’s quite clear that Matsumoto was influenced by the Giallo films coming out of Italy at the time.
If you can handle subtitles, then you are worthy to watch Demons, and it’s available right here. Before digging in, check out the trailer below:
